HOUSTON. Down 16-6 at halftime and staring at a 1-3 start, Dallas flipped Sunday’s game at Reliant Stadium into a Cowboys comeback win, 34-30 over the Texans, with CeeDee Lamb catching a 12-yard touchdown pass from Dak Prescott with 40 seconds left.
Lamb finished with a career-high 17 catches for 189 yards, Javonte Williams ran for three second-half touchdowns, and the Cowboys climbed to 2-2. Houston fell to 0-4. For North Texas fans, the quick payoff is a short week: Dallas is back at AT&T Stadium on Thursday night.
Inside the Cowboys comeback win, half by half
The first half went Houston’s way. Nico Collins, back from a hamstring injury that cost him two games, caught a 45-yard pass on the Texans’ first snap and finished the drive with a 7-yard touchdown. Brandon Aubrey hit field goals of 39 and 50 yards, but Will Anderson Jr. blocked his 62-yard try and a 65-yarder sailed wide left. Ka’imi Fairbairn turned the field position into 39- and 54-yard kicks, including one with only 26 seconds left before the break, according to the Cowboys’ official Oct. 4 game recap.
The second half belonged to Dallas. KaVontae Turpin’s 48-yard kickoff return set up an 8-yard Williams touchdown. After Collins scored again, a 53-yard Prescott throw to George Pickens and a pair of Texans penalties near the goal line led to Williams’ second score. Williams then put Dallas ahead 27-23 early in the fourth on a 2-yard run, capping a 14-play drive on which Prescott completed all nine of his passes.
Houston answered. On third-and-14, a hook-and-ladder from tight end Dalton Schultz to David Montgomery moved the ball to the Dallas 6, and Woody Marks ran it in for a 30-27 lead with about 2 1/2 minutes to play. Prescott then went 74 yards in 11 plays, converting a fourth down, before finding Lamb in the end zone. C.J. Stroud’s last heave fell incomplete.
| Stat | Cowboys | Texans |
|---|---|---|
| First-half points | 6 | 16 |
| Second-half points | 28 | 14 |
| Total yards | 399 | 397 |
| Time of possession | 33:27 | 26:33 |
| Penalties-yards | 6-47 | 13-90 |
Never Late News built this table from the quarter-by-quarter line score and team totals published in the ESPN/AP and DallasCowboys.com recaps.
CeeDee Lamb’s 17 catches, in franchise context
Lamb had six catches for 49 yards at halftime and then caught 11 more for 140 yards after the break, per CBS Sports. His 17 receptions are the most by a wide receiver in a Cowboys game, and only Jason Witten, in 2012, caught more for the franchise. The 189 yards also moved Lamb past Drew Pearson into fourth on the club’s career receiving list with 7,914 yards, behind Witten, Michael Irvin and Tony Hill, according to DallasCowboys.com.
The game carried extra weight for him. Lamb moved to the Houston area after Hurricane Katrina, and this was his first NFL game at Reliant Stadium. “My grandma came out here, which was really good to see,” Lamb said, per the AP. Coach Brian Schottenheimer put it plainly: “I know how much Houston means to him and his family means to him. And he put on a show.”
Prescott finished 32 of 45 for 335 yards. “As soon as it was called,” he said of the winning play, “I knew it was a touchdown.”
Joey Porter Jr.’s first Dallas snaps
Cornerback Joey Porter Jr., acquired from Pittsburgh on Wednesday, played 22 of 52 defensive snaps (42.3%) in his Cowboys debut and was not targeted on his 17 coverage snaps, CBS Sports reported. Never Late News covered the Porter debut setup before kickoff; Stroud still threw for 347 yards. The Cowboys did hold Houston under 100 rushing yards for the first time this season, per the team.
Thursday night: Buccaneers at AT&T Stadium
There is little time to enjoy it. Tampa Bay visits AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Thursday, Oct. 8, with kickoff at 7:15 p.m. CDT, according to the Cowboys’ game center, which lists Amazon and 105.3 The Fan for the broadcast. The Buccaneers arrive 0-4 after a 17-14 home loss to Green Bay on Sunday, a game in which undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels made his first NFL start and Baker Mayfield missed his first start as a Buccaneer, per Buccaneers.com.
On the field, the question is whether the Dallas defense can carry a fourth-quarter lift into a full game, after Sunday became, by CBS Sports’ count, the club’s 11th game allowing 30 or more points since the start of the 2025 season.
How Never Late News reported this
This story draws on Kurt Daniels’ Oct. 4, 2026 DallasCowboys.com game recap (scoring drives, field goals, team totals and rushing defense note), Patrik Walker’s Oct. 4 DallasCowboys.com story on Lamb’s career list climb, the AP recap published on ESPN on Oct. 4 (line score, records, Schottenheimer, Lamb and Prescott quotes, Porter debut), Garrett Podell’s Oct. 4 CBS Sports analysis (Lamb’s half-by-half split, franchise catch context, Porter snap counts), the Cowboys’ Week 5 game center (Thursday kickoff and broadcast listing), and Buccaneers.com’s Oct. 4 Week 4 recap. Never Late News built the comparison table from those published totals. No original interviews were conducted for this piece.
About Never Late News: Never Late News is a US local and civic news site covering North Texas sports and entertainment with people-first reporting. This article carries the byline Mike Joe.