Cowboys: Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb disagreed on what went wrong vs. Packers
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott's struggles in his latest playoff loss will give the NFL world plenty to talk about over the next few days, weeks, and even months. But in the morning after one of the most embarrassing defeats in franchise history, I can't help but wonder what it was about this game that […]
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott's struggles in his latest playoff loss will give the NFL world plenty to talk about over the next few days, weeks, and even months.
But in the morning after one of the most embarrassing defeats in franchise history, I can't help but wonder what it was about this game that kept Prescott and head coach Mike McCarthy from feeding CeeDee Lamb early on.
The Cowboys quarterback offered an unsatisfying answer after the game was over.
"I mean, credit them for some of the early looks, disguising how they were going to play (Lamb)," Prescott told reporters. "Then late after the snap, moving, and obviously not giving me the same picture pre-snap as they did post-snap. Credit to them. Then I missed him on the sideline on a little roll-out, but once we got it going, once again it was too late. But it was as usual, CeeDee going and making plays."
Listen, the other team plays too, and the Green Bay Packers absolutely deserve credit for a shockingly dominant performance on Sunday. But it's hard to fully accept that response when the Cowboys were facing one of the worst passing defenses in the league.
On this particular point, Lamb seemed to disagree with Dak. When asked if the Packers had done anything special regarding their coverages, CeeDee simply said "Not really, no."
Perhaps that explains what we saw on TV. Based on the broadcast, Lamb was clearly upset by how the game was going as he awaited his first catch, which came until the two-minute warning of the first half. It's only fair to assume he wanted to be fed and disagreed with the Cowboys' thinking that the Packers defense wasn't giving the offense such an option.
NFL Network's Jane Slater reported that Prescott explained the exchanges as "two competitors wanted to be perfect and we weren’t perfect early. Far from being disconnected.”
"Couple of miscues," Lamb said of the seeming disconnect during the game. "Everyday things that, I mean, completions that we normally have. Obviously, on my part, I could have been better, and I'm sure (Dak) could say the same as for his. But not really pointing fingers. I feel like I could have done a better job of making the completions."
It's a painful way to go out for the Cowboys but even more so for these two. Prescott said after the regular season that no one had put in as much work as them going back to the offseason. Their regular season results back it up. But all of that quickly went down the drain with a poor performance in the Wild Card Round.
Now it's back to the drawing board while their agents start negotiations with the Cowboys for 2024 and beyond.
