Cowboys vs. Colts: CeeDee Lamb Says 'The Refs Had It Out for Me' After His Most Complicated Game
Ten catches, 195 yards and a touchdown — and still Lamb left Indianapolis counting what the officials, a reversed fumble and a missed toe-drag took away.
INDIANAPOLIS — CeeDee Lamb called Sunday's 27-23 win over the Colts the most complicated game of his career, and the numbers explain both halves of that sentence. Lamb caught 10 passes for 195 yards — the second-best day of his career — and a touchdown, and with the Monday night game still to play he led the league in targets and ranked second in receiving yards, according to Cowboys Wire's account of the game.
The rest of his afternoon kept taking pieces back. A would-be touchdown catch in the third quarter came out when he could not get his second foot down inbounds. He drew two offensive pass interference calls — a penalty he had been flagged for only four times in his entire career before Sunday, exactly once a season from 2021 to 2024, both of Sunday's coming from Clay Martin's crew. And the play everyone talked about afterward, a 23-yard diving grab he turned into a 48-yard gain when he realized no one had touched him down, was reversed on review into a fumble recovered by Indianapolis, because replays showed the back of his wrist, not his forearm, had touched the ground.
“Before the review, I obviously thought I was down, because I felt — I don't know who it was; I think it was a linebacker — hit me in my back as I was trying to make a move, and I went down, right?” Lamb told reporters, in Cowboys Wire's account. “But I used my arm, with the ball, which, obviously, I feel like I shouldn't have. Obviously I know not to use the ball to keep my balance, but I also thought I was down by contact.” Head coach Brian Schottenheimer said the rule was clear to the team in the moment: “Anything wrist and above: if it's on the ground, it's not a fumble. It's got to be your forearm. We were pretty clear that it was going to be a turnover.”
“Clearly, the refs had it out for me this week,” Lamb said of the interference calls, before catching himself mid-thought — “I'm going to just make him — No, I'm not going to give them that clip. Never mind. Never mind.” By Cowboys Wire's accounting, the failed toe-drag, the fumble and the two flags cost Lamb roughly three more catches, 51 more yards and two more touchdowns. “Obviously, the numbers look crazy,” he said. “But it could've been more. I'm always thinking about what could have been.” Dallas, 4-5, hosts San Francisco on Sunday at AT&T Stadium.
