The Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally pulled off their first win of the season, beating the Dallas Cowboys 24-16 on the road on a short week. It was an impressive victory where both sides of the ball came together and played complementary football in an effort that completely controlled the second half of the game.

The Buccaneers trailed by three points at halftime, and they took off after that. Tampa Bay scored 17 straight points and eventually won by eight.

So, with all that being said, let’s go ahead and break down the biggest winners and losers from Thursday night.

Winners

RB Bucky Irving

Running back Bucky Irving is easily the biggest winner of this game. He finished with 165 rushing yards and a touchdown on 21 attempts. He also added two receptions for 10 yards, including a 5-yard touchdown catch.

Irving has been the spark plug for this offense all season long, so it was great to see offensive coordinator Zac Robinson finally lean on him in a consistent fashion. We all saw the results. Expect Irving to keep piling up big games like this as long as Robinson is willing to put the offense on his shoulders.

QB Jalon Daniels

Jalon Daniels looked great on Thursday night, and that reflects well on him, the work he’s put in, and the coaching staff. He completed his first eight passes and finished 19-of-25 for 189 yards and a touchdown pass.

Daniels posted a 110.2 passer rating and looked comfortable pretty much all night long. He still made plays with his legs, too, finishing with 23 rushing yards on seven carries. Daniels is proving he’s a capable backup, and the Buccaneers appear to be in good hands while Baker Mayfield nurses his thumb injury.

CB Zyon McCollum

The Buccaneers’ top cornerback was essentially perfect against the Cowboys. He played more than 30 coverage snaps and allowed zero catches on just two targets. One of those targets came against CeeDee Lamb and the other against George Pickens, so it wasn’t like McCollum was out there checking a third- or fourth-string receiver.

The Bucs secondary as a whole has been a bright spot on defense, but McCollum’s efforts deserve to be noticed. Sure, he’s not going to rack up a bunch of interceptions. However, he’s a sticky corner who can disrupt timing, disrupt the catch point, and make sure opposing receivers stay locked down.

Jacob Parrish deserves some love, too, as he finished with four pass break-ups. He did allow nine catches for 107 yards on 13 targets, however, per Sumer Sports.

Todd Bowles and Zac Robinson

There’s no other way around this: Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles and Robinson needed this win more than anyone else on the team.

Bowles’ defense showed up for the most part and held the Cowboys in check outside of the opening possession, when Dallas marched right down the field. After that, life got hard for Dak Prescott and company. Even with the Cowboys making their own set of mistakes, the Buccaneers still clamped down when they needed to, and that played a big role in the outcome.

On offense, Robinson’s unit looked competent for the first time all season. There was consistency, there was flow, and he dialed up a lot more creative plays in the moments that called for him to stand out. That’s exactly what he did.

Buccaneers offensive line

Daniels was sacked just once and hit only once all evening. That’s a huge step up for a Tampa Bay offensive line that had given up the most sacks in the league through the first four weeks of the season.

The line also created plenty of opportunities in the run game and looked a lot more like the unit everybody expected to see during the first month. We’ll see how long it holds up, but if this group keeps improving, the Buccaneers offense should get better each week.

Losers

Bucs pass rush

Sure, the Buccaneers got pressure on Prescott. Per Sumner Sports, Tampa Bay pressured him on around 40% of snaps and blitzed on about 42% of snaps. That’s an acceptable ratio of blitz rate to pressure rate.

However, the Bucs hit Prescott only around three times, and they didn’t sack him once.

The pressure worked. It threw Prescott off his spot plenty of times, and it’s one of the reasons the Cowboys offense stalled. Still, the Buccaneers have to get better in the sack department. Sacks are drive killers, and while pressures are good and usually signal that sacks are on the way, a pressure isn’t as likely to end a drive the way a sack will.

So the Bucs need to work on getting quarterbacks to the ground. If they can’t do that, they at least need to hit them a lot more often to completely shake them up over the course of a game.

Buccaneers’ discipline

Tampa Bay managed to cut down on the penalties in Week 4, but they came roaring back to the tune of 14 flags for 92 yards on Thursday night.

That simply can’t happen. Despite the win, this remains a team that is finding its way and operating behind the sticks, plus negating big plays via penalties, won’t help in any regard.

Final word

Overall, this was a big statement game for the Buccaneers. Going on the road, on a short week, and winning in this fashion with a UDFA rookie at quarterback is a feat a lot of teams can’t accomplish. Especially against a talented team like the Cowboys.

Sure, the Buccaneers caught some breaks, but that’s life in the NFL. Ultimately, it’s a huge confidence boost that they can –and will– carry into Week 6 and who knows what will happen from there. Either way, they made some big strides and now have a foundation to build upon when they take on the Pittsburgh Steelers.