HOUSTON — CeeDee Lamb caught a career-high 17 passes for 189 yards in Sunday’s 34-30 win over the Houston Texans. After the game, the Dallas Cowboys receiver wanted to talk about something else.
“Yeah, I just want Schotty to know that I got his back,” Lamb said of coach Brian Schottenheimer. “Honestly, I’m with him. I’m one of his strongest soldiers, and it’s just going to battle with each other. Once you have that confidence and know who you’re going to battle with, just shoot your gun, and I feel like he shot it there.”
It had been six days since Schottenheimer stood in front of reporters in Rio de Janeiro and blamed himself for the 34-31 loss to Baltimore. He said he “overcoached” Dak Prescott on the throwaway from inside the 5 on the final drive. He said Luke Schoonmaker’s false start backed the Cowboys up and hurt. He said nobody coached or played a perfect game that night, and he went first.
Sunday, his players answered for him.
“It’s a lot funner to learn from things with the win,” Prescott said. “When we were put in this position tonight, I felt as confident as anything. And honestly, just thank God for the opportunity to go back out there and answer again.”
What Happened In Rio, And Why It Mattered
Dallas reached the Baltimore 1 on its first drive and the Baltimore 2 on its last. Both times, Dallas kicked a field goal. Prescott called it the offense getting “in our own way.” Schottenheimer said the blame was his, not his players’.
Lamb was asked Sunday about the best game of his career, a 17-catch afternoon with family in the stands at Reliant Stadium, the area where he played high school football. He did not mention the numbers. He went back to his coach.
“Once you have that confidence and know who you’re going to battle with, just shoot your gun,” Lamb said again, “and I feel like he shot it there.”
On Monday, Schottenheimer said the feeling runs both ways.
“A lot of time and energy spent together, working on those things and those details,” Schottenheimer said. “CeeDee’s playing incredible right now.”
A Locker Room Built On One Heartbeat
Schottenheimer has talked since taking the job about building a room where players can be themselves off the field and one unit on it.
“The team has a vision of what we believe in, and my faith is very, very important to me. God is the center of everything that I do,” Schottenheimer said. “In terms of how we build this brotherhood, it’s: be you and whatever your beliefs are, whether it’s spiritually or politically, we don’t care. But when you’re in the room together, when you’re on the field together, it’s one heartbeat.”
Prescott said that example starts with the head coach.
“Credit Schotty and his leadership and the way he’s opened that up,” Prescott said. “That’s who he is. That’s who I am. And that’s who a lot of our guys on our team are. We’ve got great chaplains, Jonathan and Dr. Evans, and they’re helping lead that cause.”
The Difference On The Field
Dallas trailed 16-6 at halftime Sunday. The Cowboys scored touchdowns on three of their next four drives, and Prescott finished 32 of 45 for 335 yards with no interceptions. With 2:23 left and the ball at the Dallas 26, he completed all five of his passes on an 11-play drive, the last a 12-yard touchdown to Lamb with 40 seconds remaining. In Rio, Dallas had the ball inside the 5 with the game on the line and came away with three points. Sunday, it finished.
“There was no doubt in my mind, I don’t think on anybody in our team’s mind, of the way that we’re going to respond this time and the way that we’re going to finish,” Prescott said.
Lamb was asked once about the 17 catches themselves, and where that kind of day puts him in the franchise record book. He looked up at the names still ahead of him.
“There’s nothing towards the guys that’s ahead of me, but here I come.”
The Cowboys host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday, Oct. 8, at AT&T Stadium, with kickoff at 7:15 p.m. CT on Prime Video.
