FRISCO, Texas — Of the 241 rushing yards the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gained against the Dallas Cowboys last Thursday, 182 came on 17 runs that the official play-by-play charted toward a tackle or an end. On Monday, the Cowboys hired Mike Pettine as a senior defensive assistant, and coach Brian Schottenheimer described him as an outside linebackers coach by trade.
Tampa Bay’s runs aimed at the guards and center gained 36 yards on 15 carries in its 24-16 win at AT&T Stadium. After the game, cornerback Shavon Revel said the Buccaneers’ backs like to bounce runs outside.
“It’s not about wanting more. We should have executed the edge. We have that edge secured,” Revel said. “We know the running backs that they have right now. Love to bounce it out, try to find the gap, try to find space.”
Where Tampa Bay’s Rushing Yards Came From
On the first play of the second half, Bucky Irving went 72 yards off left tackle before safety Caleb Downs pushed him out at the Dallas 14. Emeka Egbuka scored on a 14-yard run around left end on the next snap, and Tampa Bay led the rest of the night.
Cornerback DaRon Bland said a couple of missed tackles turned that run into a big play.
“Oh, yeah, there’s just a couple missed tackles on that play. So there’s really execution and we got to start out fast coming out the half,” Bland said. “So I can’t let them get that momentum coming out to half and just look like that.”
Irving finished with a career-high 165 yards on 21 carries. Nine of those carries were charted between the guards, and he gained 15 yards on them. He gained 150 on the other 12, with runs of 11 yards off right tackle and 11 around right end in the first half and a 22-yarder off right tackle with 71 seconds left that let Tampa Bay kneel out the game.
All five of Tampa Bay’s runs of 10 yards or more went toward a tackle or an end. Up the middle, the Cowboys stopped a fourth-and-goal run at the 1 with 8:32 left, with rookie linebacker Jaishawn Barham making the tackle.
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said after the game that Dallas had planned for Tampa Bay to run outside, if it ran at all, and to make the rookie quarterback beat them.
“I was really surprised at how well they ran the ball, how they ran it between the tackles. That was surprising. And we thought if they were going to run it, they’d do it outside,” Jones said. “And we thought we’d put it on the quarterback’s shoulders.”
Later in the availability, while backing defensive coordinator Christian Parker, Jones came back to the same point.
“And the things that he’s trying to do, I’m going to say it one more time: the thing that probably bothers me the most tonight is how they ran between the tackles, so to speak, and were able to have that running game up in there where we have a lot of strength,” Jones explained. “And so that’s something that we’ve got to really look at, and will.”
Why Mike Pettine Fits The Cowboys’ Problem
Pettine coached outside linebackers for the Minnesota Vikings from 2022 through 2025. Before that, he ran the Green Bay Packers’ defense from 2018 to 2020, and two of his players there, edge rusher Rashan Gary and defensive tackle Kenny Clark, now play for Dallas.
“He’s a front seven expert. I mean, that’s where, if you look at him, he’s an outside linebacker coach by trade. He’s been in the front seven, but a guy with that type of experience, he’s done it all. And that’s what I like about him,” Schottenheimer said Monday. “And a very, very good communicator, very, very clear understanding.”
After Thursday’s game, Clark gave Tampa Bay credit for the two third-quarter plays that turned the game, the 72-yard run and a 64-yard catch by Tez Johnson.
“Nah. Nah, I mean, like I said, I give credit to them. They made a play, two big explosives, and really opened the game up. They scored on both drives,” Clark said. “So, yeah, we’ve got to be better there.”
Undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels scrambled five times for 25 yards. Three of those scrambles came on the opening drive, including a conversion on third-and-4.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s something that we got to, I mean, it’s been biting us in the foot all year and something that we definitely got to get fixed,” Clark explained. “Yeah, I mean, can’t keep coming up here every weekend saying the same thing. So, we got to get it fixed.”
Revel said the defense talks a lot about attention to detail, and that the players can’t put it on the coaches.
“I mean, man, it was man, we’re really beating ourselves. We talk a lot about attention to detail, and I feel like we haven’t applied that to the game yet quite yet. We have our few plays here and there, but we’ve got to be consistent with it,” Revel explained. “So you can’t just blame the coaches and the calls, but we’ve still got to do our job and execute it.”
On Monday, edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku put most of it on mental errors.
“Really owning situational football, as far as like trusting each other, playing together. There’s no reason why we couldn’t be a defense that only allowed 10 points a game. So our thing is not shooting ourselves in the foot, the mental errors,” Ezeiruaku said. “And once we get past that, we’re going to be one of the best defenses in the league.”
Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, out four games with a hamstring injury, said Monday that he feels good and plans to practice all week. The Cowboys play at Lambeau Field on Sunday night, and kickoff is set for 7:20 p.m. CT on NBC.
