CeeDee Lamb is closing in on a career year. The Cowboys receiver currently ranks third in the league in receiving yards (1,253) and third in total receptions (96). He’s tied for seventh in targets (131) and tied for fourth in touchdowns (8). And he’s on the cusp of setting new personal-best marks in all four of those categories.
But ask the fifth-year vet which stat is most satisfying to him, and his answer is none of the above.
Despite doing enough so far this season to easily earn a third Pro Bowl nod, the former first-round draft pick is exponentially more focused on playing in the game after all-star weekend.
But in order for Lamb and the Cowboys to reach Super Bowl LVII, they’ll more than likely to have to pull off a series of difficult road wins in the postseason. So they’re treating this Sunday’s trip to Buffalo as a preparatory mission.
“I feel like we’ve got to bring our own music,” Lamb said this week of taking the team’s 9-3 record to Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park to face the Bills. “Obviously, we’re going to be in a hostile environment, so we’re not going to get as much praise for making big plays. But we kind of have got to make that the new norm, just being in an away format.”
Some away games, though, are about more than the plane ride and the hotel and the unfamiliar surroundings at the stadium. This Sunday, the Cowboys will also have to deal with Old Man Winter. And while the forecast isn’t calling for the heavy snows or sub-arctic temperatures that have beset many a team’s mid-December visit to “B-Lo,” the Cowboys are gearing up nonetheless for a very damp and wet afternoon.
“Obviously, the ball is going to be wet,” Lamb explained. “But just taking care of the ball is the main thing.”
To that end, some members of the Dallas offense were spotted doing wet ball drills at practice this week, dunking their hands in buckets of ice water and catching drippy, slippy passes.
“Mentally, it’s all about preparation,” said Lamb. “And physically, obviously, it’s just going out, doing it and executing the right way and not really being lackadaisical with our focus. Look the ball in, hold the ball high and tight, things of that nature.”
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Those are all things Lamb has done better this season than ever before. Having passed Miles Austin a couple weeks ago to take over the No. 8 spot on the franchise’s all-time receiving yardage list, Lamb is about to set a new slew of single-season highs for himself. He needs 26 more targets, 12 more catches, two more touchdowns, and 107 more receiving yards to establish new career marks in each of those categories, and he has four more games to get there.
But back to asking him to pick the stat that means the most to him.
“A win,” Lamb says simply. “That’s the most important to me, to be honest.”
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