FRISCO, Texas — Two games ago, CeeDee Lamb had a career day in helping to power the Dallas Cowboys to what turned out to be their last win through six games this season. As he and the team enter their Monday Night Football clash against the Philadelphia Eagles, there is still time to lift the train up and place it back on the tracks.
Eventually, the Cowboys will inevitably run out of chances to do so, but it works in their favor that the entirety of the NFC East is mostly in the same boat. That means despite being 2-4 on the season, everything is still very much in front of the Cowboys.
"We think about it just like that," Lamb said of the current predicament. "Anybody can win his division, so why not us? Every opportunity that we can get, we know what we're messing up, and what are our areas of improvement — like playing complementary ball. I feel like, at the end of the day, we feel like we have the best roster, top down, and we've got to be able to play like that on Sundays or Mondays."
Getting a win against the Eagles would mathematically count as 1.5 wins within the division, and balance out the opening day loss to the New York Giants in the process.
"For us, it's obviously about being optimistic in this situation," the All-Pro receiver added. "We're very fortunate that everybody else is playing pretty bad but, overall, everything is still in front of us. We still have an opportunity to do what we want to do, and that's to get in the tournament.
"It starts on Monday, getting back into the win column, and I feel like that's the most important thing."
A main talking point this week, following the loss to the Green Bay Packers, has been the Cowboys' refusal to run the ball consistently. Dak Prescott dropped back an eye-popping 54 times, and despite being within 10 points early in the third quarter after Javonte Williams' rushing touchdown.
All involved, e.g., Prescott, head coach Brian Schottenheimer and offensive coordinator Klayton Adams have once again promised to get back to a balanced attack after admitting the run-pass ratio got away from them at Lambeau Field.
That's music to Lamb's ears.
"I feel like getting a fast start is a very key contributor to this offense, and I feel like the running game is more dominating than just throwing the ball all over the field," he explained.
Prescott agrees, and echoed his longtime thoughts on the importance of the run game, and reconstituting it this week against a talented Eagles defense.
And as far as the "why not us?" statement from Lamb, count Prescott in for that train of thought — with the context of staying present and handling the business that's right in front of them at Lincoln Financial Field on Monday night.
"Yeah, we've just got to focus on this one right now, one at a time. We can't [think] ahead. And to me, it's not even really about looking at what our division's doing," the All-Pro quarterback said. " We understand where everybody is, and that [the NFC East] is wide open to this point.
"So yeah, why not us? I mean, it's right there in front of us for us to take. We still play every team in the division, a couple of them twice, right? We've got to take it one at a time, and we've got to get every win that we can. This is the most important one, because it's now; and we just dropped two. We can't drop another."
The last time Prescott suffered a three-game losing streak was in 2019, and he hasn't experienced it often in his 11-year career. Defeating the Eagles carries a lot of weight right now, and the Cowboys have to go and prove they can lift it.
