Against the Dallas Cowboys in Week Five, running back Bucky Irving became the offensive catalyst, producing a career performance at AT&T Stadium on Thursday Night Football. The 0-4 Buccaneers came to Texas and dismantled the Cowboys' offensive onslaught and fielded a robust rushing attack.

Irving accumulated 21 carries for a career-best 165 yards and one rushing touchdown, adding two receptions for 10 yards and one receiving touchdown. It marked the first time in Irving's career that he had a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown in a single game. His 175 yards from scrimmage marked the third-most of his career. Irving's 72-yard run on the day is the longest of his NFL career. Thursday's game marked Irving's fourth career 100-yard rushing performance and also helped him surpass the 2,000-yard rushing milestone for his career. He ran with vision, patience in letting blocks develop and crisp cuts. Irving imposed his will, igniting the offense on the road. Here is a look at the decision-making behind the plays that jumped off the tape against the Cowboys:

72-Yard Pickup

With the Bucs down by three, 10-7, early in the third quarter, Irving sprung free. The thrilling 72-yard breakaway on the first play of the second half set up Emeka Egbuka's touchdown. The transfixing play did not go as planned, but center Graham Barton extended his block against the linebacker and tight end Cade Otton delivered a hit to create disruption, opening the seam for Irving and No. 7 utilized his panoramic vision, patience and cut skills to make something out of nothing. What could have been a tackle at the line of scrimmage as the linebacker crashed, ended up being a game-altering gain that ignited the Bucs' momentum and put the visiting team in the driver's seat.

"It was an open-side zone," said Assistant Tight Ends Coach Jeff Kastl. "Tristan [Wirfs] pushed out and blocked six. We were going to bypass with the wide receivers and based on the look, we sent the motion in order to move people where we wanted. Ted ends up blocking the corner, Tristan pushed out and Ben [Bredeson] is soloed up and we brought everybody to the party. Cade was going to insert to block 53 and so as you look at it, we had interference and they tried to run the backer through and Graham did a good job of just getting enough of him to move him out of the way and Cade had to negotiate and get his way through and ended up playing harder for longer to create chaos. From there, Bucky was just being Bucky. He ended up finding a way through somehow and got to the second level."

Counter Gap TD

Midway through the third quarter, up 14-10 from first and goal, the Bucs extended their lead. Out of a counter gap run, the system Irving ran at high-frequency at Oregon and where Irving thrived in 2024, guard Cody Mauch and tight end Payne Durham, served as the pullers out in front. As Durham and Tristan Wirfs held strong in their blocks, Irving dashed into the end zone on a one-yard touchdown to give the Bucs a 21-10 lead. In the NFL, plays rarely go the way they are drawn up but against Dallas, that counter play worked as expected.

"Based on their match, you can see them come across, talking to each other, so as we looked at it, we ran counter, a gap scheme play so everybody on the play side was going to secure their inside gap to the second-level defender and so with an A-gap defender and a B-gap defender, Ben blocked down and we blocked back with Graham and pulled the guard for the first guy off the edge and then we pulled Payne for the next one," said Kastl. "As we went through, since Cade had no one in his inside gap to work with Tristan up to 53, we tried to create a wall with everybody to the right of Cade and then we tried to create another wall as the exterior portion with Cody and Payne [Durham]. So, Cody did a good job and got enough as his guy tried to run up the field and then as we wrapped Payne, he ends up being responsible for the safety. We knew that because the safety was going to be in location, we were going to count him and therefore Emeka was going to be responsible for blocking the corner. On the backside, we knew we would not have enough people to get to 13 or 26, so those are the two that we had to lose to, so we put Chris [Godwin] technically on the D-end on the backside to seal that off so he was not able it chase it down. That one actually happened as we anticipated."