CeeDee Lamb is an absolutely exceptional football player. Sunday he put on a clinic and showed the entire league he should be mentioned in every conversation about who is the top receiver in the league.
Lamb’s performance against the Texans was also one for the record books. He caught 17 passes, for 189 yards and scored the game-winning touchdown with 40 seconds remaining as the Cowboys erased a 10-point halftime deficit and defeated the Texans 34-30 on Sunday. It was a career-high in receptions,
the third-highest yardage total of his career and, perhaps most importantly, the kind of performance Dallas needed from its best offensive player when the game was on the line.
The Cowboys knew where to go
Lamb entered the game already having established himself as the centerpiece of Dallas’ passing attack, but what happened against Houston took that reliance to another level. He finished the first half with six catches for 49 yards, respectable numbers that hardly suggested what was coming after halftime. Then the Cowboys began leaning on him even more heavily, and Lamb responded with 11 catches for 140 yards in the second half, including the touchdown that ultimately decided the game.
That is the part that stands out. Houston knew Lamb was going to be involved. The Texans knew Prescott was going to look his way. And yet Dallas kept finding ways to get the ball into the hands of its best receiver.
That is what a true No. 1 receiver is supposed to do. It is one thing to put up big numbers when a defense loses track of you or when the quarterback happens to find you on a few explosive plays. It is something completely different to become the focal point of an offense in the second half of a game, have the defense adjust accordingly and still find a way to produce. Lamb did exactly that on Sunday.
Then came the catch in the clutch
The numbers would have been impressive even if Dallas had lost. They would have been a footnote, though. Instead, Lamb made the play that will be remembered from this game. With Dallas trailing 30-27 and the Cowboys needing to go 74 yards to take the lead, Prescott guided the offense down the field before finding Lamb for a 12-yard touchdown with 40 seconds remaining. The catch gave Dallas a 34-30 lead and completed a comeback in which the Cowboys scored 28 second-half points.
That is the difference between having a big statistical afternoon and having a performance that changes the outcome of a football game. Lamb’s 17th reception was not simply another addition to the stat sheet. It was the play that gave Dallas the lead with less than a minute remaining and put the Cowboys in position to finish off a comeback they desperately needed. After the heartbreak in Brazil the week before, Dallas needed somebody to step forward when the game became uncomfortable. Lamb did and has all season so far.
One for the record books
The numbers also put Lamb in some pretty rare company. His 17 receptions are now the second-most by a Cowboys player in a single game, trailing only Jason Witten, who caught 18 passes against the New York Giants in 2012.
Witten was one of the most dependable players in Cowboys history, and his 18-catch performance came during a career in which he became the franchise’s all-time leader in receptions. Lamb was one catch away from matching that single-game mark more than a decade later.
He also joined rare NFL company with the performance. Lamb became only the fourth player in NFL history to record at least 17 receptions, 185 receiving yards and a touchdown in the same game, joining Hall of Famers Tom Fears and Terrell Owens along with Brandon Marshall. That is a pretty good group to find yourself alongside.
This is what Dallas needs from CeeDee Lamb
The Cowboys are not going to win every game because Lamb catches 17 passes, and frankly, they probably shouldn’t even want him to. But when the game demands that Dallas lean on its best offensive weapon, there is no reason to apologize for doing exactly that.
Lamb has now shown throughout the first four weeks that he can be productive in different ways. He has been efficient when the offense is clicking, explosive when Dallas needs chunk plays and, against Houston, almost impossible to keep away from the football when the Cowboys needed a comeback.
The Cowboys have plenty of questions elsewhere on the roster. The defense remains inconsistent, at best. The pass rush has struggled to create pressure. The offensive line has had some problems and the Cowboys just spent the previous week watching a winnable game slip away in the final seconds against Baltimore.
What they can count on, however, is that when Dak Prescott needs someone to make a play, CeeDee Lamb is going to be there. Sunday in Houston was the latest and perhaps clearest example. Lamb didn’t just have a career day. He gave the Cowboys exactly what a franchise receiver is supposed to give them when the game is hanging in the balance: production, reliability and, when Dallas needed it most, the play that changed the game.
CeeDee Lamb is a dog, and after what he did in Houston, the Cowboys should have no problem making sure everybody else remembers it.
