The Dallas Cowboys did not cover themselves in glory on Thursday evening in their Week 5 loss to the Buccaneers, and despite a weekend away and a Sunday in which the rest of the NFC East looked every bit as bungling and clueless as the Cowboys did, the difficulty of that loss lingers. The factor that remains most tangible is the 241 yards rushing the Cowboys somehow allowed on 39 carries, upping the total rushing yards this defense has allowed to 842, worst in the NFL. Team owner Jerry Jones was not happy about that.
He said after the game that he was “extraordinarily, extraordinarily disappointed” in the performance on Thursday.
Jerry Jones Wanted to Beef Up the Middle
In fact, Cowboys insider Bobby Belt of 105.3 The Fan noted, “Defensive side of the ball, you got whupped up front, I mean, manhandled. In a way that is not acceptable. It’s easy to see why Jerry got as frustrated as he did postgame, where he said, essentially, I pay a lot of money to these guys up front for that not to happen.”
Indeed, the Cowboys have made a remarkable investment in the defense front. When the team traded away Micah Parsons back in August 2025, the logic was that, as good as Parsons is as a pass rusher, the Cowboys still struggled against the run. So Parsons was traded for two first-rounders and defensive lineman Kenny Clark.
One of those first-rounders was used to bring in Quinnen Williams. And the Williams-Clark pairing was seen as the key to stopping the run.
Cowboys Got ‘Manhandled’
It’s been a disaster for the Cowboys, obviously, and for all the talk of moves the team might make to shore up this defense, unless the tandem of Clark and Williams goes from liability to strength, there’s nothing that can be done, truly, to save this defense.
Belt suggested that the problem might have been fatigue. Even at full strength, though, this bunch has struggled.
Said Belt of the Tampa Bay steamrolling: “We can’t allow that to happen. I think that this was one of the worst games we’ve seen from the defensive front in terms of just getting manhandled and holding at the point of attack and being able to punch at the front. It was bad against the Giants. It was at times bad against the Commanders. But, man, this was a return to a lot of that and it is not an offensive line of the Buccaneers that should be able to do that to you.”
Cowboys’ Jerry Jones Frustrated After This Unit ‘Got Whupped’