Prescott, Lamb Shine for Cowboys, But Team’s 1-2 Record Raises Questions

FRISCO, Texas -- Do the Dallas Cowboys (1-2) need literal perfection out of four-time Pro Bowl quarterback Dak Prescott and five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver CeeDee Lamb to win games in 2026?

Yes, the question sounds facetious, but the stark contrast in their play versus their defense makes it worth asking. This season, Dallas possesses the No. 7 scoring offense (29.3 points per game) and the No. 25 scoring defense (27.3 points per game). Since Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones traded away All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons  to the Green Bay Packers a week before the start of the 2025 season, Dallas' defense has allowed an NFL-worst 29.7 points per game.

This season, Prescott and Lamb are connecting at a near-perfect rate while both performing like top-five players at their respective positions. Prescott ranks eighth in the NFL in completion percentage (69.5%), tied fifth in passing touchdowns (7), ninth in passer rating (107.2) and fifth in expected points added (EPA) per dropback (0.28). Lamb stands sixth in the league in catches (20), fourth in receiving yards (309) and tied for fourth in receiving touchdowns (3). Lamb had just three receiving touchdowns in the entirety of the 2025 season after suffering a high ankle sprain in a Week 3 loss at the Chicago Bears , but feeling healthy once again, No. 88 is back to full strength.

"He is just playing lights out. He is playing really, really confident," Cowboys offensive coordinator Klayton Adams said of Lamb on Thursday. "I love what we're getting right now. He's been outstanding."

However, it's still not nearly enough. The Cowboys are 1-2, thanks in large part to their crumbling defense. But they may have found a way to fix it.

How Prescott and Lamb have been nearly perfect

Prescott and Lamb have regained the form they lost over the last few seasons. At their 2023 peak, Lamb led the league in catches (135) and receiving first downs (87), and Prescott led the NFL in passing touchdowns (36). This season, Pro Football Focus charts Dallas' dynamic duo as connecting on 20 of their 25 targets for 309 yards (the third-most between a duo in 2026), three passing touchdowns and no interceptions for an NFL-best 157.8 passer rating. A perfect passer rating is 158.3.

The Prescott-to-Lamb connection is within a point of being perfect. Blitz or no blitz, that hasn't mattered with 13 of the targets coming without a blitz and 12 coming when the defense blitzes. This is what seven seasons (2020-2026) of high-level chemistry looks like.

"CeeDee is a hell of a player. I don't need a lot of credit for him getting open and making those guys miss," Prescott said Thursday. "I think the best thing that's happened, and it'll continue to grow, is just our communication. We've played a lot of ball together, but the more that we're exactly on the same page, the harder it is for whoever and anybody that's trying to cover that guy. So he's thinking the way that I'm thinking, and it's fun."

What does the subtle communication look like this season? A little look here, a lean of the head there and being able to decipher each other's movements and what they're setting in a fraction of a second.

"The longer you're throwing to a guy, there are just little things. Body language, the way he comes out of a route," Adams said. "They can communicate to you with their head turned, and I think these guys have been around each other so long now that Dak knows the speed in which he'll come out of a punch and plant versus a punch and pivot. There's nonverbal communication that goes with the amount of experience that these guys have playing together."

Some people may think seven years together would have made the Prescott-to-Lamb connection old hat, but Lamb claims it's quite the opposite.

"We've been cooking," Lamb said. "I don't think this is our first time really connecting at this rate, but I do hope to continue and continue to build, continue to be better...Like I said in camp, I was learning a lot of things, just finding new ways of getting open."

Best passer rating by QB-WR duo, 2026 season Passer rating

Dak Prescott to CeeDee Lamb (DAL)

157.8

Drew Lock to Jaxon Smith-Njigba (SEA)

157.2

Brock Purdy to Mike Evans (SF)

156.3

Trevor Lawrence to Jakobi Meyers (JAX)

156.3

Patrick Mahomes to Travis Kelce (KC)

155.8

* Via Pro Football Focus

So what's new for Lamb? He's consistently been one of the NFL's top playmakers out of the slot, but this year, the middle of the field has been open for business for him at perhaps a greater rate than it ever has been. Adams said Dallas has figured out that defenses are trying to attack the line of scrimmage with blitzes from the second level while playing soft, zone coverage behind the blitz. The result? The ability to feast over the middle. Just look at PFF's target maps for the duo:

So do Prescott and Lamb need to maintain this perfection going forward if Dallas is to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2023? Lamb doesn't think so.

"I just feel like we just got to continue to be who we are," Lamb said. "We think so highly of ourselves to where it's almost as if we think of ourselves as playing perfect, playing a perfect game. [It's about] just continuing to stay above the sticks, stay within third and manageable, converting on first downs, getting in the red zone, converting in those [chances]."

Dallas makes a big swing to fix ailing defense

This season, the 2026 Cowboys defense made Dallas the third team since 1963 (when team sacks became an officially tracked stat) to allow 375-plus total yards per game (387.0, third-worst in the NFL), have two or fewer sacks (2, third-fewest in the NFL) and no interceptions (tied for last in the NFL) through a season's first three games.

Per CBS Sports Research, the other two teams were the 1976 New York Jets and the 2022 Arizona Cardinals . Neither of those teams hit the five-win mark when their defenses started off this worrisome through the first three games.

375-plus total YPG allowed, 2 or fewer sacks and no interceptions in first three games, since 1963 Final W-L

2026 Dallas Cowboys

?

2022 Arizona Cardinals

4-13

1976 New York Jets

3-11

* Team sacks became an officially tracked statistic in 1963

That's why Dallas made an early-season  blockbuster deal  late Wednesday night in an effort to course-correct the defense before the first quarter of the 2026 season comes to a close. They shipped a 2027 sixth-round pick and a 2028 second-round pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers in exchange for a true No. 1 cornerback in Joey Porter Jr . He led the NFL in passer rating against as the primary defender in coverage in 2025 (among 128 players with at least 60 pass attempts thrown their way) with a 49.1 passer rating allowed. No other corner allowed a sub-50 passer rating against.

Porter Jr.'s 48.1% career completion percentage allowed ranks as the fourth-lowest in the NFL since he entered the league in 2023 among those with at least 150 passes thrown their way, per CBS Sports Research.

The Cowboys are in win-now mode with Jones set to turn 84 years old and desperate for a fourth Super Bowl ring while he is still around to chase them.

"Jerry and I have talked from the very beginning. We're in a win-now mindset," said Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer on Thursday. "Why? Well, Jerry's 84. That's one reason. Dak Prescott's still playing at elite level. We've got some elite weapons on offense, and the defense is getting better. And again, you add a player like this that I've just had a ton of respect for the way he plays."

Prescott is ready to win, too. He saw the Cowboys fumble away his age-31 season in 2024 and his age-32 season in 2025 following three consecutive 12-win campaigns from 2021 to 2023. That's why excitement and gratitude were two of his top emotions when he saw the news that Porter Jr. is now his teammate. Roughly 83% of Dallas' defensive snaps this season are going toward players in either their first or second year with the Cowboys. That's the second-highest rate in the NFL behind only the New York Jets (85%) per CBS Sports Research — two teams that are trying everything they can to rebuild their defenses ASAP.

"Knowing how good we can be on offense and how good we are. This game is complementary. It doesn't matter how good we are if the other side's not trying to do the same," Prescott said. "And as obviously through the offseason changes and everything and those guys in the locker room, they're doing that, and they are getting better. So just to make a win-now trade, yeah, it means a lot."

So will Prescott's and Lamb's burden to be nearly perfect remain the rest of the season? Or will Dallas' defense begin to carry its own weight as Porter Jr. incorporates into the game plan? The Cowboys' franchise record holder in every key passing metric doesn't care. All Prescott wants is to be a winner, whether that requires perfection from him or not.

"I don't get frustrated. ... I can only control what I can control," Prescott said. "That's the expectations I have for myself...I'm very, very critical of myself. So the last thing I'm doing is looking around. I'm always looking in the mirror. So I don't even care about the numbers, whether they are good or bad; I'm just trying to win. So sucks when you don't win, but that's what this position's judged off of."

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/cowboys-dak-prescott-ceedee-lamb-nearly-perfect-defense-not-enough/)._