{"id":395951,"date":"2026-08-02T23:34:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T23:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/395951\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T23:34:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T23:34:42","slug":"controversial-play-between-caleb-downs-and-ceedee-lamb-shows-how-fearless-dallas-cowboys-rookie-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/395951\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial play between Caleb Downs and CeeDee Lamb shows how fearless Dallas Cowboys rookie is"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Cowboys first-round rookie has been one of the top players to watch in Oxnard, California. This rep from training camp shows exactly why. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Dallas
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDallas Cowboys safety\/nickel Caleb Downs defends CeeDee Lamb in the end zone during training camp practice in Oxnard, California.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJesse Holley on X (@MrFourthAndLong)<\/p>\n

They say iron sharpens iron in the NFL. That\u2019s good news for Dallas Cowboys first-round rookie Caleb Downs, who has been tasked with quite a challenge in training camp: defending All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb. <\/p>\n

But the thing is, Downs is clearly not scared nor overwhelmed about the situation at hand. And a controversial rep from Saturday\u2019s practice proves it. <\/p>\n

Viral play between Lamb and Downs goes down in Cowboys practice<\/p>\n

The play in question happened in the red zone during the Cowboys\u2019 11-on-11 drills. Downs was manned up against Lamb. With fellow first-round rookie EDGE Malachi Lawrence pressuring Dak Prescott, the rep quickly turned into a scramble drill. <\/p>\n

Downs stayed with Lamb for the majority of the play and had outside leverage on him. As he scrambled, Prescott tried to throw inside, which would\u2019ve allowed Lamb to catch it in open space. But Downs seemingly holds Lamb by the shoulder, leading to a controversial result. <\/p>\n

Lamb threw his hands up in the air seemingly calling for a flag, while Downs continued to play the ball and got his hands on it, nearly getting an interception. You can watch the play in the X post below from former Cowboys WR Jesse Holley. <\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Todd Archer reported<\/a> about the play: \u201cLamb looked like he wanted a flag, but the defensive coaches praised Downs.\u201d<\/p>\n

My take is this would\u2019ve been flagged as a defensive pass interference on a Sunday, but it\u2019s a close one. Still, it\u2019s hard to not love what you see from Downs in the play. The kid is simply not intimidated by facing Lamb. The moment is not too big. <\/p>\n

And even if it could\u2019ve been a flag, he keeps playing the ball and finishes the rep strong, almost getting a takeaway in the endzone. That\u2019s what you like to see, and I guarantee you is one of the reasons why the Cowboys coaches praised Downs for the play. <\/p>\n

This battle will get increasingly fun once the pads come on. Earlier in the week, we saw Lamb beat Downs on a slant route in a play that yielded yards after the catch. As exciting as the rookie is, this is one of the NFL\u2019s best wide receivers he\u2019ll be facing most summer. Let\u2019s see how much the crash course helps him ahead of the regular season. <\/p>\n

For Downs, developing this area of his game is massive. As versatile as he was at Ohio State, covering slot receivers in the slot was far from his main assignment. All signs point toward the Cowboys planning to move Downs around the entire defense but his main role is shaping up to be at nickel. <\/p>\n

The lessons need to pay off. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Jul\t\t<\/p>\n

Dallas Cowboys News<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCould Cowboys still trade for Jordyn Brooks? Dolphins expert offers very telling opinion as rumors come back\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

This would be one of the weirdest trades in recent NFL history. Does it actually make sense for the Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Cowboys first-round rookie has been one of the top players to watch in Oxnard, California. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[34582,6348,102,113,104,103],"class_list":["post-395951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-caleb-downs","tag-ceedee-lamb","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}