Cowboys rally behind Lamb's monster day despite poor defense, coaching

The Cowboys looked terrible in the first half of their Week 4 visit to Houston, allowing failures in all three phases of the game to put them in a double-digit hole at the break.

Whatever was said at halftime apparently lit some kind of fire. The second half was a very different story, with the Cowboys doing just enough- and several key playmakers doing much more than their share- to come away with a much-needed 34-30 win over the intrastate rival Texans .

Things got off to a rocky start, with Christian Parker's defense allowing a 45-yard catch to Nico Collins on the very first snap from scrimmage. Collins bookended the eight-play, 85-yard drive with a touchdown in what turned out to be a painful half to football for Cowboys fans.

The Texans scored on four drives over the first 30 minutes, twice converting failed long-distance Brandon Aubrey field goal attempts into easy threes of their own. Both tries- a 62-yarder that was blocked and a 65-yard try that went wide left- were highly questionable calls given the situation and will do head coach Brian Schottenheimer no favors this week as he continues to catch flak for his game-management decisions.

It was only the seven costly penalties by the Texans (for 51 yards) that kept their halftime lead to just 10 points.

But Dallas was a different team coming out of intermission, a big KaVontae Turpin kick return and a 49-yard drive combining for the Cowboys' first touchdown of the day just two minutes into the second half. The offense would find the end zone on three straight possessions after halftime, all Javonte Williams runs. It's the first three-TD performance for a Cowboys running back since Tony Pollard in 2022.

Williams racked up 62 yards on 19 carries, a solid day made spectacular by his three scores. Despite taking a cleat to the back of his throwing hand , Dak Prescott went 20-for-25 passing for 248 yards and a touchdown in the second half alone as he led the offense in the comeback. But Sunday's win will be remembered for CeeDee Lamb's monster day. More on that later.

The M*A*S*H unit that is the Cowboys secondary continues to struggle, giving up 347 passing yards and allowing Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud to post a 126.7 passer rating, one of the best games of his career. DaRon Bland and Reddy Steward in particular got victimized repeatedly, with Collins, Jaylin Noel, Xavier Hutchinson, Kayshon Boutte, Cade Stover, and ex-Cowboy Dalton Schultz all recording big-chunk pass plays that covered 20 yards or more.

The team's seven stops on 10 third-down tries look good in the box score, but the Cowboys defense did allow Houston to go 2-for-2 in the red zone, was unable once again to log a takeaway, and managed just two sacks on the day on 31 pass attempts by Stroud.

The decision to have Aubrey try those two 60-plus yarders in the first half will be called into question. But so will Schottenheimer's challenge of a pretty clear-cut Texans catch in the fourth quarter. He's 21 games into his career as a head coach and has yet to win a red-flag challenge. And the 3rd-and-1 short pass to Lamb that lost three yards might get overlooked by Jake Ferguson's catch to move the chains on the next snap, but the play call itself was befuddling. The only thing that might take even a scintilla of the heat off Schottenheimer this week is that he's not the most frustrating of the Cowboys coaches; the calls will grow even louder for Nick Sorensen's job after another week of poor special teams play.

In the end, the performance of the day belonged to Lamb: 17 catches on 21 targets, both career-highs for him, and the go-ahead final touchdown with 40 seconds to play. His 189 receiving yards were his third-best outing ever, and those 17 receptions are the second-best day ever in that category by a Cowboy. It was also Lamb's 30th 100-yard game, second only to Michael Irvin in franchise history. Lamb came into the game ranked top-6 in the league in catches, receiving yards, and touchdowns; his highlight-reel day in the city where he grew up and attended high school will certainly push him higher up that leaderboard once Week 4 has concluded.

Todd is on X at @ToddBrock24f7 . Also, follow Cowboys Wire on Facebook to join in on the conversation with fellow fans!