FRISCO, Texas – After the Cowboys' 24-20 opening week loss to the Eagles, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb sent Dak Prescott a text message after he dropped three crucial passes down the stretch in the second half.
"'Bro, good game. I came up short on my end, but trust me, just stay with me I got you.'" Lamb said.
The following day, Lamb said that he couldn't fall asleep with the drops still weighing heavy on his mind.
"Trust me, I've thought about it, I've dwelled on it," Lamb said. "I've done everything that you could possibly imagine about this game. For all those that feel like they feel worse about that game than me, you're absolutely wrong."
At the end of the day, having 13 targets over the course of the game and being relied up on late in close games is the exact position that Lamb, and any competitor at the highest level, wants to be in.
"I wouldn't rather nobody else but myself be in those situations," Lamb said. "I came up short once. We'll see the rest."
After the team landed back around 5 A.M. in Dallas following the season opener, Lamb went up to the Star on their off day just a few hours later and worked by himself on the jugs machine. He didn't want to be caught on camera doing it, but did want to get back to the basics ahead of Dallas' next game.
"I know what it is. I know what to do," Lamb said. "Again, it's game one. We've got 16 more of these. Go back to the 2023 season. It wasn't drops, it was just lack of production and then it was this big hoo-rah, and then boom. Just keeping the main thing the main thing, continue to be myself, continuing to grind, and I'll let the work do the talking."
The next opportunity for Lamb to redeem himself comes in just a few days against the New York Giants. When asked about potentially facing up against second-year DB Dru Phillips, Lamb was extra motivated.
"He tackled me and hurt me, so I've got something for him. For sure." Lamb said.
Even with that motivation added in with the disappointment from his Week 1 performance, Lamb knows that he can't let himself get too high or too low on Sunday.
"Just relax, take a deep breath, let the game come to me," Lamb said. "And when it does, take over. It's obviously simple to say and harder to do, but as for me, I feel like if I keep it that simple, it'll work out."
That doesn't just go for him, it goes for the Cowboys as a whole. Lamb said the team felt like they missed an opportunity to win a big game last Thursday, and puts a lot of the blame on himself knowing he'll make up for it.
"We got to ultimately just play right, play together, make the routine plays, make the plays that come to us," Lamb said. "And I'm speaking for myself as well. The opportunities that presented itself, obviously I feel short of it a couple times and I know I'll be prepared for that moment next time."
Dak Prescott knows that he will be too.
"Look out for those guys on the back end that have to catch him and cover him," Prescott said. "He's had a hell of a practice, had a hell of an approach, it's not going to change. It's not like he's any different from the past. You can tell from his demeanor that he wants to make up for that."
Last Thursday was the first showing that Lamb and his new running mate Geroge Pickens got to have together. After watching back the film, they could already see the signs of why Dallas traded for Pickens: So that he could open things up for Lamb, and vice versa.
"We had them confused," Lamb said. "They didn't really have an answer for us, quite honestly. The reason you didn't see it is because I came up short. After halftime, they switched up the their defensive scheme, they switched the guys, who was guarding who, they were clouding, so we had them in quite a bind."
"It's good to see because you can't figure it out, and then you've got Turp running through the middle, so as for us, we've got keep being us, keep continuing to play and keep dominating."
After losing just one regular season game at home between the 2022 and 2023 seasons, the Cowboys struggled at AT&T Stadium last year, going just 2-6. With their home opener on Sunday, Lamb doesn't just want to re-establish their success in Arlington, but win every time they take the field, wherever it is.
"We just to got to win," Lamb said. We've got to win regardless, home or away. But we love playing at home, we love playing in front of the fans, and I hope they come out there rocking."
