Lamb, Cowboys lead Rams To Slaughter

CeeDee Lamb, Dak Prescott and a smothering defense were not about to let the Dallas Cowboys get beat after the Bye week. Instead, Lamb put up 158 yards, caught two of Prescott’s four touchdown passes, and the Cowboys (5-2) punished the Los Angeles Rams (3-5) 43-20 on Sunday afternoon at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

LAMB DOMINATES RAMS

CeeDee Lamb has been vocal about wanting the football.

The Cowboys accommodated him on Sunday, and he rewarded them with the best day of his career. Lamb was targeted 14 times against the Rams, where he came up with 12 catches for 158 yards and two touchdowns.

Lamb dominated the Rams on the outside, in the slot and in the backfield, where he carried the ball once for 12 yards.

It started from the opening drive, where he caught all three targets for 59 yards. He finished the first half with nine catches for 122 yards and two touchdowns.

PASSING GAME LOOKS SHARP

Sunday afternoon’s version of Dak Prescott is the one that can take the team to a Super Bowl.

Prescott was on his game from the opening drive.

He extended plays with his feet, made accurate throws with his arm and led the Cowboys to points on four of the Cowboys first five drives of the game.

The Cowboys quarterback finished with 304 yards passing. He completed 25 of 31 passes, with four touchdowns and just one interception that was tipped twice. He found eight different receivers, including CeeDee Lamb 12 times in the win.

Prescott did lead the Cowboys to five pass plays over 20 yards in the game. He had three in the first half, all to Lamb, including a 22-yard strike for a touchdown to put the Cowboys up 33-3 late in the second quarter. His two in the second half, was a 24-yard dart to Lamb before hitting Brandin Cooks for a 25-yard touchdown on the very next play. His other deep shot fell incomplete.

Prescott was sacked three times but was able to again use his feet to escape the Rams pass rush for 19 yards on his four runs.

With Cooper Rush finishing off the game with two completions for three yards, the Cowboys air attack put up 307 yards on 27 completions.

Prescott finished with a 133.7 quarterback rating.

OFFENSIVE LINE SHOWS IMPROVEMENT

After issues on the first drive of the game, the Cowboys offensive line settled in to help lead an offensive explosion. Dallas finished with 387 yards of total offense, while running 63 plays.

The line helped the running game to 102 yards, while only giving up three sacks on 34 passing plays in the game for Dallas.

On the first drive of the game, Cowboys left tackle Chuma Edoga, starting for the injured Tyron Smith, gave up a sack each to Michael Hoecht and Aaron Donald on the first and fourth plays of the drive. But the Cowboys overcame the errors and ended the drive with the team’s first touchdown of the game.

Terence Steele and Zack Martin were guilty on the only other sack of the first half, when a Rams stunt beat the duo eventually leading to a sack by Donald on third and four from the Los Angeles 30. Dallas settled for a 58-yard Brandon Aubrey field goal that was straight down the middle and would have been good from 65 yards.

The Cowboys did lose Edoga to an injury in the fourth quarter, he was replaced by rookie Asim Richards, who came into the game with just 20 snaps played this season.

BLAND IS THE MAN

For the third time this season, DaRon Bland snatched a pass out of the air and returned it for a touchdown. He is the first player to have three in a season since Kansas City’s Marcus Peters did it in 2018, and Bland still has 10 games to go in the season.

His third pick-6 ties Eddie Jackson, who did it with Chicago, for the most interceptions returned for a touchdown in the players first two seasons in the league in the last 10 seasons.

He was a busy man all night, leading the Cowboys defense with xx total tackles – six of those solo.

Bland, who started the season as the nickel corner, moved to the outside after the Diggs’ injury leading up to the game with Arizona. With Diggs, Bland played 72 snaps, but only one came at an outside cornerback spot. Since the injury, Bland has played 210 snaps and only six have come at the nickel.

KUPP, NUCUA HELD IN CHECK

With the Rams throwing the ball over 67-percent of the time this season, the Cowboys knew they were going to have to stop wide receivers Cooper Kupp and rookie Puka Nucua.

They did just that with a relentless pass rush and blanket coverage from Stephon Gilmore, DaRon Bland and Jourdan Lewis, limiting the Rams duo to a combined seven catches, on 17 targets, for 64 yards.

Nacua led the duo with three catches for 43 yards, but none bigger than his first – a 22-yard catch against DaRon Bland a third and 11 at the Dallas 39 on the Rams first drive of the game.

Kupp finished with 21 yards on four grabs, with a long of nine yards.

In the first half, quarterback Matthew Stafford targeted the duo 11 times, but they only came down with five catches. Kupp had three grabs for 16 yards, while Nacua had two catches for 30 yards. The Second half, the Rams turned to quarterback Brett Rypien after Stafford was injured, and the passing game grinded to a halt. Neither had much of an impact.

BIG HUGE GIANT MONSTER Play of the Game

After the Rams moved the Ball down the field on the first drive, the started their second drive at their own 25-yard line down four. That quickly changed with an interception by Cowboys cornerback DaRon Bland that he returned for a touchdown. With the Cowboys on an all-out blitz, Bland stepped in front of a quick pass meant for Cooper Kupp and took it back 28 yards for the touchdown. It pushed the Cowboys lead to 17-3.

UNSUNG Play of the Game

After the Rams scored touchdowns to end the first half and open the second half to cut the Cowboys lead to two scores at 33-17, Dallas answered with a 17-play, 10-minute drive that ended with a 27-yard Brandon Aubrey field goal.

But on fourth down and 1, in no man’s land, at the Los Angeles 37, the Cowboys got gutsy, called a pass play and Dak Prescott hit Brandin Cooks on a crossing route for four yards and the first down. Cooks fought through two defenders before coming from on the opposite of the formation. Prescott was perfect with the pass. The play helped stretch the lead to three scores, 36-17, with 16:32 to play in the game.