With CeeDee Lamb injuring his ankle, Cowboys' offense stalls in loss to Bears

CHICAGO (AP) — The Dallas Cowboys got the ball back after the Chicago Bears scored an early touchdown and opted to hand the ball off to star receiver CeeDee Lamb.

It didn't work out well for them. Not much else went the way they would have liked, either.

A 31-14 loss to the struggling Chicago Bears was not what the Cowboys had in mind after giving coach Brian Schottenheimer the first win of his career the previous week. Instead of building on an overtime thriller against the New York Giants, Dallas stumbled against a team that came in with some big issues of its own.

“Obviously, you lose a player like CeeDee, it hurts,” quarterback Dak Prescott said. “It's hard to substitute that.”

The Cowboys never really got their offense into gear after losing one of their top playmakers in the early going.

It happened right after the Bears grabbed a 7-0 lead. Chicago's Rome Odunze had all the room he needed to haul in a 35-yard touchdown from Caleb Williams after Dallas cornerback Trevon Diggs slipped at the line.

The Cowboys took over at the 20 and had a second down at the 37 when Lamb lined up in the backfield. From there, things took a bad turn.

A four-time Pro Bowler with back-to-back 100-yard receiving games to start the season, Lamb took the handoff and tried to turn the right corner. His left ankle buckled as Bears linebacker Noah Sewell made the tackle.

Lamb walked gingerly toward the sideline. He had a noticeable limp when he returned at the start of the second quarter and was ruled out for the remainder of the game at halftime.

“Certainly, you lose a player like CeeDee, it affects you,” coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “But, again, we just didn’t play well, we really didn’t, and (I) told the guys that.”

The dud in Chicago came after two wild games to start the season.

The Cowboys went from dealing with a spitting incident and a weather delay in a tight season-opening loss to defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia to squeezing out a 40-37 win over the Giants, when Brandon Aubrey kicked a 46-yard field goal as time expired in OT after nailing a 64-yarder on the final play of regulation.

Lamb came up big in the first two games, with 112 yards last week after going for 110 in the opener. Once he went down against the Bears, the Cowboys couldn't get their offense in gear when it mattered.

Though Dallas finished with 396 yards, 151 came in the fourth quarter when the game was out of hand. The Cowboys had just one touchdown, when George Pickens made a one-handed grab on a 2-yard score, and two field goals.

“I know scoring 14 points is never going to be OK,” Prescott said. "Dang sure not with this offense, this unit, the team, the players we have. Six of those were field goals, so not acceptable, not to our standard, not anywhere what we believe in and what we’re capable of doing and got away, got away quick and had a chance right there to cut it back to 10 and had a turnover in the red zone.

"That’s unacceptable.”

Lamb has missed only three games since he entered the NFL in 2020. He sat out the final two last season because of a shoulder injury with the Cowboys out of playoff contention.

Once Lamb went down Sunday, the Bears could focus more on Pickens. He had five receptions for 68 yards. Jake Ferguson had 82 yards receiving, and Javonte Williams ran for 76 yards on 10 attempts.

Prescott, meanwhile, completed 31 of 40 passes, but had just 251 yards. He threw a touchdown pass to George Pickens in the second quarter, but was intercepted twice and sat out Dallas’ final series.

“It's never easy watching a guy go down, especially with one of your best guys, one of the leaders on this team,” Ferguson said. “That just also means at the same time other guys have to step up.”

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Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb walks along the sideline after suffering an unknown injury in the first half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb walks along the sideline after suffering an unknown injury in the first half of an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media that the U.S. Coast Guard had boarded the Motor Tanker Veronica early Thursday. She said the ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”

U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”

Noem posted a brief video that appeared to show part of the ship’s capture. The black-and-white footage showed helicopters hovering over the deck of a merchant vessel while armed troops dropped down on the deck by rope.

The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.

The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, it was partially filled with crude.

The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Galileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for moving cargoes of illicit Russian oil.

As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”

However, other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear that they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.

Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.

This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro's capture.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)