CeeDee Lamb has a shot to carve out a little more Cowboys history Thursday night, and the setup could hardly be better for Dallas.
Fresh off a wild 34-30 win over the Houston Texans, where he piled up 17 catches for 189 yards and a touchdown, Lamb enters “Thursday Night Football” sitting on 498 receiving yards through four games. That leaves him two yards shy of a milestone that would put him in rare company in franchise history.
Per ESPN Insights, Lamb can become just the third player in Cowboys history to post at least 500 receiving yards and five receiving touchdowns through the team’s first five games of a season. The other two: Amari Cooper and Frank Clarke.
The numbers make the mark look well within reach. Two yards is nothing for a receiver who has been this productive, and the bigger question is whether he can find the end zone again to get to five scores.
Lamb’s rise has been one of the main reasons Dallas has started the year with so much juice on offense. Quarterback Dak Prescott has made him the clear focal point, and the pairing has worked exactly as the Cowboys hoped when they took Lamb with the No. 17 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft out of Oklahoma.
He’s also tracking toward his sixth straight season with at least 1,000 receiving yards, which is the kind of steady production that has made him one of the league’s most reliable playmakers.
Dallas gets Tampa Bay next, and the matchup tilts heavily in the Cowboys’ favor. The Buccaneers come in winless and are set to start a rookie backup quarterback while Baker Mayfield works through injury recovery. With a win, the Cowboys would move to 3-2.
So the stage is set for a clean Dallas result and, maybe, another line in the franchise record book for Lamb.
In Other News...
Bucs Upset Win Left Dak Prescott Seething After A Wild Postgame Scene
The Cowboys home loss to Tampa Bay on Thursday night already had the feel of a damaging one, and the night only got stranger after the final whistle. In the tunnel at the stadium, a viral exchange unfolded when a stadium worker called Dak Prescott embarrassing, turning a rough defeat into the kind of postgame scene that tends to linger long after the score is forgotten.
Prescott was clearly bothered by what happened and addressed it in his postgame press conference, explaining why the comment struck a nerve. For Dallas, the frustration went beyond the upset itself, spilling into a moment that put the quarterback in the middle of an unexpected confrontation and added another layer to a night the Cowboys would rather move past quickly. [Read more 🡒]
George Pickens Said What Had Him So Frustrated After Cowboys Loss
George Pickens had one of his best games of the season in the Cowboys 24-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at AT&T Stadium, finishing with nine catches for 130 yards and a touchdown. Even with that production, the evening ended the way too many Cowboys losses do lately, with a missed chance to turn a strong individual performance into a much-needed win.
Pickens was visibly frustrated afterward, and it was easy to see why. Dallas never managed to put together a late push strong enough to seriously threaten Tampa Bay, leaving the receiver to walk off with the kind of stat line that usually feels good and the kind of result that does not. The bigger concern for the Cowboys is how often that gap has shown up when they need a comeback most. [Read more 🡒]
Dak Prescott Debate Just Got Even Worse After Cowboys Loss
The Cowboys loss to the Buccaneers dropped them to 2-3 and only sharpened the conversation around Dak Prescott, whose uneven night fit into a debate that has followed him for years. He finished 24 of 42 for 316 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions, a performance that gave Dallas plenty of offense in stretches but not enough clean play to escape Tampa Bay with a win.
Stephen A. Smith added another layer to the scrutiny on ESPNs First Take, saying Brock Purdy has been better than Prescott because of his success in the biggest moments and Prescotts limited playoff track record. For the Cowboys, it is the kind of comparison that tends to linger when the results are coming up short, and every rough outcome only makes the discussion around Prescott harder to quiet. [Read more 🡒]