What We Saw Roundup - Week 4

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Dallas Cowboys @ Houston Texans

Final Score: Cowboys 34, Texans 30

Writer: Jay Felicio (@GmenJay on twitter/x/bluesky, @gmenj on reddit)

It was a tale of two halves: the Texans took the first few rounds, but the Cowboys landed the haymaker late to take home the win. Houston came out guns a-blazing and led 16-6 heading into the half. The Texans led by 10 in the third, but after that it was all Cowboys. Dallas scored 21 unanswered points on three Javonte Williams touchdowns to take the lead with 11:17 left in the game. The Texans would take back the lead thanks to a Woody Marks six-yard score set up by a hook-and-ladder. But Dak Prescott had other ideas and would march Dallas downfield on an 11-play, 74-yard drive with no timeouts, converting a fourth and four before finding CeeDee Lamb for the 12-yard score and the dub with 40 seconds left.

Three Up

CeeDee Lamb – Career day with 21 targets and a Cowboys franchise record 17 catches
Nico Collins – Two touchdowns and over 100 receiving yards in his first game back from injury
Javonte Williams – Lost some work on early downs but got in the end zone thrice.

Three Down

David Montgomery – Um… this is the guy that had three scores in Week 1?
George Pickens – Targeted a mere three times on a day Dak Prescott threw 45 times.
Dalton Schultz truthers – Remember those final five minutes in Week 2?

Dallas Cowboys

Quarterback

Dak Prescott: 32/45, 335 Yards, 1 TD, 0 INT | 2 Carries, 7 Yards

Starting off slow but ending 🔥en fuego🔥, Dak Prescott threw for 248 of his 355 yards in the second half in the comeback victory against the Texans. Only five incompletions after halftime, and he threw on all 11 plays of the game-winning drive.

Notes

Converted a fourth-and-four from his own 32 with about a minute and a half left. Dak stood strong in a clean pocket and delivered the pass right in the breadbasket for Jake Ferguson.
Threw nearly 50% of his 42 pass attempts to CeeDee Lamb.

Missed Opportunities

Hit with an intentional grounding penalty in the second quarter due to pressure from Jadeveon Clowney.
Killed a promising second-quarter drive with back-to-back incompletions to Lamb and Ferguson on 2nd and 3rd down.

Running Back

Javonte Williams: 19 Carries, 62 Yards, 3 TD | 5 Targets, 5 Receptions, 21 Yards

Yet another example of volume trumps efficiency in fantasy football. It wasn’t pretty, but Javonte Williams plodded his way to the tune of 3.3 yards per carry for 62 yards and three touchdowns. His longest run of the day was 13 yards. Williams lost some early down snaps to Tyler Goodson but got the ball where and when it counts.

Notes

Played all of the two-minute drill snaps.
Scored the Cowboys’ first touchdown of the day on a left toss out of shotgun in the third quarter.

Tyler Goodson: 3 Carries, 12 Yards | 1 Target, 0 Receptions, 0 Yards

Averaged four yards per carry on a mere three touches, but saw a slight increase in snaps.

Wide Receiver/Tight End

George Pickens: 3 Targets, 2 Receptions, 75 Yards

Nearly non-existent for the entire day, George Pickens was still a major factor in this game, despite catching just two balls.

Notes

After Prescott faked the handoff to Lamb for the end around, Dak chucked the ball downfield to a streaking Pickens, who came down with the 53-yard reception despite the DB draped all over him.
His 22-yard catch on the game-winning drive helped set up the game-winning touchdown.

Missed Opportunities

Drew a defensive pass interference in the 2nd quarter from Kamari Lassiter.
Pickens scored 10 or fewer fantasy points for the third time in four games.

CeeDee Lamb: 21 Targets, 17 Receptions, 189 Yards, TD | 1 Carry, -6 Yards

CeeDee Lamb started the game a bit like Bruce Banner, but ended the day a whole lot like The Hulk. The man just kept getting stronger as the game went along, and hauled in the game-winning score on 2nd and 10 with 40 seconds left in the game. Lamb was targeted a whopping 21 times, more than the Jets’ and Dolphins’ respective pass attempts in Week 4.

Notes

Lamb’s 17 receptions set a Cowboys franchise record.
Prescott threw to Lamb on 47% of his pass attempts.
Played a season-high 86% of snaps.

Missed Opportunities

Had a potential touchdown grab broken up by Derek Stingley Jr. in the end zone in the third quarter.

Ryan Flournoy: 5 Targets, 4 Receptions, 37 Yards

Ryan Flournoy had a massive impact on this game that simply cannot be seen in his stat line. Yes, he only caught four balls for 37 yards. But three of those four helped keep the chains moving on Dallas’s 81-yard go-ahead drive that flipped the momentum, two of which converted third downs.

Notes

Four catches for 37 yards is a season high for Flournoy.
His 19-yard catch is his longest of the season.

Missed Opportunities

Was targeted on the play before the play, a pass attempt from Dak Prescott with 47 seconds left in the game that never had a chance and was sent straight into the dirt due to pressure.

Jake Ferguson: 4 Targets, 3 Receptions, 11 Yards

Similar to his counterpart in the blurb above, Jake Ferguson’s stats aren’t impressive, but his catch on fourth and four with 1:32 left in the game was a critical conversion that helped the Cowboys complete their comeback victory.

Houston Texans

Quarterback

C.J. Stroud: 21/31, 347 Yards, 2 TD, 0 INT | 2 Carries, 12 Yards

I’d say that C.J. Stroud was happy to have Nico Collins back, whom he fed early and often. An inverse of Dak Prescott, Stroud was scorching hot to start the game, targeting and completing passes to Collins three times for 57 yards and a score in the first quarter. Stroud would cool off until the fourth but couldn’t hold off Prescott and the Cowboys in the battle for Texas. Stroud looks to be a solid QB streamer in plus matchups like this one.

Notes

No turnovers in a game he threw 31 times.
Threw an average of 11.2 yards per attempt.

Running Back

David Montgomery: 10 Carries, 24 Yards | 0 Targets, 0 Receptions, 19 Yards

This was supposed to be the week that David Montgomery bounced back, and instead we got his third dud in a row. Monty rushed for two more yards than Woody Marks on four more carries, and had 19 receiving yards without a catch. How? The old hook-and-ladder. I’m not very bullish on a return to anywhere near Week 1 form, as Monty looked slow and just flat-out bad.

Notes

Montgomery led the backfield with a 60% snap share

Missed Opportunities

With the game on the line in the fourth quarter, it was Woody Marks who got the red zone carry. Marks converted it for a six-yard score to put the Texans up.

Woody Marks: 6 Carries, 22 Yards, TD | 1 Target, 0 Receptions, 0 Yards

He only handled six rush attempts, but got the ball on arguably the most important play of the game for the Texans and has been the best running back on this team from the eye test. Marks wasn’t overly impressive, but the Texans’ continued use of him in the red zone is promising.

Wide Receiver/Tight End

Nico Collins: 8 Targets, 7 Receptions, 118 Yards, 2 TD

Nico Collins reminded everyone how much of a baller he is real quick, tallying three catches for 57 yards and a score in the first quarter. He’d get into the end zone a second time on a 22-yard pass from Stroud. His impact was felt from the first snap of the game and elevated this offense immensely. He played slightly fewer snaps than normal, but looked healthy from the jump.

Missed Opportunities

Only saw two targets in the second half before the final drive.

Kayshon Boutte: 4 Targets, 3 Receptions, 36 Yards

Xavier Hutchinson: 5 Targets, 3 Receptions, 46 Yards

Jaylin Noel: 3 Targets, 3 Receptions, 85 Yards | 1 car, 4 Yards

Dalton Schultz: 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 9 Yards

The return of Collins made the rest of the Houston pass catchers mostly a non-factor outside of Jaylin Noel. Although he didn’t see much volume, Noel came down with a 52-yard reception in the first and catches of 22 and 11 yards on the go-ahead drive and final possession.

Notes