When the NFL released its 2026 regular-season slate in May, the Week 5 Thursday Night Football game featuring the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-4) at Dallas Cowboys (2-2) looked like it might be important in the NFC playoff race. But down an injured Baker Mayfield, the season is essentially already finished for the Bucs barely into October. It's a typical 8:15 ET kick on Prime Video.
Perhaps we can expect a high-scoring game as the three quick turnaround TNF games have been so far, with defenses apparently lagging behind. Not counting the unusual Thursday Kickoff Game between the Niners and Rams in Australia when the teams had all offseason to prepare for one another, there have been 72, 49 and 51 points scored on Thursday nights so far.
Now that we're into October, we might see an impatient owner fire a head coach, and Tampa Bay's Todd Bowles is the -150 betting favorite to be the first one canned over another surprising 0-4 head coach in Houston's DeMeco Ryans (+150). It's certainly not on Bowles that Mayfield dislocated his throwing thumb in Week 3 and could miss up to six weeks. It is on Bowles that the Bucs are 3-12 in their past 15 games after starting last season 5-1, looking like a Super Bowl contender and Mayfield an MVP candidate. It was about 50-50 that Bowles was brought back this year anyway after the Bucs had a five-year playoff streak end in 2025.
I might have been talking about the Cowboys' Brian Schottenheimer being the first one fired (+1200) had Dallas not staged a late game-winning drive in Houston on Sunday to prevail 34-30 and avoid 1-3. That snapped the Cowboys' 31-game losing streak when down at least 10 points on the road.
Owner/GM Jerry Jones was extremely unhappy with Schottenheimer and first-year defensive coordinator Christian Parker following his team's walk-off loss to Baltimore in Brazil in Week 3. Jones made that very publicly clear and called them both out. Had the team suffered another late defeat in Week 4 due to defensive snafus, coaching heads might have rolled in Big D -- although Jones has mellowed some in his later years. (The Fort Worth Star-Telegram headline of Sunday's victory: "The Dallas Cowboys saved three coaches from themselves in a win at Houston).
Parker's defense remains a major issue, however, ranking 30th in total defense (389.5 YPG) and 28th in scoring (28.0 PPG) while having allowed at least 30 points in back-to-back games. It has become the first unit in NFL history to allow at least 375 yards in each of the first four games of a season without intercepting a pass.
We'll take you through every aspect of the Bucs vs. Cowboys game that you need to know before you lock in your bets, including SportsLine expert picks, props, trends, DFS, injury information and anything else that will help you know which plays are worth making for the prime-time matchup.
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