“I feel like you can’t really do that in that position. Especially with so many games coming up, or a short week or just different situations, you can’t really let what happened last game, good or bad, reflect on what’s going to happen this week.”
If there is a mental obstacle that Lamb needs to overcome, how does he approach it and find a way to overcome it?
“Just be able to cope,” Lamb said. “You have to be able to understand the problem, be open to solutions, and ultimately act on your thoughts. I feel like adversity manifests itself in different ways, it’s all about how you overcome it.”
Their next obstacle will be the Detroit Lions, who beat Dallas 47-9 last season. This came a year after Lamb posted a career-high 227 receiving yards and a touchdown on 13 catches. He knows the challenges that Dan Campbell’s unit presents, particularly regarding their physical identity.
“I think it’s fun,” Lamb said of playing against a physical team like Detroit. “That’s football, and sometimes the referee lets you play, and sometimes he doesn’t. So we’ll see how it goes, but as far as the physicality of the game goes, I know what’s going to happen.”
“I know these DBs like to get their hands dirty. They run a lot of men and they’re going to face you. You know what’s going on in this fight, it’s just about how you’re going to prepare for it. It’s almost like a boxing match.”
On the road this year, the Cowboys have won just two of their six games, beating the Jets and Raiders, but losing by an average of 11 points in their other four away tests. Does Lamb feel like Dallas is missing out on a road win this year?
“Missing? I wouldn’t say that, but I’m saying we need it,” Lamb said. “It’s not really something I feel like because we haven’t had it in the past and we need it now. I just feel like because of the situation we’re in, we need it now.”
Similar to the Cowboys’ situation, the Lions need a win to stay in the playoff race, holding a 7-5 record in a crowded NFC. Dallas would move ahead of them in the playoff race with a win on Thursday. Lamb isn’t as focused on Detroit’s predicament as his own team’s, and believes this is essentially a playoff game in itself given the stakes.
“We know what we need to do for ourselves,” Lamb said. “We don’t really talk about what they have. They understand their situation, we know what we have. I feel like it’s going to be a big game, and it’s going to be fun, and it’s going to do whatever we think it’s going to be.”
“It’s going to be physical, it’s going to be long, it’s going to be tough. It’s basically a playoff game, you have the atmosphere, we’re playing away, I don’t think it gets any better, especially with everyone around the world understanding the situation and we all want to make the playoffs. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a good thing.”
And with three straight wins under their belt over the past three weeks, Lamb and the Cowboys believe they can continue winning over the final five weeks of the season.
“We have a lot of confidence going into this game,” Lamb said. “We won, we proved to ourselves we could do it three times in a row, why not do it four?”
