Cowboys vs. Buccaneers preview: Can Tampa Bay slow down CeeDee Lamb and high-powered Dallas offense?

Dallas brings a historically efficient scoring attack into Thursday night against an 0-4 Tampa Bay squad turning to rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels

Oct 8, 2026 at 6:00 am ET • 6 min read

In the Week 5 edition of "Thursday Night Football," the Dallas Cowboys play host to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Dallas rebounded last week from its heartbreaking loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Rio de Janeiro the week before, storming back from a double-digit deficit to defeat the Houston Texans with a furious fourth-quarter rally. The Cowboys have arguably the NFL's best offense through the first four weeks of the season, and it could get a lift here with the potential return of guard Tyler Smith. But the Cowboys also have arguably the league's worst defense, and that unit is still dealing with various injuries even after trading for Joey Porter Jr.

Tampa is coming off a dispiriting loss to the Green Bay Packers in the first game of the Jalon Daniels era. The Buccaneers have turned to Daniels in the wake of Baker Mayfield's thumb injury, and the offense sputtered in his first game under center, totaling just 275 yards while Daniels was intercepted twice. The Bucs are now 0-4 after that loss and already in danger of falling out of the playoff picture entirely just a month into the NFL season.

Will Dallas get over .500 for the first time, or will Tampa capture its first win of the season? We'll find out soon enough. Before we break down the matchup, here's a look at how you can watch the game.

Where to watch Cowboys vs. Buccaneers live

• Date: Thursday, Oct. 8 | Time: 8:20 p.m. ET
• Location: AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Texas)
• Streaming: Amazon Prime
• Follow: CBS Sports App
• Odds: Cowboys -8.5, O/U 47.5 via DraftKings Sportsbook

When the Buccaneers have the ball

The Bucs went fairly run-heavy against the Packers in Daniels' first start, with the undrafted rookie throwing 27 passes while the team totaled 31 rush attempts despite trailing for most of the afternoon. Daniels went 19 of 27 for just 148 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, while also rushing eight times for 55 yards. Six of those runs were scrambles, and he totaled 46 yards on those plays.

The Cowboys have faced mobile quarterbacks three times this year and given up a ton of rushing yards to them. Jaxson Dart ran 11 times for 54 yards, Jayden Daniels ran for 69 yards on seven carries in just one half and Lamar Jackson ran six times for 50 yards. 

Dallas does not have a strong pass rush to begin with (the Cowboys are 21st in pressure rate and 29th in sack rate), and the Cowboys have also allowed the highest scramble rate in the NFL while yielding 9.1 yards per scramble, according to Tru Media. Daniels, if he can maintain his composure when he does see pressure (and he was pressured on 42.9% of his dropbacks last week), should have opportunities to take off.

Tampa's offensive line has surprisingly not played all that well this year. The Buccaneers check in 22nd in ESPN's pass-block win rate and 23rd in run-block win rate. The team's running backs (mostly Bucky Irving) have averaged just 1.07 yards before contact per attempt, indicating that the line isn't getting much push up front. And that's despite the fact that they've run into eight-man boxes at the second-lowest rate in football.

The Cowboys, of course, have gotten clocked on the ground, yielding 4.8 yards per carry to enemy backs. They check in 24th in yards before contact per attempt with 25th in yards after contact, per Tru Media. Irving should have room to run here if the Bucs can get their line in order.

The questions for Tampa's attack center on the passing game, where it's unclear whether Daniels can lead a competent attack. The Cowboys have gotten lit up through the air so far this season. Porter should help on that front, and he can probably follow Emeka Egbuka around the formation here and force Daniels to work the passing game through his other targets, but the Dallas secondary outside of him is eminently burnable right now. 

Daniels didn't look like a player who could push the ball downfield with any degree of consistency against a subpar Green Bay defense, though, and there are still questions about whether he'll be able to do it even against this decrepit Cowboys unit.

When the Cowboys have the ball

So far this season, the Cowboys have an offense that is not just one of the best in the league but one of the best in recent memory. Consider this: Dallas has run the fewest drives of any team in the NFL (36), yet still ranks tied for second in points (122), just five behind the league leader (the Buffalo Bills at 127). 

That's because the Cowboys have been historically efficient, averaging 3.39 points per drive. According to Tru Media, that makes them the sixth-most efficient offense through four weeks since the 2000 season. (The full-season record for points per drive during that span was just 3.19 by the 2007 Patriots.) When Dak Prescott called this unit the Greatest Offense There Is during the preseason, it's possible that he was not lying.

It's been Prescott himself doing the lion's share of the work, too, because the running game has yet to really get untracked. Javonte Williams has five rushing touchdowns, but he's averaged only 3.7 yards per carry and gained five-plus yards on his runs at the fifth-lowest rate among the 26 backs with at least 50 carries so far this season, per Tru Media. Rather than Williams getting consistent gains, it's just been Prescott methodically working the ball downfield with short and intermediate passes and then occasionally hitting defenses over the top with a shot to CeeDee Lamb or, more occasionally, George Pickens.

Tampa's defense has done an excellent job of stopping the run (opponents have averaged 3.2 yards per carry, the second-worst mark in the NFL), largely because that's what Todd Bowles tends to focus on. Those efforts have been successful, but the Bucs have been somewhat less successful against the pass, and they'll be shorthanded here thanks to the absence of Antoine Winfield Jr. They'll get Rueben Bain Jr. back to help the pass rush here; he hasn't been particularly effective so far, but Terence Steele has been friendly to opposing linemen who rush off the left side of the defensive line, so it's possible he could get going on Thursday night.

The Bucs probably don't have anybody who can deal with Lamb, mostly because it seems like nobody can actually guard Lamb when he's healthy. It's easy to forget what he did the last time he was full strength and had Prescott for a full season: he was a First Team All-Pro and totaled 135 catches for 1,749 yards and 12 touchdowns. He leads the league in both receptions (37) and yards (498) so far this year. 

Pickens, by comparison, has yet to really make an impact, but that is probably coming soon enough given that defenses will presumably begin paying even more attention to Lamb. Pickens could have a significant size advantage against Tampa's corners on Thursday, and this could be the game where he gets loose.

Prediction

Dallas' offense is too much for Tampa — or anyone else — to handle. Perhaps if the Buccaneers still had Mayfield under center, they could win a shootout, but even the version of Mayfield that was out there to start this season would have made that pretty unlikely. I suppose it's possible the Bucs could muscle and run their way to a win, but given how the offensive line has started the season, I don't see it happening in this one.  Pick: Cowboys 34, Buccaneers 17