Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has rallied behind his team through the good and bad. But after he saw how badly the Cowboys played against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jones didn’t have it in him anymore. Before the final whistle was sounded, Jones had begun making his exit.
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“Jerry Jones heads out after the Bucky Irving first down,” Awful Announcing posted a clip on X, showing Jerry Jones walking out of the suite area.
It was not an easy night for Jones. He was seen slamming the ledge in front of him in frustration after an interception. Jones also saw Bucky Irving torch the Dallas defense with his rushing attack.
With a little over a minute left in the fourth quarter and a win practically under the Buccaneers’ belt, Irving broke free for a 22-yard gain for a first down. Soon afterwards, Jerry Jones was seen walking out of his suite.
Dallas was supposed to win this game. The Cowboys came in as 8.5-point favorites against a winless Tampa Bay team that was also without veteran QB Baker Mayfield. Rookie Jalon Daniels started in his place and went 19-of-25 for 189 passing yards and one touchdown, along with rushing on seven carries for 23 yards.
The Buccaneers walked away with a 24-16 win, and it was hard to find a phase of the game where Dallas looked like the better team.
Jones described the loss to a winless Tampa Bay team starting an undrafted rookie quarterback as “extraordinarily disappointing,” according to Ed Werder.
“Extraordinarily, extraordinarily disappointed,” Jones said, and then paused for some moments. “We really do need to get it done. … I thought both their fronts, was really surprised at how well they ran the ball, how they ran it between the tackles. That was surprising. We thought if they were going to run it, they’d do it outside.
“We thought we’d put it on the quarterback’s shoulders. Their staff, their quarterback, all their players got a great victory here tonight. It was a tough loss for us.”
The Buccaneers rushed for 241 yards. A highlight of the night was Bucky Irving’s 72-yard gain right at the beginning of the third quarter, which put Tampa Bay at Dallas’ 14-yard line. Emeka Egbuka ran the remaining distance on the next play to score for the Bucs.
The pass defense struggled too. DaRon Bland fell, and Tez Johnson took off for a 64-yard catch that set up Tampa’s third touchdown. Bland fell once again.
Dallas had no real answers against the surprising might the Bucs brought to the game.
Head coach Brian Schottenheimer admitted at halftime that he wasn’t calling the game well enough, especially when it came to adjusting for the blitz, and he was right.
“I gotta call better plays, No. 1,” Schottenheimer said. “We’ll make some good adjustments right here, but it’s gotta start with me calling better plays.”