So much for the Dallas Cowboys and the GOTI talk.
The buzz word for the Cowboys after a shocking and humiliating 24-16 loss to the formerly winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers and an undrafted rookie quarterback in Jalon Daniels is embarrassing.
That’s what a worker for a third-party vender at AT&T Stadium screamed at quarterback Dak Prescott as he walked dejectedly to the post-game locker room.
Prescott turned back and said something and the Cowboys ran down the heckler to find out his affiliation after initial reports labeled him in a stadium worker.
Prescott said the person had a right to say what he wanted. He just didn’t like the way he did it.
“When he said it, I just happened to look at him, and at that point, he looked away,” Prescott said. “And when I turned my head back, he said something else. And so that’s the part that, just as a man or as just a person, feel free to speak your mind — just speak it. Don’t cower away from the reaction that you’re going to get.
“And so, if you’re saying it’s embarrassing, say it’s embarrassing. If you’re saying it to me, then say it to me. Don’t go back on it. So that’s all that was, and hate that it’s even being talked about, to be honest with you.”
It’s being talked about because Prescott made it thing when he went back at him, rather than just keep on walking to the locker room.
At the end the day, the man was right.
What the Cowboys (2-3) put on display against a struggling Buccaneers team was embarrassing.
What should have been an easy win against an overmatched team, allowing the Cowboys to build some momentum with a two-game winning streak and heading into a 10-day layoff before their next game at the Green Bay Packers Oct. 18, turned into one of the worst home losses in franchise history.
It was second time ever that the Cowboys lost at home to a team that entered the game 0-4, the last coming in 1975. It has happened four times on the road.
Owner Jerry Jones didn’t use embarrassed but he was disappointed as he’s ever been after a regular season loss.
“Extraordinarily, extraordinarily disappointed,” Jones said. “You really do need to get it done when it’s there to take. Missed a great opportunity here to build something. This is very disappointing and I know what’s disappointing to our home crowd, it is to me.”
It was disappointing but not surprising giving the Cowboys history. They have won just seven games in each of the last two seasons. And despite coming into the season talking about reaching the Super Bowl for the first time since 1996 because an offense that Prescott nicknamed GOTI for the Greatest Offense There is and a host of changes on defense, led by coordinator Christian Parker, it was more of the game disappointment and unfulfilled expectations that it’s been for the last 30 years.
Prescott didn’t want to say that he was embarrassed or co-sign the workers embarrassed comment.
But he acknowledged it was a game the Cowboys should have won.
“I think [coach Brian Schottenheimer] said it best in the locker room: In this league, you’ve got to win the games you’re supposed to win,” Prescott said. “And when a winless team comes into your home stadium in a Thursday night primetime game, yeah, we’re supposed to win that.”
The looked as the Buccaneers as a team they should beat. The Bucs felt the same way about the Cowboys.
And a Cowboys team that was playing its third game in 12 days after a trip to Brazil in a 34-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sept. 27 then a 34-30 win against the Houston Texans last Sunday played right into their hands.
“I’m not going to blame it on travel,” Prescott said. “I’m not going to blame it on quick week; that’s the NFL. We had three-or-four days to prepare for this one and so did they. They beat us in the preparation and it showed today.”
The Cowboys let Daniels, an undrafted rookie free agent, complete 76 percent of his passes for 189 yards and a touchdown. They gave 241 yards rushing, including 165 yards on 21 carries to Bucky Irving. They had three turnovers, including two dropped passes by Jake Ferguson and Ryan Flournoy that turned into interceptions and fumble on a kickoff return by KaVonte Turpin.
Cornerback DaRon Bland, who got cooked in coverage, dropped a potential pick-six in the fourth quarter that would have given the Cowboys a chance to tie the game.
And the Cowboys were plagued by poor game management decisions by Schottenheimer and they were outcoached on both sides of the ball by the Buccaneers.
The Cowboys were down 24-10 after three quarters and were booed by the home crowd.
The defense remains a sore point.
Jones said it’s premature to think about changing coordinators.
But he acknowledged that little improvement has been made on defense.
“We are still, in my mind, right where we started, looking to our defense,” Jones said
“Certainly, he’s sitting there with taking it on the shoulders, which goes with the territory, but I feel that he’s competent,” Jones said of Parker.
While Cowboys got just one sack on Daniels and no turnovers, Jones said he was most disappointed in a run defense that got pushed around up the middle, which is supposed to be the strength of unit, led by Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark.
Williams signed a three-year, $105.9 million contract extension before the season, making him the league’s second-highest paid defensive tackle.
I’m going to say it one more time, the thing that probably bothers me the most is how they ran between the tackles, so to speak, and were able to have that running game up in there with where we have a lot of strength [with Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark].”
“The Buccaneers really took it to us. They did it, in my view, they did it inside. That’s where the real damage was done, we’ll see. That’s really surprising to me.”
What wasn’t a surprise was the frustration of the heckler after game towards Prescott.
Schottenheimer said the words were motivating and plans to use weekend to evaluate everything, though he didn’t promise any major changes.
“We’re going to make some decisions that we believe will give us the best chance to pick back up and play well next week,” Schottenheimer said. “We’re five games in, 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 got to play better. We know that.”
“We believe in what we’re doing. We believe that we have good players, good coaches, and we believe the solution is in this room.”
Prescott believes as well.
He may not be embarrassed but he can’t run from being frustrated with the Cowboys penchant from uneven performances that predate in 2026. He has watched the Cowboys lose games they supposed to win many times before.
“It’s frustrating. I wouldn’t say I’m personally fatigued, but yeah, it’s frustrating,” Prescott said. “I feel like this game was similar to the Arizona Cardinals (loss) last year. And I can pick out others. And so as a leader, as a guy that’s been on this team, it’s frustrating because you don’t feel it until afterwards. You feel like you’re saying enough, you’re being contagious enough, you’re being the leader that you need to be. And I know guys are fighting. I know guys are trying, but it sucks. And yeah, I definitely won’t use the word fatigue, but it’s frustrating. It’s challenging. Thankfully, we’re five games into the season. And so having pretty much everything still out in front of us gives myself and all the guys in the locker room a lot of confidence.”
The Cowboys can get things right with with games at Green Bay on Oct. 18 and at Philadelphia on Oct. 26 before coming back home to face the Cardinals on Nov. 1.
But he acknowledges the loss to the Buccaneers hurts and will one the team potentially regrets for the rest of the season.
“It’s these kind of games that you feel like you should just walk in and win,” Prescott said. “And I guess that some of us may feel that way, that we’ve got to find a way to make them mean just as much as the big games – or you get what I’m saying – the teams that have a lot of wins, because these are the ones that,
when we look back at the end of the year and we’re looking at seeding, hell, if we would’ve gotten the game that we were supposed to win, we would be a higher seeding or we’d be better. And that’s to Schotty’s point, is you just got to handle your business in this league and that means winning the games you’re supposed to win and that’ll help a lot.”
The Cowboys didn’t on Thursday night.
And it was embarrassing.
