While the Dallas Cowboysbested the Houston Texans at Reliant Stadium on Sunday, it was CeeDee Lamb who won the game.
Literally, all the Texans
' defense had to do was shut down the All-Pro wideout two or three times and perhaps they're sitting at 1-3. Perhaps fans are talking about another 300-yard passing performance from C.J. Stroud and how the offense scored 30 points for the second time in four games.But no. Instead, the good is washed out because the Texans' secondary had a bad day guarding No. 88 in what would become a record-setting performance in Cowboys' history.
“It sucks, because we know we’re the ones out there on the field,” Texans All-Pro cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. said. “The coaches put us in the right position to win and we’ve
got to do it. They can’t do it, we’ve got to do it. We’ve got great coaches, we’ve got great everybody. We’ve got to go out there and do our job.”
CEEDEE LAMB IS A CHEAT CODE FROM OUTERSPACE
— PFF (@PFF) October 4, 2026
17 CATCHES
189 REC YARDS
TDpic.twitter.com/Enll9u0zjz
Lamb, who finished with a career-high 17 catches for 189 yards, torched Houston's defense. From 20-yard curls to 18-yard slants, he was all over the place and no one could contain him.
But the biggest play came in the closing seconds of the Cowboys' drive. Just outside the red zone, the Texans were playing for a stop on third down to set up a game-tying field goal, but Dak Prescott saw the window between Lamb and defensive back Jalen Pitre with a chance to take the lead.
His 17th reception made history for all the right reasons in Arlington and all the wrong ones in Houston. Lamb hauled in a reception for a game-sealing touchdown with under 40 seconds remaining.
For the second time in four games, the Texans' secondary blew the coverage to allow a visitor take the lead with less than a minute reamaining.
CeeDee's 17TH CATCH OF THE DAY gives the Cowboys the lead!@DALvsHOU on FOX/FOX One
— NFL (@NFL) October 4, 2026
Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/ZR4FNXLSAz
"In a couple of plays there where you see CeeDee is just wide open, that's definitely not our plan," Ryans said postgame. "We have to look at it to see what happened, what were the communication miscues that happened, but that's not how we play coverage."
It's one thing to say that Lamb went off against a weak secondary, but the combination of Stingley and Kamari Lassiter entered the year as perhaps the best young duo for 2026. Yesterday, they allowed a combined 16 catches. Lassiter, who is having a season to forget, allowed eight catches for 136 yards on 11 targets.
He was also flagged three times, including twice in the end zone to help set up a scoring drive for Javontae Williams that never would have counted if not for the flag on fourth down.
"Too many self-inflicted penalties offensively," Ryans said. "We had penalties to start the drive, kickoff return. Way too many penalties hurting the team, not helping the team. Defensively third down. We had a lot of things that we're fighting against ourselves and you can't win football in the NFL that way when you're constantly fighting the uphill battle."
The Texans hit the road on Sunday to take on the Tennessee Titans in a battle of 0-4 rosters.
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Texans fall short by epic performance from Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb
