‘Give them a reason to focus on me’: Lamb’s hot start, career day lifts entire Cowboys passing game

From @ToddBrock24f7: Lamb knows opposing defenses are focused on him, so he wants to give them a reason to be. That, he says, allows everyone else to explode.

CeeDee Lamb had a career day on Sunday. Fitting, the Cowboys wide receiver says, since he’s been building his relationship with quarterback Dak Prescott from the very first day he became a pro.

“Year Four together,” Lamb reflected after the team’s 43-20 win over the Rams. “A lot of banked reps.”

The 24-year-old came away from the Week 8 victory with personal bests in receptions (12) and receiving yards (158), and he caught two touchdowns for the sixth time as a Cowboy.

The scary part? Most of those stats were compiled in just the first half; Lamb believes his own hot start helped the entire Dallas offense find its rhythm in the blowout win.

“Absolutely. I got started early, and it kind of opened up the offense for us,” he explained, “just giving us the ability to call any play with no restrictions. I feel like that’s when we’re at our best, playing fast and making plays.”

Lamb and Prescott have clearly been at their best of late. The first-round draft pick out of Oklahoma currently has a catch percentage of 82.1% on the season, the highest of any wide receiver in the league with over 30 targets.

While it’s been fun to watch, there’s no mystery about where it’s come from.

“You can clearly see the connection, and that obviously started last year,” head coach Mike McCarthy said following the win. “Just in the offseason, these guys have spent a tremendous amount of time together. The one touchdown throw was a new wrinkle, and you just don’t have that kind of patience as a quarterback unless you truly trust the receiver at the top of the stem there.”

“Work,” Prescott agreed in his postgame press conference. “A lot of work. A lot of time put into it, talking about depositing the work and then being able to withdraw it when you need to. You can go back into the offseason, from the time we started way back in April, maybe even before then in my backyard, to the time we spent in minicamp and OTAs to trips out to Atlanta, a lot of time invested. A lot of trust in that guy.”

That trust was tested after the team’s disappointing loss to San Francisco in Week 5, when Lamb was visibly upset about his apparent lack of use in the Dallas offense.

Prescott and others offered pep talks in the week of practice that followed. But Lamb has also seen more throws come his way- especially early in games- since. In Week 6 against the Chargers, he saw five targets in the first half alone, the same number he’d gotten across his entire 49ers outing.

This past Sunday, that number doubled to 10 targets before intermission.

“Just get in the game early,” Lamb explained. “Want to get the defense on their heels. Obviously, they’re going to be focusing on me, so give them a reason to focus on me. And then I want all my guys to explode.”

It worked versus the Rams, with 11 Cowboys pass-catchers getting targeted in the contest and Prescott topping 300 passing yards for the first time this season.

But Lamb was undoubtedly Prescott’s primary option; he received 14 targets on the day, Brandin Cooks and Jake Ferguson were tied well behind him for second, with four.

“He runs, he knows what I’m thinking, we’re always communicating,” Prescott said of Lamb. “And I think that’s why when it’s not going our way, it’s frustrating, because we put so much into it. But right now, we’re reaping the rewards of everything that we’ve put into this, and it’s only going to continue to grow.”

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The Cowboys’ fourth win by 20 or more points has raised eyebrows across the league about the potent Dallas offense, but Lamb took a matter-of-fact view when asked about it.

“We’re explosive and physical. And I say that with full ability and capability. I know what we can do week in and week out. We can definitely take the top off defenses,” he told reporters.

“That’s what we’re looking for week in and week out. That’s how we should play. And that’s just more of a stepping stone to what’s to come.”

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