The Dallas Cowboys are 3-2 and appear on their way to securing another playoff spot in the NFC Conference. But not all is well, especially after an embarrassing 42-10 blowout loss to San Francisco. Making matters worse, now star receiver CeeDee Lamb is expressing frustration on the sidelines over a lack of involvement in the team’s offense.
Changes were made to the Dallas offense this past offseason when Kellen Moore and the Cowboys ‘mutually agreed’ to part ways. This led to Brian Schottenheimer being hired to coordinate the Cowboys’ offense instead, but Mike McCarthy is now calling plays.
So far, through five weeks of play, Lamb is on pace for his fewest targets since his rookie season (seven per game). Lamb’s still on track for a strong season, averaging 71.6 yards per game, which would equate to 1,217 yards over a full season. But those numbers would be a decrease in his production compared to last year when he totaled 1,359 receiving yards.
It’s not shocking to see Lamb express his disappointment on the sidelines, as he did during last week’s loss. On Monday, Dak Prescott showed his leadership qualities by reaching out to Lamb, trying to improve the chemistry between the star duo.
“If you have a problem with anything, just come up to me and we’ll talk about it. CeeDee is a guy that I’ll never lose confidence in and trust who he is and understand why he’s frustrated. But at the end of the day, he’s a leader. It’s about him leading other guys and picking other guys up and him just trying to make sure we’re all pushing our best.” “That’s where the frustration, we have to remove that. And he will. He’s a young player that’s growing by the day and he’ll only get better. He’ll be better because of that. Frustrating times.”
Dak Prescott on CeeDee Lamb
The conversation may be just what the Cowboys needed. Lamb has since publicly changed his tune, moving on from being upset about his stats.
“I’ve had to self-reflect, and I didn’t go the best route to get my end result. At the end of the day, I have a job to do and I want to contribute to this team. I do everything in my power week in and week out to do that. Going forward, there is a better way to go about it, make a lighter situation. “He came up to me, he’s like, ‘If you have a problem with anything, just come up to me and we’ll talk about it. I don’t care how it necessarily looks in the media, right,'” Lamb said. “But the media is going to do what the media does anyway. If I stand by myself, it’s a problem. If I go talk to him and I flare my hands a little bit, it’s a problem. Right? At the end of the day, it’s just getting down to the nitty gritty, getting everything understood and both parts being on the same page. Me and Dak, we did that, first day back, so we could have all week, fresh slate to get after it. Me as a competitor, man, I like to win. First and foremost. I don’t care how that looks. I am an ultimate competitor. I do anything in my power for me team, from guys, my boys, they know this. This is nothing ever personal. This is all for the better. I want to win, and I want to contribute. Point blank period.”
With both Prescott and Lamb focused on the same goal from here on out, will we see an improved performance on the field? There’s only one way to find out. The Cowboys’ next game comes on Monday when they hit the road to take on the Los Angeles Chargers, where their former coordinator, Kellen Moore, runs the offense.
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