Drops a hint: Dallas needs a better Lamb
DALLAS — Ceedee Lamb is the future. We all know this. But the Dallas Cowboys need to play better.
Now.
The good news? Lamb knows this, understands this and has vowed to do it.
It’s not that the second-year wide receiver played poorly against the New York Giants on Sunday — he caught six passes for 50 yards. It’s that he left too many plays on the field by dropping passes.
If we’re honest, it’s the biggest flaw in his game right now.
He dropped nine passes last year, according to Pro Football Focus, which tied him for fourth in the NFL. Pittsburgh’s Deontae Johnson led the NFL with 14 drops.
This season, he’s tied for 14th in the NFL with six drops. Four players are tied for the NFL lead with nine drops.
Perhaps, we wouldn’t have paid as much attention to Lamb’s drops on Sunday if the Cowboys’ offense were playing better.
It’s not.
They managed just 21 points, despite Dallas’ defense creating four turnovers and the offense gaining 328 yards against one of the league’s worst defenses.
Dallas did not have a play of more than 19 yards in 70 snaps and have only eight in the past three games as teams play almost exclusively zone coverage since opponents no longer fear the Cowboys’ running game.
So they can’t afford to give up opportunities by having Lamb drop the ball.
Here’s a look at his three drops Sunday:
• Early in second quarter, the Cowboys tried to hit Lamb on second-and-7 from just outside the New York 10 on a wide receiver screen play, but he tried to one-hand the ball instead of using two hands and dropped it.
The Cowboys settled for a field goal.
Later in the second quarter on a first-and-10 from the Giants’ 30, a play after he caught an 11-yard slant, Lamb lined up in the slot.
Prescott rolled right and found Lamb who was being covered by a linebacker. He probably gets tackled or forced out of bounds inside the 15, but
the ball bounces off his hands.
The Cowboys settled for a field goal.
• In the third quarter on second-and-6 from the Dallas 41, Lamb lined up in right slot and sprinted across the field at the snap.
Prescott found him for what should have been a 20-yard completion, but the ball ricocheted off his hands and fell to the turf.
The drive ended with a punt. After the game, Lamb admitted he played “terrible” while saying he needed to “lock in.”
All of that is nice. The best players always own it when they fail to play to their standard —
and Lamb is no different.
But this is winning time. The Cowboys are currently the No. 2 seed in the NFC and if they win their final three games — and they’ll be favored in each — they’ll be poised to end this dreadful 26-year streak without an appearance in the NFC championship game.
They need Lamb at his best to accomplish it. They also need Lamb at his best to make offseason questions about Amari Cooper easier to answer.
If the Cowboys believe Lamb is ready to be a No. 1 receiver — and that entails playing his best in the biggest games, being the hardest worker in the receiver room and consistently putting
up numbers and beating double coverage — then they can choose to walk away from Cooper and his $20 million salary at the end of the year.
Perhaps they re-sign Michael Gallup, who will be a free agent, to a deal and ride with them as their top two receivers.
If not, then Cooper and Lamb will be the 1-2 punch next year while Gallup, and to a lesser degree Cedrick Wilson, leave for free-agency riches.
The next three games aren’t just important to Cowboys’ playoff seeding, they’ll provide insight into next year’s roster composition.
It’s why Lamb needs to be at his best.