ARLINGTON, Texas — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers walked into AT&T Stadium on Thursday night as the NFL's last winless team. They walked out of it behind a quarterback nobody bothered to draft. Undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels threw for 189 yards and a touchdown and running back Bucky Irving bulldozed Dallas for 165 yards and two scores as the Buccaneers stunned the Cowboys 24-16, picking up their first win of the season in just Daniels' second career start.

Daniels was efficient rather than flashy, going 19 of 25 with no interceptions as Tampa Bay piled up 241 rushing yards on a Dallas defense that has struggled all season. Irving did the heaviest lifting, breaking off a 72-yard run to set up the go-ahead score and finishing with 21 carries at a 7.9-yard clip, adding a short touchdown run and a touchdown catch. On the other side, Dak Prescott threw for 316 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown but turned the ball over twice, his first multi-interception game of the season, with the second pick sealing Dallas' fate in the final two minutes. Cowboys star receiver CeeDee Lamb, who had torched Houston for 17 catches and 189 yards the week before, managed just two catches for 9 yards before exiting with a quadriceps injury.

The win closes a chaotic month for Tampa Bay. Daniels was thrust into the lineup after franchise quarterback Baker Mayfield dislocated the thumb on his throwing hand in a Week 3 loss to Minnesota, an injury that had already sent the Bucs to an MRI table and onto a timeline that still has him sidelined. Daniels' first start the week before was rocky — three interceptions in a 17-14 loss to Green Bay — making Thursday's clean, turnover-free outing a sharp turnaround. Dallas, meanwhile, was also shorthanded: cornerback Joey Porter Jr., acquired in a trade from Pittsburgh just last week, was a late scratch for what was supposed to be his second game in a Cowboys uniform.

"We Started The Second Quarter Tonight"

Daniels, who spent the spring wondering whether he'd catch on in the league at all, didn't hide his disbelief afterward.

"SIX MONTHS AGO, IF YOU WOULD HAVE TOLD ME THAT MY FIRST WIN WOULD HAVE BEEN ON A THURSDAY NIGHT, (AMAZON) PRIME FOOTBALL GAME, I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU," Daniels said. "Like I keep saying, through all the highs and lows, the bads, the goods, go through every single emotion because at the end of the day, it makes you better and prepares you for any situation that comes down the line."

Bucs coach Todd Bowles framed the win as a reset rather than a fluke. "We lost the first quarter of the season," Bowles said. "We didn't lose the second, third or fourth. We've still got to play those. So we started the second quarter tonight. It's a long way to climb out, but at the same time, we're upbeat and if we played as hard and played as effective, we'll be OK." Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer, whose team has lurched through an uneven start of its own, was blunter: "I didn't plan on being 2-3, disappointed by that for sure. But we're just getting started. There's a lot of football left and we're gonna play better. We know that."

Tampa Bay improves to 1-4 and will try to build momentum when it hosts Pittsburgh on Oct. 18, still uncertain whether Mayfield — or Daniels — will be under center. Dallas falls to 2-3 and heads to Green Bay the same day looking to stop the bleeding on a defense that has been porous all year under Schottenheimer.