ARLINGTON (Interstat) — Jalon Daniels threw for one touchdown and Bucky Irving accounted for two more scores as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Dallas Cowboys 24-16 on Thursday in a National Football League game at AT&T Stadium. The Buccaneers improved to 1-4, while the Cowboys fell to 2-3. Attendance was 92,351.

Dallas opened the scoring in the first quarter when Javonte Williams ran 1 yard up the middle for a touchdown, and Brandon Aubrey added the extra point. Tampa Bay answered in the second quarter when Daniels found Irving for a 5-yard touchdown pass, and Chase McLaughlin kicked the extra point. Aubrey made a 41-yard field goal with 21 seconds remaining in the second quarter to give Dallas a 10-7 halftime lead. Tampa Bay took control in the third quarter. Emeka Egbuka scored on a 14-yard run on the opening possession, McLaughlin’s extra point giving Tampa Bay a 14-10 lead. Irving then scored on a 1-yard run with 7:31 left in the third, and McLaughlin’s kick made it 21-10. McLaughlin added a 41-yard field goal with 2:58 remaining in the quarter to push the lead to 24-10. Dallas cut into the deficit in the fourth when Dak Prescott connected with George Pickens on an 18-yard touchdown pass with 5:26 left. The two-point conversion attempt failed when Prescott’s pass to Ryan Flournoy was incomplete, leaving the final margin.

Daniels completed 19 of 25 passes for 189 yards and one touchdown and added seven carries for 23 yards. He entered as Tampa Bay’s top star and helped the Buccaneers overcome an early deficit. Irving finished with 21 carries for 165 yards and one rushing touchdown, plus two receptions for 10 yards and one receiving touchdown. Egbuka had six receptions for 38 yards and one touchdown to go with one carry for 14 yards. Chris Godwin Jr. caught three passes for 37 yards and ran once for 3 yards. Tez Johnson had a 64-yard reception and a 12-yard punt return. Cade Otton caught three passes for 25 yards. Payne Durham added one reception for 5 yards. Kenny Gainwell ran four times for 18 yards and caught three passes for 10 yards. Sean Tucker ran five times for 18 yards. Kameron Johnson returned three kickoffs for 61 yards. McLaughlin made his only field goal attempt, from 41 yards. Riley Dixon punted four times for 163 yards.

Prescott, a 6-foot-2, 238-pound quarterback from Haughton, Louisiana, completed 24 of 42 passes for 316 yards and one touchdown. Pickens caught nine passes for 130 yards and one touchdown. Flournoy had three receptions for 90 yards. Javonte Williams ran 12 times for 45 yards and a touchdown and caught two passes for 17 yards. KaVontae Turpin caught two passes for 22 yards, returned five kickoffs for 127 yards and returned one punt for 10 yards. Jonathan Mingo had two receptions for 20 yards. Jake Ferguson caught three passes for 19 yards. Luke Schoonmaker had one reception for 9 yards and one tackle. CeeDee Lamb caught two passes for 9 yards. Brandon Aubrey made his only field goal attempt, from 41 yards. Bryan Anger punted three times for 136 yards. Tyler Booker recorded one tackle. Brevyn Spann-Ford had one tackle.

Tampa Bay’s Alex Anzalone recorded five tackles and one interception. Yaya Diaby had one tackle and one interception. Jacob Parrish made nine tackles. Keionte Scott and Josiah Trotter each had seven tackles. Ifeatu Melifonwu and Tykee Smith each had four tackles. Christian Rozeboom had three tackles. Vita Vea, Rueben Bain Jr. and David Walker each had two tackles. Miles Killebrew, Bauer Sharp, A’Shawn Robinson and Calijah Kancey each had one tackle. Kevin Knowles and Zyon McCollum also appeared in the secondary. Dee Winters of Dallas recorded 10 tackles. Jaishawn Barham had seven tackles. Rashan Gary and Donovan Ezeiruaku each had six tackles. DaRon Bland, Malik Hooker and Reddy Steward each had five tackles. Hunter Luepke had one tackle.

Tampa Bay forced two interceptions and kept Dallas out of the end zone until the fourth quarter. The Buccaneers won for the first time this season after opening with four losses. The Cowboys dropped to 2-3 after alternating wins and losses through their first five games. Tampa Bay will host Pittsburgh in its next game. Dallas will visit Green Bay in its next game.

Dallas moved the ball effectively at times, with Prescott throwing for more than 300 yards and Pickens surpassing 100 receiving yards. Tampa Bay countered with a strong rushing attack led by Irving, who averaged 7.9 yards per carry on 21 attempts. The Buccaneers did not score in the fourth quarter but had built a 24-10 lead through three quarters. Dallas added its final touchdown on Prescott’s 18-yard pass to Pickens, but the failed two-point conversion kept the margin at eight points. Tampa Bay’s defense intercepted two passes and limited Dallas’s running game to 50 yards on 13 carries.

Special teams also played a role. McLaughlin’s 41-yard field goal in the third quarter capped a stretch of 17 unanswered points for Tampa Bay. Aubrey’s 41-yard field goal in the second quarter accounted for Dallas’s only points after the first quarter until the final touchdown. Anger averaged 45.3 yards on three punts, while Dixon averaged 40.8 yards on four punts. Turpin’s five kickoff returns totaled 127 yards, and Kameron Johnson’s three kickoff returns totaled 61 yards. Tez Johnson added a 12-yard punt return.

Daniels had passed for 148 yards and run for 55 yards in a loss to Green Bay in his previous game, and he had one carry for 9 yards in a loss to Minnesota before that. Tampa Bay had lost to Green Bay, Minnesota, Cleveland and Cincinnati before Thursday’s win. Dallas had beaten Houston and Washington while losing to Baltimore and the New York Giants.

Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of Dallas 38, Tampa Bay 27. Interstat’s ELO system had projected Dallas with a 77.7 percent probability to win. Tampa Bay had been installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of +9.5. The total score of 40 went over the over/under line of 48.5.