Dallas Cowboys projections: Big games from CeeDee Lamb, Rico Dowdle

On By Littum

The Dallas Cowboys took care Carolina Panthers last week with relative ease. In many ways it was arguably their most dominant performance of the season. From an offensive standpoint, a big reason for this was how both CeeDee Lamb and Rico Dowdle showed up. Both Lamb and Dowdle had big contributions that helped lift Dallas to the top.

You probably won’t be shocked to learn that both Lamb and Dowdle underperformed on their projected stats from the NFL Pro we talked about last week.

  • Projected Cooper Rush at Carolina: 232.3 pass yards, 1.1 pass TD, 0.7 INT, 5.1 rush yards, 0.1 rush TD
    Actual: 214 yards, 3 TDs, 5 rush yards
  • Projected Rico Dowdle at Carolina: 62.5 rush yards, 0.4 rush TD, 2.6 rec, 18.5 rec TD, 0.1 rec TD
    Actual: 149 rush yards
  • Projected CeeDee Lamb at Carolina: 6.4 rec, 69 yards, 0.4 TD
    Actual: 9 rec, 116 yards, 1 TD
  • Projected Jalen Tolbert at Carolina: 2.6 rec, 31 yards, 0.2 TD
    Actual: 1 rec, 11 yards, 1 TD
  • Projected Jake Ferguson at Carolina: 4.2 rec, 43.8 yards, 0.3 TD
    Actual: 2 rec, 23 yards

Cooper Rush also delivered well above his expected numbers from a passing touchdown standpoint, and in that sense, Jalen Tolbert also came on strong. There is no doubt, however, that the strong traditions came via Lamb and Dowdle.

What does NFL Pro demand this week from Cowboys players? Could it be more possible?

Here’s how NFL Pro looking forward to sunday night Tampa Bay Buccaneers goes.

As mentioned, things have gotten a bit meatier for both Lamb and Dowdle. Interestingly, Dowdle even gets some more love as a recipient.

On the other side of things, the projections for Tampa’s ground game are a bit more modest than we might have first assumed, but to be fair, they’re based on Bucky Irving specifically and don’t account for Rachaad White and the work he’ll ultimately have perform.

It stands to reason that Tampa will control things on the ground across the game as a whole. In fact, the NFL Pro model has given the Bucs the advantage in more ways than not.


The Cowboys are underdogs, and while they’ve won three of their last four, the Buccaneers team they face is undefeated over the same stretch. It won’t be the hardest game they’ve ever played, but it certainly won’t be easy.