The Cowboys decided early what they were going to do and then did it for sixty minutes. Throw to CeeDee Lamb. When that stopped being a secret, throw to CeeDee Lamb again. With 40 seconds left and Houston standing in front of him, Dallas threw to CeeDee Lamb once more, he caught a 12-yard touchdown for his seventeenth catch, and the Cowboys won 34-30.

Seventeen catches, a career high, and 189 yards. Houston had the whole afternoon to build a plan around one man and spent it watching the plan fail in public.

The other sideline is where the day gets uncomfortable. The Texans scored 30 points, which is usually the kind of number that gets you a win and a quiet flight home. Instead they are still winless, and the argument that followed is the one The New York Times put in a headline: did Lamb save Dallas, or sink Houston? Both, and the second part is the one Houston has to live with. A defense that knows exactly where the ball is going and cannot stop it has not been out-schemed. It has been out-caught, in the final minute, by the most predictable play on the field.

For a reader in Hong Kong, the Sunday slate arrives as Monday-morning news, so the result is already settled and what is left is whether it was a fluke. Lamb's day looks like a signature. A 34-30 game that turns on the last 40 seconds is a coin that landed Dallas's way, and a coin does not count as a plan.

That is the Cowboys' problem to carry out of the stadium. A win built on one receiver is a win the next defense will study. Dallas gave up 30, and an offense this dependent on Lamb needs its defense to stop making the final minute necessary.

Houston's winless record now hangs on one thing: closing out a game. They found 30 points on a bad day. What they have not found is the stop.

Lamb caught 17 balls and the game. Houston caught a flight.