FRISCO, Texas -- Dallas Cowboys All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb is always pacing.
Dallas' 27-year-old, five-time Pro Bowl receiver enjoys taking a walk up and down the sideline in between drives to clear his head and reset before sitting down to break down the action with his position coach. Dallas' defense gave Lamb a lot of time to get his steps in during the Cowboys' 28-20 "Sunday Night Football'' loss at the New York Giants. New York converted 82% of its third downs, 9 of 11, with one of those stops being the game-ending knee down. That figure was New York's best third-down conversion rate in a single game since 1978.
As a result, the Giants dominated the time of possession (36:40 to 23:20), and the Cowboys had just two drives in the second half. Both resulted in touchdowns, but Dallas still came up a drive short of victory.
"The second half, we scored on the two drives that we did have the ball. So, I feel like it's just making the most of the opportunity we do have. In this game, you never know when you're going to get the ball back," Lamb said Thursday. "You might get it right back the next play [after coming off the field]. Always being ready for a sudden change, and whatever the game throws. No one can really just plan out how an NFL football game is going to go. As for us on offense, what we can do is put the ball in the end zone when we get our opps [opportunities]."
In those moments, Prescott spends his time reviewing film and preparing for Dallas' defense to get a stop to get him the football back. It just didn't happen in Week 1. Based on defensive expected points added (EPA)/ per drive in TruMedia, the Cowboys' defense delivered the worst effort by any team in Week 1, and it was worse than all of their defensive games last year. Of the 576 defensive performances since the start of the 2025 season, it ranked 574th. Their seven defensive possessions yielded four touchdowns, one takeaway via fumble recovery, a punt and the game ending.
"Yeah, just making adjustments and looking at the tape or the pictures from the last drive and going and making sure the receivers and everybody knows when you get back and you get another chance, this is what we're going to do. These are adjustments we're going to make," Prescott said Thursday. "And just trying to root my guys on. I've got a lot of faith, and I've got a lot of optimism in me. So it's nothing but that when I'm on the sideline and just trusting those guys to go get a job done."
Starting with a splash
So how can the offense adjust to maximize their drives when they get them after a sloppy Week 1 debut for Dallas' new-look defense under new defensive coordinator Christian Parker? Start fast and start with a splash. The Cowboys didn't do that in Week 1 with an opening drive three-and-out before finding their rhythm later on.
"Starting fast, it's everybody. They scored on their opening drive, and we didn't. So I'm not speaking of just the offense when I say that," Prescott said Thursday. "Special teams has a play and a part in it too. They can help. They can make a big play. They can change the field position. So it's just as a team. As a team, as a whole, we've got to go in there, we've got to start fast. And like I said, it's about being disciplined, doing the things that we obviously can handle that are 100% in our control and going from there."
Big plays to both Lamb and Pro Bowl wide receiver George Pickens, whose 1,429 yards receiving ranked as the third most in the NFL in 2025, would be ideal for Dallas to get going early. When asked what Dallas can build on for Week 2, Pickens was direct with his answer: splash plays. He did drop a well-thrown go ball on a vertical route deep down the sideline with 1:24 left on the clock in the first half. Those are the things Pickens is working on correcting entering Week 2 against the Washington Commanders.
"Definitely splash plays when you can because now we know only two drives [in the second half in Week 1]," Pickens said Wednesday. "When you're limited, you want those as much as you can make them."
Both Pickens and Lamb could see more chances for those types of big play splashes on Sunday against Washington and their new defensive coordinator, Daronte Jones. Jones spent the last three seasons as the Minnesota Vikings' defensive backs coach/defensive passing game coordinator under defensive coordinator Brian Flores, the most blitz-heavy defensive play caller in the league. In Flores' and Jones' three seasons together in Minnesota, the Vikings blitzed at the highest rate in the NFL across the last three seasons at 47.1%. No other NFL team was above 40%. There will also be a mixture of defensive influence from head coach Dan Quinn, who likes to feature man coverage in his game plans. When Quinn was Dallas' defensive coordinator from 2021 to 2023, Dallas' Quinn-led defenses played man coverage at the third-highest rate in the league, at 33.8%. That's all music to Pickens' ears.
"Most definitely [feel like a big game is coming on Sunday]. A lot of different stuff too just by knowing what I am capable of after what I proved last year," Pickens said. That's also what we've been seeing, thinking it's going to be that [man coverage], and then organizations knowing they don't want to put themselves in that predicament [playing Pickens and Lamb in man coverage]. A lot of other stuff too."
When Brian Schottenheimer earned the job as the Cowboys' head coach, he made sure his offensive play call sheet included lengthy sections dedicated to feeding Dallas' dynamic duo of wide receivers, Lamb and Pickens. Perhaps he punches those buttons even earlier after starting each of the Cowboys' first two drives in Week 1 with handoffs to running back Javonte Williams. That could give Dallas the splashy start everyone in their building believes is just around the corner, after finishing Week 1 with consecutive touchdown drives. Doing so would certainly take a little pressure off their work-in-progress defense.
"You never know how the game's going to unfold. I didn't anticipate us going three-and-out on the first drive, but anytime I can get a ball to George and CeeDee, I'd like to do that. It's a big sheet with a lot of their numbers on there," Schottenheimer said on Wednesday. "So, it'd be great if we could maybe push the game to five quarters, and we could have a few more ops to give them the ball. But at the end of the day, you never know. You just got to adjust. And so that's what we did. We adjusted in the second half. And like I said, I really, really, really would've loved to have seen if we would've got the ball back, what would've transpired."
