‘Best feeling I have ever had.’ CeeDee Lamb on TD grab in Dallas Cowboys overtime win

The high-octane Dallas Cowboys rolled in Gillette Stadium, the team’s house of horrors over the past 30-plus years, and wound up needing overtime to expel all manners of demons in defeating the New England Patriots, 35-29, Sunday evening.

The Cowboys had over 500 yards of offense, and a Trevon Diggs interception return for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter that put them up 26-21 appeared to put them in the driver’s seat.

But the Cowboys, who racked up 12 penalties for 115 yards and committed two turnovers, allowed a 75-yard touchdown strike on the very next play, and with the two-point conversion, found themselves down 29-26.

A 49-yard Greg Zuerlein field goal in the waning seconds tied the game, and sent the see-saw contest to overtime, where the Cowboys defense held before quarterback Dak Prescott connected on a 35-yard touchdown pass to receiver CeeDee Lamb, who high-stepped into the end zone for the walk-off victory.

“I just ran into open field and was hoping Dak saw me and he did,” Lamb said. “That was an unbelievable feeling. I was expecting someone to pop up behind me. I was surprised. I just walked in. Best feeling I have ever had.

After the game, it was revealed that Prescott sustained a right calf strain on the last play of the game. He will be re-evaluated Monday.

Prescott, who wore a walking boot into the post-game media room, said he will be fine, though is natural concern that the injury was sustained to his right leg almost a year and one week after fracturing his right ankle and missing the final 11 games of the 2020 season.

Prescott said he came down funny on the final play and was initially thinking “no way” this came happen to him again.

“Life keeps throwing punches and I am going to keeping throwing back,” Prescott said. “A lot of confidence in myself and my medical team. I will be fine. This boot is precautionary. It will give y’all something to talk about during the bye week.

“The most important thing is the touchdown. You score and win the game. Credit to CeeDee right there to capitalize on the moment and go score.”

The victory extended the Cowboys winning streak to five games, and it ended a few long streaks the Patriots held over America’s Team. The Cowboys (5-1) were 0-6 against the Patriots since 1996; they hadn’t beaten a Bill Belichick-coached team since 2000; and they hadn’t won in New England since 1987 when Tom Landry was still roaming the sidelines in his trademark Fedora.

The Cowboys head into next week’s bye with a chance to heal, recover and catch their collective breaths. Dallas’ next game is Oct. 31 at the Minnesota Vikings.

Prescott and Lamb were the unquestioned heroes on offense. The quarterback passed for 445 yards and three touchdowns, and Lamb caught nine passes for 149 yards and two scores including the game-winner to finally silence the New England crowd.

Even though the Patriots (2-4) looked nothing like the Belichick (and Tom Brady) teams of past years, the Cowboys knew getting a victory wasn’t going to be easy.

And while they dominated the game statistically — the Cowboys ran 82 plays and totaled the most yards (567) and passing yards (445) ever against a Belichick team in New England — the game proved to be the dogfight that they anticipated.

The teams traded five scores in the fourth quarter, three in the final 2 1/2 minutes.

“We knew this was going to be a dog fight,” a relieved Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said after the game. “We knew this was going to be a huge challenge. You need these kind of wins. This one will pay it forward for us.”

The first inkling that it was going to be that kind of day for the Dallas Cowboys came on the third play of the game when left tackle Tyron Smith was called for holding. Four plays later, McCarthy’s offense was stopped on a fourth-and-1 from their own 34. A challenge flag came out, but that did not go their way.

And that was just the intro to how the rest of the game would develop.

A Patriots offense — one that had touchdowns on just eight of 51 drives on the season entering the game — scored two touchdowns on its first seven plays in the first quarter as they took a 14-7 lead.

The No. 1 ranked Cowboys offense could muster just three points in the second quarter as they repeatedly failed in the red zone.

A goal-line fumble by Prescott took six points off the board.

A drop by receiver Cedrick Wilson in the end zone forced them to settle for a 30-yard field goal.

And after a blocked punt by Luke Gifford, the first for the franchise since 2015, the Cowboys were denied four times after having first-and-goal at 1.

Normalcy seemed to return in the second half when the Cowboys scored 10 unanswered points in the third and fourth quarters to take a 20-14 lead. A 1-yard scoring toss from Prescott to Lamb was followed by a 45-yard field goal by Zuerlein.

But the Patriots offense answered with a 13-play, 75-yard scoring drive right down the throats of the Cowboys defense. A one-yard run by Rhamondre Stevenson made the score 21-20.

And when Zuerlein missed a 51-yard field goal with 2:47 left, that seemed to be the end for the Cowboys’ modest four-game win streak.

However, Diggs had another prime-time moment, taking a tipped pass off the hands of Kendrick Bourne and returning it 42 yards to the end zone. It was Diggs’ sixth consecutive game with an interception to start the season, tying an NFL record.

The Cowboys led 26-21 after a failed two-point conversion, and there would be plenty more fireworks after that

On the very next play, Patriots rookie quarterback Mac Jones threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to Bourne over Diggs and safety Damonte Kazee, sending the crowd into a frenzy. The two-point conversion made it 29-26.

The Cowboys got the ball back with a little more than two minutes left and a degree of hopelessness ensued after Connor Wiliams was flagged for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, forcing the offense into a 3rd-and-25 from their 45.

But a 24-yard pass from Prescott to Lamb set up a 49-yard field goal from Zuerlein to send the game into overtime. And then after the Cowboys defense held, the second Prescott-to-Lamb scoring play of the game ended it.

The Cowboys are now 5-1 for the first time since 2016 when they finished 13-3. They have riding a five-game winning streak and they are feeling good about themselves after finally winning in New England.

“We took another step with another win, with the way we won and where we won,” McCarthy said. We have a great vibe. This is a big win. This is a confidence win for us. We needed this. This is definitely a step in the right direction.”