Tag: 2024 season week 3

Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb fined over $20,000 for this heady play

From @ToddBrock24f7: Lamb’s rough Week 3 game got even costlier; the NFL handed down a fine for a seemingly innocuous play that didn’t even warrant a penalty.

CeeDee Lamb had a rough outing back on Sept. 22 in the Cowboys’ loss to the Ravens. His costly fumble in the red zone contributed significantly to an overall collapse that eventually had the team down by 22 points before they were able to stop the bleeding. Lamb all but checked out entirely after the miscue and was even seen having heated exchanges on the sideline with teammates and coaches.

Thursday night’s win over the Giants, in which Lamb posted seven catches for 98 yards and a score, certainly helped put the previous weekend behind him (he also apologized for his behavior), but it turns out he’s not done paying for his Week 3 performance.

Per NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero, the NFL has fined Lamb $22,511 for unnecessary roughness on a play that didn’t draw much attention when it happened.

On the final play of the first quarter, Lamb hauled in a short pass from quarterback Dak Prescott at about the Baltimore 20. He spun away from cornerback Nate Wiggins and broke for the end zone. At the 10, as linebacker Trenton Simpson wrapped him up from behind, Lamb met safety Kyle Hamilton head-on.

Literally.

The league has determined that Lamb used his helmet illegally on the play, even though the moment didn’t draw a penalty flag from the officials on the field. The hit doesn’t seem particularly noteworthy, even when viewed in replay.

Yet the official rulebook specifies: “It is a foul if a player: lowers his head and makes forcible contact with his helmet against an opponent; or uses any part of his helmet or facemask to butt or make forcible contact to an opponent’s head or neck.”

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Cowboys safety Markquese Bell was also fined- $5,500- for unnecessarily rough use of his own helmet in the same game.

League officials were on a bit of a rampage after Week 3, with 34 plays from across the league drawing fines totaling over $394,000. Several players were docked even more than Lamb; Packers running back Josh Jacobs was hit with a $45,020 fine and Chargers defensive back Derwin James was dealt a one-game suspension, both for roughness (helmet) incidents.

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‘Don’t dwell’: Prescott hopes to quickly lift Cowboys teammates, Lamb out of Week 3 funk

From @ToddBrock24f7: Lamb ditched the media after Sunday’s loss. Prescott used his moment to spread hope that their 4th-quarter rally can spark something bigger.

Dak Prescott didn’t play his best game in Week 3. But he hopes his refusal to lie down, even trailing by 22 points with 10 minutes to play, can serve as something for the Cowboys offense to build on moving forward.

He told his teammates as much in the middle of their furious comeback bid that saw them score 19 unanswered points and have a legitimate chance at stealing an unlikely win over a Ravens team that had dominated them for the previous three quarters-plus.

“I said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get something going [in terms of] momentum,” the Cowboys quarterback told reporters after Sunday’s 28-25 loss. “I don’t care how this game ends. It’s about getting something going.”

Now it’s about keeping it going, using that late-game rally as a springboard to a more complete effort and- hopefully- a divisional win on Thursday night.

“The way that we finished on offense is vital for us to be able to build on, Prescott said, with the team headed to New York on a short prep week to face the Giants, fresh off their first win of the season.

“It’s a long-ass season,” Prescott said after closing out the game with three straight touchdown drives (two through the air, one with his legs). The Dallas offense netted 211 yards on those final three possessions, nearly equaling the 217 from their first eight drives. “It’s important to continue to roll that over into this short week.”

How Prescott’s teammates respond to Sunday’s letdown remain to be seen, but last year’s MVP runner-up remarked on a few things he hopes to see.

“Us as players, we’ve got to be more professional and understand our jobs, understand where we’re supposed to be, and do that time and time again, and keep our focus,” he explained.

Asked what he meant by being more professional, he elaborated.

“Knowing where you’re supposed to be, knowing your reads, knowing where you’re supposed to line up, knowing your routes, knowing your route adjustments versus certain coverages,” Prescott continued. “It’s doing your job and being prepared for every part of the job, however it may come. Time away from the building to being in the building, understanding that you can only get so many practice reps but you can watch the film, you can do all these other things that will help make up for it.”

Many have taken those comments to be directed largely at CeeDee Lamb.

The superstar receiver was credited with four receptions for 67 yards, but his afternoon was primarily marked by visible frustration after a red-zone fumble early in the second quarter. Cameras spotted Lamb having a heated exchange with teammates and coaches on the Cowboys sideline, and he was never much of a factor after his turnover.

Prescott downplayed the significance of Lamb’s physical cues while the game was in progress. But it was certainly reminiscent of last year’s meeting with the 49ers, when Lamb sulked away from the rest of his teammates during a humbling loss in which he was not at all in sync with his quarterback.

“Reading body language, I’m not really into it,” offered Prescott. “I’m just into making sure that he doesn’t get down on himself. The body language, whether it’s good [or] it’s bad, it’s irrelevant. It’s where his mind is.”

Lamb, notably, did not make himself available to the press following Sunday’s game.

He has 218 receiving yards through three games, good for 11th place leaguewide, but his completion percentage is just 54.1%- lower than any of the ten pass-catchers in front of him, and far below last year’s mark of 74.6%.

Prescott couldn’t say exactly why there’s been something of a disconnect between the two (“Not really sure. If I had an answer, we’d be in a rhythm.”), but he wasn’t shy about laying at least some of the blame on Lamb’s summer-long holdout over a new contract extension.

“Obviously, when you miss some time, you’re going to have that. You wish you didn’t, but you are.”

So for now, all Prescott can do is keep at it. He spoke repeatedly during his postgame press conference of sticking to the process.

But admittedly, the process will have to speed up exponentially this week. Prescott explained that by the time he hit the facility on Monday morning, it would actually be like a Thursday in the team’s normal game-prep schedule.

And he hopes he can convince his teammates to similarly leave Sunday’s latest embarrassment in the rearview and use their fourth-quarter success to plot a new way forward from here on.

“‘Don’t dwell. You don’t have time to dwell,'” Prescott added. “You look at the way that game ended, and I feel like if we don’t dwell in different places on offense, it’s a different game… Things happen fast in this league, and you always have an opportunity. You always have a chance.”

The Cowboys still have 14 chances, in fact, in the 2024 regular season. Plenty of time to, in Prescott’s words, get something going.

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Veteran DE Carl Lawson elevated from Cowboys practice squad, set to make debut vs Ravens

From @ToddBrock24f7: The 7-year veteran was a late addition in camp but has been on the practice squad thus far. The ex-Bengal is quite familiar with Baltimore.

Carl Lawson is set to make his Cowboys debut this Sunday versus a foe who will be quite familiar to him.

The Cowboys elevated the veteran defensive end to the active roster for their Week 3 matchup with the Baltimore Ravens. Lawson saw the Ravens a total of eight times when he played for the division-rival Bengals and then faced them once as a member of the Jets. He’s personally logged 11 tackles, a sack, two TFLs, and eight QB hits against Baltimore in his career.

Lawson was signed by Dallas as a free agent on Aug. 19 and was expected to serve as an experienced replacement for the injured Sam Williams. But Lawson was cut just eight days after joining the team, only to return to the practice squad shortly thereafter.

A fourth-round draft pick out of Auburn in 2017, Lawson has 119 career tackles and 27 sacks over seven seasons, all spent in the AFC.

Now Lawson, 29, is set to make his Cowboys debut and will look to provide a boost to a Dallas defense that- through two games- has collectively notched seven sacks (a mark tied for fifth-best in the league) but allowed the Saints to roll up 44 points on them last Sunday.

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This will be the first gameday elevation for the 260-pound Lawson. The Cowboys can elevate him a maximum of three times this season; he would need to be placed on the active roster for anything beyond that.

Lawson joins a DE group that already has DeMarcus Lawrence, rookie Marshawn Kneeland, Chauncey Golston, Tyrus Wheat, and the recently re-added former Cowboy Carlos Watkins.

Linebacker Nick Vigil was also elevated for Week 3; it will be his third and final gameday promotion.

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‘Wipe the blood off’: This Cowboys defender eager to turn page, excited to face Ravens run game

From @ToddBrock24f7: After last week’s “humble pie,” Kendricks is visibly excited to face Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson, and the Ravens potent ground attack.

The opening chapter in the Cowboys’ 2024 story was a thriller, with the larger-than-life heroes mopping the floor with the enemy forces and setting the stage for a season-long epic adventure. Week 2, though, brought a major plot twist, proving that nothing will come easy for our star-clad protagonists.

Now with a new foe waiting in the wings, Eric Kendricks is ready to turn the page.

“We can sit here and talk about last week, but I am so over that,” the Cowboys linebacker told media members this week. “We’ve got a great opportunity. I’m ready to move on.”

Exorcising the demons of last Sunday’s 44-19 blowout loss at the hands of the Saints- and doing so quickly- will be paramount. The Baltimore Ravens come to town with a shocking 0-2 record and their fans already talking about must-win games.

So after a thoroughly disappointing performance of their own, with their own unit’s leader calling effort into question, Kendricks knows this weekend’s contest will be a fierce battle.

“This is what we love doing. This is what we want to do. Let’s go out and do it,” he said. “You’re going to get hit in the mouth; wipe the blood off and get going.”

The Cowboys were left plenty bloodied by a Saints attack that saw Alvin Kamara rip off 115 rushing yards and score four total touchdowns, a top-5 all-time day for the five-time Pro Bowler.

Now comes Derrick Henry, four inches taller and 30 pounds heavier. The two-time rushing champ has just 130 yards in two outings, so he’s likely salivating over the thought of gashing the team that most observers- not to mention Henry himself- thought would sign him during free agency this offseason.

King Henry will instead face a Dallas defense he’s logged just six career carries against, his fewest against any team in the league besides Tennessee, where he spent his first eight seasons.

But he’s no unknown commodity. Just ask Kendricks, who squared off against him in Henry’s very first game as a pro- he gained just three yards on five carries in his 2016 NFL debut- and then again in 2020, when Henry rolled for 119 yards and two scores. (Kendricks was inactive when the Chargers played Henry last year, watching him go for another 80 yards and a touchdown.)

“He’s a veteran,” the linebacker explained. “He knows what he’s seeing on the other side of the ball. He runs the ball hard, and he has those big jump cuts. And once he gets those going, he’s hard to stop. We have to get our weight behind our pads and we’ve got to bring it.”

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And it’s not just Henry. The Ravens also have a speedy change-of-pace back in Justice Hill as well as the most dangerous dual-threat quarterback in the sport, Lamar Jackson.

“You know what you’re going to get,” Kendricks said. “Baltimore is downhill. Lamar is going to be running the ball like a running back… Lamar is a running back.”

But don’t mistake any of that buildup from Kendricks for intimidation. Talking about Week 3’s late-afternoon tilt against Henry, Jackson, and the formidable Ravens- who have averaged 11 wins per season over the past six years- Kendricks was visibly beaming.

“This is a great opportunity we have. We’re playing the Baltimore Ravens, you know what I mean? This is a team that we’ve known these past couple years to be a serious contender, and this is a huge opportunity for us to show what we’re made of as a linebacker corps. So have a smile on your face when we’re preparing.”

He was, in fact, smiling, having put last week’s “good piece of humble pie” behind him, but Kendricks assured reporters that he’ll be in the proper mindset when the teams take the field on Sunday.

“You’ve always got to play a little bit pissed off, man. That’s defense.”

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Micah Parsons plans attack on Lamar Jackson while serving lunch at Post Malone’s Cowboys spot

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys LB worked a shift at a Dallas Raising Cane’s and approached the drive-thru the way he hopes to handle Lamar Jackson in Week 3.

After a rough performance from his team over the weekend, Cowboys linebacker/edge rusher Micah Parsons took out some of his frustrations on some unsuspecting fast-food patrons on his off day.

And based on how he attacked the lunchtime rush at a Dallas restaurant, Lamar Jackson might want to take notice.

Parsons spent a chunk of Tuesday afternoon at Raising Cane’s Post Malone x Dallas Cowboys Restaurant, a co-branded location of the chicken finger chain that swaps the company’s usual red-and-yellow color scheme for Cowboys blue and silver and also gets patrons up close and personal with memorabilia from the popular singer/songwriter and die-hard Cowboys fan.

But even while gearing up for his first shift at the drive-thru window, Parsons was already looking ahead to the Baltimore Ravens and his first-ever meeting with the two-way threat leading their offense, quarterback Lamar Jackson.

“In terms of what he’s accomplished in this league, he’s probably the best dual-threat quarterback in league history. Two-time MVP, Heisman winner, multiple playoff runs,” he told Cowboys Wire, one of the media outlets on hand for the event. “What he’s accomplished so far is truly admirable.”

DALLAS, TEXAS – SEPTEMBER 17: Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons works “Shift” at Raising Cane’s in Dallas, serves up ONE LOVE to Cowboys Nation at Raising Cane’s Dallas on September 17, 2024 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images for Raising Cane’s)

In just his seventh pro season, Jackson has already amassed enough passing yards to put him in the NFL’s all-time top 150. But what makes him lethal is his equally-prolific rushing ability; he’s got two 1,000-yard seasons on his résumé and owns a career per-carry average of over six yards.

And with the Ravens coming in to AT&T Stadium surprisingly winless over two games, Jackson will be even more of a danger for Parsons and a Cowboys defense that had absolutely no answers for the Saints last Sunday.

“With Lamar, you’ve got to find a way to keep him in the pocket, don’t let him get those extra runs, keep extending play,” Parsons explained. “It’s easy to say, but it’s hard to do. You’re going to need all 11 guys on the same page.”

The uber-competitive Parsons brought that same mindset with him to Raising Cane’s, where he jumped behind the counter and did his usual bouncing from position to position. He went from the fryer to the drive-thru to handing out box combos with his trademark speed and hustle, urging his coworkers to keep up and even barking orders of his own at more than a few shocked customers in an effort to keep the line moving.

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Parsons says he’s actually no stranger to the food service industry, having worked at the Hersheypark theme park while growing up in Pennsylvania. But he did admit he would have liked to recruit at least one of his Cowboys teammates to help sling chicken and fill to-go receipts.

“I would definitely bring Trevon Diggs,” Parsons laughed. “He’s very handsy. He’s going to be able to help me control the huddle.”

Parsons called his midday fast-food shift a chance to “restart, reset, and refocus” after Week 2’s demoralizing 44-19 home loss to the Saints. After going on his podcast and attributing the team’s no-show to a lack of effort from some, the 25-year-old said he was “determined to get this thing right,” and said he would follow through on his offseason promise to step up and be more of a leader in the locker room.

He said the self-scout starts with him. He had just three tackles on the afternoon.

“For me personally, I look at my mistakes, look at how I could have done better, look at how I can lead better. Hold myself accountable, as I would anybody else,” he said. “Push my guys throughout the week- wherever I felt like their preparation was off, the detail was off. Because we’ve got to fix that, get back to the basic fundamentals.”

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Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy and defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer have said they don’t believe effort was the problem with the unit on Sunday.

McCarthy explained that the Saints “finished better than we did,” and Zimmer- blaming quicker starts off the snap from the New Orleans offense- said, “Really, most of the guys I didn’t coach up good enough.”

Parsons, however, isn’t ready to pin Sunday’s shortcomings on the coaching staff.

“At this point in our careers, if you’ve got to motivate someone to go onto that football field, they’re probably in the wrong sport.”

Motivation to excel has clearly never been an issue for Parsons, whether it’s on the gridiron or manning the drive-thru. And after whipping his Raising Cane’s team into shape on Tuesday, he’ll set his sights on doing the same for his Cowboys squad in time for Sunday.

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