For the second consecutive year, the Dallas Cowboys' season ended with a disappointing offensive performance against the San Francisco 49ers. In both losses, Dallas' high-powered offense struggled to gain yards and score points, as the Niners severely limited its ability to generate big plays via the pass and the run.
Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb -- the only player on the Dallas offense who had a good game in the divisional round -- thinks he has the solution: get Dak Prescott some more weapons.
"You gotta surround (the quarterback)," Lamb said, per NFL Media. "You go look at the Eagles, and they've got three receivers, a great tight end group, they run the ball well, the O-line is very phenomenal. You look at San Fran, they surrounded their quarterback and you get success ultimately. I mean we've got just as many weapons, but that extra player, all it takes is one. You can be so close to the Super Bowl and it can be a deciding factor."
Once the Cowboys lost Tony Pollard to a leg injury against San Francisco, Lamb was their only high-level threat on the field. He ended up catching 10 of 13 passes for 117 yards and gaining six yards on two carries, but the entire rest of the skill-position players on the team combined for 137 yards on 16 carries and 24 targets. That's just not close to good enough, and the Cowboys simply can't come into next season with the Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott backfield still in place, with Michael Gallup, Noah Brown and T.Y. Hilton as their complementary receivers, and with Dalton Schultz, Jake Ferguson and Peyton Hendershot as their tight ends.
They need more explosiveness, and they need it badly. They have to cut ties with Elliott, who is no longer close to the player he once was. They have to admit that counting on Gallup coming off his torn ACL is unwise, and that turning to a career special-teamer (Brown), a third-round pick (Jalen Tolbert) and a street free agent (Hilton) for significant snaps is unwise. The Cowboys have to make bold moves to bring in high-level weapons, whether that be via free agency or the draft. Even their best receiver knows it.
