NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Buccaneers-Cowboys Week 5 TNF Recap: Are the Cowboys in trouble?

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

Gregg Rosenthal and Nick Shook recap the Week 5 Thursday Night Football game between the Buccaneers and Cowboys and discuss the play from Bucky Irving and Jalon Daniels, Todd Bowles' decision to go for it on 4th down in a critical spot, the Cowboys lackluster defense and more! NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, it's Drew Franklin from NFL Cover Zero. The 2026 season is underway, and we are loving football on TV. Here's what you can expect from the podcast in our second season. I would suggest for these preseason games, I think they should do what they do on the NFL draft. You know, when coverage of the NFL draft is basically for moms. And they're just like, hey, he has a dog named Spark.

Listen to NFL Cover Zero on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Brett Coleman. And I'm Trevor Sycamma. If you love football and want to understand what's really happening on the field, check out our show, NFL Pro. Every week we break down the biggest plays, trends, and matchups using exclusive next-gen stats insights and NFL content you will not find anywhere else. Whether you're new to football, a fantasy football fan, or a die-hard fan.

NFL Pro will help you analyze the game like a pro. Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Mike Yam. And I'm Trevor Sycambe, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Show. Are you ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Because if you aren't locked in with us on the NFL Fantasy Football Show, you're already playing from behind. Whether you're a first-time player or a grizzled vet chasing another championship, we give you the advantage and the confidence you need to make every move counts.

Listen to the NFL fantasy football show on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Snap to Prescott with under a minute and a half to go. Prescott in the pocket, fires downfield, busted up into the air, picked off by Alex Anzolone with 116 to go. Tampa Bay with an eight-point lead, and Alex Anzolone dives for the football and holds it in to force a third turnover today against the cowboy. Oh, that's Tony. Catrioni for the first time on WX TV. Miss Jean Deckerhoff, but good to have Tony aboard, and good to have a massive upset on Thursday night football.

The Buccaneers went into Jerry World as eight and a half-and-a-half-point underdogs with an undrafted rookie at quarterback, and they leave with their first victory of the season, 24 to 16, a disastrous loss for the Cowboys. Boys and very nervous Todd Bowles at the end of this game, sweating out a Dak Prescott drive at the end that, yes, is finished off with an Anzolone interception, really a drop by Jake Ferguson that gets popped up in the air and the bucks survive after some questionable decisions down the stretch. We'll get to all that tonight. Ended up being a fun game. The Cowboys fall to two and three bucks at one and four. Nick shook wearing his Guardians cap on a big night in the entire sports world. But what surprised you the most out of this Buccaneers victory, Nick? It was what I was least surprised about, which is all the haters who said Jalen Daniels couldn't do it. Well, guess what?

You were wrong. I need you to take this L right now. Hold this L because Jalen just delivered it to you. Man, he was so effective on that marathon drive that they put together to score a touchdown to tie the game at seven. There were multiple situations in which this could have gone so much worse for the Buccaneers. Like essentially, after that first touchdown scored by the Cowboys, they could have crumbled.

And they didn't. They put together this long drive, this long methodical drive to tie the game up, and then it becomes a bit of a rock fight. And then we get to the second half. And it was less about Jalen Daniels and more about Bucky Irving, the guy that everybody's one of the Buccaneers, wanted to have somebody do something for the Buccaneers, they've wanted him to be the guy.

And he hasn't until this point. He's going off. And then you find a very balanced offense. And yeah, it's a bad loss for the Cowboys. We can admit that it's a bad loss. But I think it's because they held on, things got Harry at the end, but because they held on,

it's a really nice win for the Buccaneers who had every reason in the world to go in there and get stopped. Yeah, there's a sneaky amount of things coming out of this game that matter, including, like, Who's going to win the NFCEs? Like, would it be the Giants? Are the Buccaneers, you know, back in this mix overall? But I'm glad you brought up Bucky Irving.

I thought his run in the second half, which I believe went for 72 yards, was one of the best runs of the season, certainly. I mean, I think this is as good a run as you're going to see. The overhead view, if you were watching on Prime Vision, was just absolutely outrageous. I've been talking up in general. that Bucky Irving, I think, has had the juice this year. If you watch him, he is back to the guy that makes you miss almost every time that he touches the ball,

also had a touchdown as a receiver in this game. And it wasn't just the 72-yard run, but that single play changed the entire game. They are trailing at that moment. He breaks off like a run that I just don't think many players in the NFL could possibly do, makes five Cowboys look silly. The very next play, Abuka, runs it in. Good call by Zach Robinson there on an end around. And they then kind of control the

clock. You mentioned how they did in the first half with that crazy 11 minute drive. But after that in the second half, they also had an eight minute drive that they end up turning it over on downs, a nearly a five minute drive in the first half that went for a pun and then a four and a half minute long field go drive. And I thought like the matchup of Jalen Daniels and this offense that had been struggling so much against this Cowboys defense should, should have been the Cowboys defense get right game. No. And it just,

it just wasn't. Like, we'll get to the other side, how good the Buc's defense played tonight. But the fact that the Bucs offense held their own is a huge indictment on all the money that they've poured into that defense in Dallas and Christian Parker and just where this team is at. Yeah.

And, you know, I don't want to find any excuse for, the Cowboys and the way their defense played tonight because they had a ton of miss tackles. That's actually the most glaring thing for me in this game was just the amount of tackles that they missed. Buck Irving forced a lot of them. They had 14 missed tackles.

Give up 141 additional yards because of missed tackles. That's something that you just have to clean up based on pure fundamentals, right? But I do think about the matchup and I think about Jalen Daniels scrambling ability because that long first touchdown drive, a lot of that was built off of him just looking at his first read

and doing the old Mike Vick like 2000. which is if your first read is not there, just take off. And he was doing that effectively throughout most of that drive. And I think that added an element that that really exposed their weaknesses, magnified it more than that typically would. Like against a quarterback who's not as mobile, yeah, maybe they do play better. But you know what?

These are all excuses in the long run because you're an NFL defense. Do a better job. Yeah, shout out to Eric Roberts, our producer, and Dan helping him out tonight. He's going to be helping out on these primetime games, showing some highlights from that first drive. and you're absolutely right that it's Jalen Daniels scrambling a lot.

But you know who could have predicted that and come up with a good rush plan and had the right athletes like Jashon Barram? Anybody in the NFL? Right. Like watch last Jalen Daniels game. And a couple things. I agree with you.

And yet, holding the ball for a while and waiting for the Cowboys to make a penalty on the back end, that's actually a good strategy. I like it. Just have your quarterbacks hold it for five seconds and they'll commit a holding penalty.

And he was eight, on that drive and he made some throws on the move. He had a couple third and four throws to the boundary that were on time. And they, they won't wow you. It's like eight of eight for 54 yards, but they were on target and accurate. He has a good arm. It's, it's quite an amazing thing that's going on. If Baker Mayfield had not signed that long term contract, oh God. I mean, I hear you and I understand. I'm just saying there would be like a little bit of discussion. Just a little bit. Actually, I'd like to know how that's structured. Maybe they could get out of it.

I just get frustrated that we, like, maybe I'm in the minority here. I've been a fan of his for years at Kansas. His last year at Kansas was really fun. Him and Devin Neal, that team was very effective. They ultimately came up short. They lost a couple of tough ones late in the year. But for this type of player to fly completely under the radar to the point where he becomes an undrafted free agent, what are we doing?

Right. This was not a secret. It's not like he was playing. Division 3 somewhere. He was playing D1 football for Kansas in the Big 12. Like, come on, get it together. But that's neither here nor there. I'm very excited and very happy for him to find this success,

not because it vindicates me and where I placed him in the QB index, which is not 32. Haters who just checked the box score. He was much better than 32. Tier 5, baby. And also, you know, this is kind of a weird win for Zach Robinson. I almost think that he may be better, to scheme an offense around Jalen Daniels than Baker Mayfield, which is crazy to say.

Okay, let's put a pin in Daniels after. I will note that, you know, late in the game and his numbers end up finishing quite good, 19 for 25, 189 yards through the air, got that one touchdown ran for 23 yards. He threw a pick six late in the game. Theron Blan just dropped it. And it was one of those moments that, like, I'm sure. his short NFL life just flashed before his eyes. And Todd Bowles,

and we're going to get to his decision right now, flash before his eyes. The Cowboys, after a 99-yard drive in about three or four minutes, turn it back over to the Bucks with about five minutes to go. The Bucks turtle up a little bit. They get an offensive penalty. They had like 14 penalties in this game.

And so they just give Daniels a throw on third and long with four and a half minutes to go, waiting to give it back to Dallas. and Duran Bland, who had an absolute nightmare of a night, makes a great read on it, breaks on the ball, and he just drops it. And I think he was already looking up. There was no one in front of him.

It was going to be a pick six. They were going to be going for the two-point conversion to tie with under five minutes to go, and it would have been a different game. But other than that, he played very composed, very good tonight. Let's talk about Bulls. The Bucks are winning 24 to 10, about seven and a half minutes to go,

and they have a fourth in goal inside the one-yard line after Chris Godwin makes a catch, gets pulled down. They have a chance to go up three scores at that point. They are rolling. It was that long drive I talked about.

The Cowboys defense looked like they had all but given up. They're letting Bucky Irving run through them at that point. That was where the success rate for the Buccaneers' rushing attack really went up. It wasn't just the long runs. They had a 47% success rate, very good tonight on the ground. They decide to go for it.

When he decided to go for it, after taking a time out, were you in favor of the decision at the time? No. No. Absolutely not. And I don't mean to wish ill will or negative outcomes on anybody, but this decision made me think, you know, it would be nice if they found a way to blow this game and then he had to answer for this,

because this is a really dumb decision. That's mean. That's mean, Chuck. It's mean. And I don't mean to be mean. I'm just thinking, like, from a football perspective, that was an ego call going forward on fourth and goal. Because it's a possessions game at that point in the fourth quarter.

How many possessions does it take the Cowboys to tie or take the lead? If you kick the field goal, which is a chip shot, it is a three possession game. If you score a touchdown, it is a three possession game. Do they need three touchdowns to tie? Yes. If you kick the field goal, they need two touchdowns in a field goal and they have Brandon Aubrey, whose range is nearly unlimited. So that probably factored into it.

But given the situation, the game that they were in, the time in the fourth quarter they were in, there's no reason to go for that other than we are going to try to really put you in the dirt here. Now, there's a segment of the fan base that says, you got to step on their throat while you got your foot on it. And I get that, but it was just unnecessary. From a mathematic perspective, it was unnecessary. Yeah, it was one of those where the graphic on the Amazon game said toss up, but I think it was leaning slightly towards the field goal. You're inside the one-yard line,

so you force them to go 99 yards. They had been playing good defense, obviously. Here's one thing I know that the only thing I'm going to pick apart with what you just said, Shook, there's no way Todd Bowles was thinking clearly enough that Brandon Aubrey was even a factor. I don't even hate going, he's not thinking about anything. I mean, I'm not giving him any.

No, I'm not giving him any benefit of the doubt. You want to know why? Because they showed his face after they got, got stopped at the half yard line. And he literally is like looking over to the offensive coordinator and looking around. He's like, oh, this is a pretty tough decision. Like you can act. He's like, how are you not somewhat prepared to make that decision in that moment?

And they didn't even try to make it. He just waited until the clock ran out and blew a time out and then still kept trying to decide. So he's not thinking all this through. And that's what bothers me more because of the game flow, because the Cowboys looked so bad at that point defensively. because the bucks were running the ball and he was trying to get it going. I give him a little bit of grace of getting carried away in the moment,

but it made no sense because the second, yeah, it made no sense. Like I thought they would have scored on that, and Sean Tucker made it close, you know, after breaking a tackle in the backfield. But man, he had to have been sweating because right after that, Dak Prescott put together an incredible drive. An early throw on that drive was one of the best plays Dak Prescott has made all season long.

Who was that throw to? I think it was deterrent. Yeah, early in the drive. Then it's Pickens over and over and over. Cady Lambs heard at this point. He was standing on the sideline. Pickens ends up with 9 for 130. And then that drive caps off with a George Pickens touchdown.

What the heck? Let's get Brad Sham involved in the game. Dallas down two touchdowns. Pickens is back in the game. At the Tampa Bay, 17. Snap to Prescott. Five-man rush, throws it in the end zone. Pick it!

The left side cowboy helmet will go. I like that. Throw, I love that catch. Dak looked like Dak for the last eight and a half minutes in this game. And again, the interception at the end was not as fault. What do you think the Buccaneers defense did so well for the first 50 minutes of this game? I just had some crazy deja vu. What did they do well for the first 50 minutes this game?

They got after Dak Prescott. I mean, Todd Bowles, we know he's aggressive. He likes to blitz. The blitz rate was over 40% and finished over 40% in this game. And what they did was they did what you see a lot of defenses do in short yard situations, usually like low red zone, which is we're going to blitz and it got to have it down situation. We're going to play press and we're going to dare to get the ball out on time to somebody who you have to pray gets open against the press.

except they were doing it deep in buccaneers, or deep in Cowboys territory. Like they did it with no fear whatsoever because they know that Dak Prescott is great at reading the blitz and getting the ball out on time unless there's nobody open. It was a blitz and blanket strategy. The average separation was under three yards compared to Cowboys. The Cowboys were north of four.

Gives you kind of some context on how closely they were playing at the line of scrimmage when Dak was getting the ball out. And it messed up his timing. It messed up his rhythm. It broke his brain. And I think the turning point in this game from which they had to overcome these challenges for the rest of the game was when he stepped up in the pocket against the blitz and tried to fire one to, I think it was an open turpin. And who was blanketed by Tykees Smith, who deflects the ball in the air.

It bounces off like two defenders and ends up in the hands of Yaya Diavi for an interception. At that point, I thought, uh-oh, they figured out how to affect Dak Prescott with the blitz. A guy who's very good against the blitz usually was not tonight. And it put them in a hole, a two touchdown hole that they ran out of time in trying to come back from. Great point. I think the way they operated in the first half, blitzing like crazy. You look at the end of the game and the pressure rate and the blitz rate. They went down a little bit because of those last couple drives.

But man, it was an old school Todd Bulls performance. Let's listen to that interception that I agree was kind of the moment that I thought, Oh, wow. The Bucks are really going to do this. Third down in three. Cowboys with a football trailing 14 to 10. Snap to Prescott. He'll throw over the middle. Bobbled up into the air, double-bobbled and picked off by Yaya Diabi. He comes down with the interception, the first of his career in Tampa Bay comes up with a crucial interception.

So that was a sequence where the turnovers just happened very quickly. There was also a fumble on the kickoff after. the buck scored by Cabante Turpin. And then suddenly, you know, those two turnovers in a row were just brutal for them to come back from. But it was an old school, like, designer game planned by Todd Bowles in a short week. I used to hear like he's a tough guy to prepare for in a short week. And they didn't have some of their best players. They did not have Antoine Winfield in this game.

They did not have Benjamin Morrison who, you know, contributes. He plays about 25 snaps a game in the back end. Yes, I know C.D. Lamb went out late. Tyler Guyton, their left tackle went out very late in the last couple of minutes. So we'll see if that matters. But the Bucks were playing awesome defense with Zion McCollum, who they've invested a lot in. And I know Jacob Parrish got blamed, like in the tracking for a lot of the completions. And it did happen late. But they're playing zone a lot. I thought he competed well. He also made a lot of plays. And to me, this was an old school bucks defensive performance that I think they used. David Walker, their pass rusher pretty well. Love him. And they stop the run. The Cowboys offense right now, if we want to get into what's disappointing about them. Yeah, the offensive numbers are really good overall going into this game, but they're not as balanced as they were last year. They were an awesome running game, running team a year ago, and they really haven't been this year. And that

puts a lot on DAC on a night, like tonight, where the passing game was not working for most of the game. Yeah, yeah, and I think this is a great example, especially in the first half of why watching this game or any game, if we could have it, on Prime Vision is the best because you get that top-down view and you really get to see exactly what's going on with the offensive line. And the reason that the Cowboys couldn't run the football well is the Buccaneers were beating them to their spots. Like the Cowboys' Offensive line wasn't executing. They weren't getting to their defenders, or at least, you know, pulling and getting to where they're supposed to go where a defender's expected to be and then taking him out, sealing him off.

The Buccaneers were interrupting and disrupting all of that. And that's a, and that's a credit to them knowing what to do against the run. And it's also a sign of some issues in this Cowboys running game, which have been persistent throughout most of this year. It's not like they don't have a good running back. It's just that their offensive line has not run blocked as effectively or as cleanly as they should, especially given, you know, the talent that they have up front. Yeah, they also had a tough matchup. The Buccaneers traditionally with Vita Vaya and Todd Bowles are one of the best run defense in the league. They've graded out as about the sixth best best in total efficiency going into this game.

And that's the thing for everyone that hasn't watched the bucks. And I even got some grief about calling them one of the better 0 and four teams you'll ever see. But the numbers support me that. They're all one score losses. Like the point differential was one of the five best, you know, the five, you know, fifth best all time.

And the overall efficiency DVOA has about like 18th or 19th. And that's kind of what they've looked like. It's really the Baker Mayfield interceptions for the most part. And the fumbles in week one. that killed them. Jalen Daniels also had turnovers last week, rather, that really hurt them. The defense has been good, not great. Tonight, they were borderline great.

And I know they fell apart a little bit at the end. You hold the Cowboys down for 52 minutes and you have a chance to go up three scores and you hold them to 10 points the way that they have. I think that is an absolutely great performance by them. They're not done either. I'm curious, what, like, what do you think about this? NFC East now because if I'm a Giants fan watching this game, or heck, if I'm a Commanders fan even watching this game looking at this matchup coming up on Sunday, I'm thinking

this is wide open. This is wide open because the Cowboys have not shown that they're any better on defense. The Eagles look like they're ready to go in a total tailspin. If I'm an Eagles fan, I'm happy watching this game too. Like the entire division's enjoying this. Like, what do you think about this division right now. Shout to Ryan in the comments, which, by the way, if you're watching it, get in the comments, we always appreciate that. He's absolutely right. You know, we don't ask for much.

Go for it. He's absolutely right. It's the NFC East. We owe an apology to the NFC South for calling it the worst division of football, and we can now put that title on the NFC East because as it currently stands, the New York Giants, I'll do respect, lead this division with a team that I don't know what to make of. You have the Eagles who, like you said, are ready to go into a tailspin who just traded away one of their starting offensive linemen to kind of like kickstart an offensive line rebuild in week five, which is weird. They have plenty of offensive issues as it is.

You have the Cowboys who stop a nosebley defensively even against a team that couldn't generate much consistent offense tonight. And then you have the commanders who had to play with their third string quarterback last week and could. I mean, yeah, this is wide open. They could climb into it. Any of these teams can win it. And none of them are going to look very good in the process of doing it. So this division stinks. I think when you look at it, you know, one to four.

And that's where we are in early October. Could that change? Yes. But, I mean, look, I have five games of proof now. The Cowboys still haven't figured out their defense. I think that's enough of the sample size to make a declaration that their defense is bad. Speaking of looking good, I mean, you asked for some more comments. Someone's giving me pop for my hair.

I'm getting a haircut tomorrow because my wife's saying it's too long, but nice and full. Thank you for the appreciation. I have that. The Cowboys defense is something I thought about a lot tonight because, you know, Caleb Downs, I don't think he's had a bad start to the season. He's helped, but hasn't made a huge... He hasn't jumped off the page.

No, he hasn't made a huge difference. But Dron Bland, who dropped that interception, reminded me of the Michael Parsons train. And I've heard the argument that, okay, look at everything they have now gotten because of the Michael Parsons trade. You know, they bring in Mershon Gary and then they have Quinn and Williams

and they get the draft picks. And like Malachi Lawrence, they end up getting in the draft. And then you have the room in theory to trade for Joey Porter Jr. Okay. Joey Porter Jr. does not play in this game with quote unquote stomach issues. They showed him walking,

not looking comfortable, someone holding a bucket in front of, him. I don't think it was theater that they're holding a bucket. A bucket's a little much, dude. Carry your own bucket. It was a lot. Richard Sherman, who knows a lot more how things work than I ever will, how players think, especially in contract situations, said that might have been a situation where if you have that contract, yeah, maybe you play through those stomach issues. Yeah.

I happened to notice last week. You know, he only had 24 snaps or whatever. And I thought, okay, he hasn't been there long. He's learning the defense. That's interesting. He also was reported in Pittsburgh to be telling the coaches, like, last second during the week. They were practicing. And then he was telling them later in the week.

Actually, I'm not going to play. My back's bothering me. And they didn't know what was going to happen week to week. I'm sure he's going to be playing for the Cowboys. But they trade for him. I'm curious what you think about the Porter thing. before I get into a little bit more of like the Cowboys' Defensive Well, no, there's two parts to this. One, this has become a circus with Joey Porter. And I'm sorry, but he's not good enough to make this

into a circus and act like this. He's just not. He's not an elite corner. He's not somebody that demands near or top of market, you know, extension. He just doesn't. He's, he's a player who matches his draft stock at this in his career and has room to improve, but hasn't done it so far. But it's also exactly the type of addition that this Cowboys team. would make that fits where they are, which is we can fix him. We can get the most out of him. We're maybe buying low, although a 2028 second rounder is not buying low on this guy with the idea that he can come in and help us and everything will get better.

They're overvaluing their own personnel. And the problem with that was they really had a lot of needs to fill. And sometimes you have to sacrifice one big fish to stock the rest of the pond, at least in this scenario. And what you've gotten, though, is average at best, in fact, below average results. The only guy of that group that you listed so far that has really made a consistent difference is Quinn and Williams, which we shouldn't be surprised by at all. And the rest of it is basically players who are playing at their expectation. And then the Joey Porter circus because of a lack of a contract just adds to the mess.

And look, I would love to see him on the field. I would love to see him improve their secondary. Do I think it's going to improve by leaps and bounds? No. This is not going and acquiring a big time corner to make. a big difference in your secondary. He needs to be on the field, though. And whatever you have to do to get that done,

go get it done. Now, I also wouldn't overpay him, though. And that's the issue. That's what it's going to take. They've walked themselves into this conundrum, though, by making this trade thinking, okay, well, then this can fix our problems and he can make us better and we can make him better.

He's not even out there right now. So what are you going to do? Pay him too much money and regret that contract eventually. And it just falls under another category of the Cowboys, For as much as we love their offense, although we did realize how much they depend on CD-Land when he wasn't able to play late tonight, they have generally mismanaged their contracts

across the board for years. And now that they pay the price for it, especially on the defensive side. And it appears we may have lost Greg. So now we are going to continue with this discussion with just I on the live stream and continue to dive into the current state of the Cowan. Did we get Greg? We got them back.

Let's go. that's a first. I'm amazed that's never happened before. I was just going to carry it by myself. I, you know, hit the wrong button and fritzed out like the Cowboys secondary tonight. That was my cowboy secondary moment. Here's the one thing I just want to say about this Cowboys build. Quinn and Williams, yeah, he's a great player. You know when he was even greater last year before they gave him the massive contract extension.

He was a huge difference maker a year ago. He's been a little quieter in general this year. I thought he played a solid game tonight. He was the best one up front. Rashon Gary, who they got has been struggling. Malachi Lawrence, I think, looks like a good player. I mean, he's part of the draft class. He looks like a good player.

But Duran Bland's the guy I want to talk about because right when they traded Parsons, they actually gave Duran Bland a monster contract. And they even said at the time, see, we couldn't have done stuff like this. You know, if we, you know, we're trying to spread it out. And they've been one of the worst teams in terms of self-scouting over the entire Jerry Jones era. They believe... Self scouting and then acting accordingly. They wait too long to do these deals. Giving their own play, giving the wrong players on their own team, the huge contract. And right now,

every opposing offense, and maybe he's just not 100% recovered from that foot injury that bothered him last year and it's injury related, but every team is picking on him again and again. And one of the reasons is he doesn't exactly fit this style of defense. He fit the Dan Quinn style of defense where you're getting the ball out of the quarterback's hands. quickly by blitzing and he can go make a play on it. He would fit better on the Buccaneers right now. That's the style of quarterback he is. And so you're always changing systems.

And he's like one of the higher paid cornerbacks in the entire league. And right now he's one of the worst cornerbacks in the entire league. Okay. I mean, like I have more grace for them a year ago. Trading Micah Parsons, I thought that was a horrible decision and being the worst defense in the league than they are right now because they had the whole offseason to prepare for this. They put a ton of resources into it.

They're still the worst. They are absolutely still the worst defense in the league. Let's end on a positive note. That was a lot of negativity. Yeah, I got myself thrown out of the room. Heck, let's listen to another highlight. I like what Tony Castorone is given. I'll have to confirm that.

I like the name that it rhymes. Yeah, I like everything that the Bucks did tonight, especially Bucky Irving. So let's go back to the first quarter in that first Bucky Irving touchdown. Bucky Irving, the lone back in the backfield. Daniels takes a snap, handoff Irving. Dash is behind the left side of the line

and powers his way into the blue end zone. Touchdown Tampa Bay. Bucky Irving plows in for his first score of the night. 13 rushes, 123 yards, and a 20 to 10 lead for the Buccaneers here in Dallas. If you're watching on YouTube, look at that view over the top, because man, I watched that live,

and I just shot a Gap scheme touchdown. Two guys pulling, doing their jobs, kicking the defenders out. Great in the lane. Beauty at work. I know. Their offensive line has such great continuity and a lot of talent. I obviously was wrong believing in this team as the team to beat in the NFC South. I thought they were safely the favorites.

It's a long season. I think this Falcons team especially is dangerous, that the Panthers are dangerous. But on a night like tonight, you have some defensive talent, continuity, potentially a top 10 defense, a good defensive coach. between Daniels and Baker, whenever Baker does come back, if they can just get stable quarterback play, they're competitive.

They're not out of it. That's fine. That's fine. And I don't want to end on a negative. I just caution against suddenly, rethinking what your beliefs are on this offense right now, because we have to remember

they did play the Cowboys defense. I just don't want to rain on everybody's parade, but I'm just, I want to put that in that in that. I'm just saying if they can, if they can, like, prevent big mistakes, they can be competitive in this division. That's all. You know, you should be in a great mood.

Go Guardians. You know, what a night there for Cleveland Sports, for Tampa Sports. Let's get out of here. I will see everyone that is listening and watching this podcast next with my friend Nick Shook. It's our PicksPod. Every Friday, we give you three big winners and sometimes a few extras, just because we're feeling generous.

Some good week five games that will be predicting. That's on Friday. We'll see you then. Hey, it's Drew Franklin from NFL Cover Zero. The 2026 season is underway and we are loving football on TV. Here's what you can expect from the podcast in our second season. I would suggest for these preseason games, I think they should do what they do on the NFL draft. You know, when coverage of the NFL draft is basically for moms.

And they're just like, hey, he has a dog named Spark. Listen to NFL Cover Zero on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Brett Coleman. And I'm Trevor Sikkimam. If you love football and want to understand what's really happening on the field, check out our show, NFL Pro. Every week, we break down the biggest plays, trends, and matchups

using exclusive next-gen stats insights and NFL content you will not find anywhere else. Whether you're new to football, a fantasy football fanag, or a diehard fan. NFL Pro will help you analyze the game like a pro. Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Mike Yam. And I'm Trevor Sycamma, and together we host the NFL fantasy football show.

Are you ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Because if you aren't locked in with us on the NFL fantasy football show, you're already playing from behind. Whether you're a first-time player or a grizzled vet chasing another championship would give you the advantage and the confidence you need to make every move counts. Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football Show on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an I-Heart podcast

Guaranteed human