Sunday night’s win was the first time in his injury-plagued Cowboys career that running back Rico Dowdle truly got the opportunity to carry a heavy load for Dallas. He carried 20 times, the most in his career, for 87 yards, and added two catches for 27 yards and a touchdown to put together the best game a Cowboys running back has had all season.
It was also the best game of Dowdle’s five-year career. His previous high had been 79 yards rushing on 12 carries last November against the Giants, totals that represented not only his most yardage but also the most carries he’d had.
Dowdle has shown the appearance of being a rhythm runner, meaning he needs to get a significant number of carries to find his groove and succeed. He’s never really had that in Dallas, first playing behind Ezekiel Elliott, then behind Tony Pollard.
He had it Sunday in Dallas’s 20-17 win over the Steelers. His message for the Cowboys coaching staff: Keep feeding me the ball.
“It felt good. It was just like I said the whole time, it’s just all about finding a rhythm,” Dowdle said, via the Cowboys website. “We stuck with it. The linemen were making holes and we were able to pound it down against a good Pittsburgh defense.”
Cowboys May Have a No. 1 Option
Dowdle could, in the end, be the answer for a Cowboys running game that entered Week 5 as the worst in the NFL, ranking 32nd in yards gained. They gained 109 yards, their only 100-yard game since Week 1, in the win over the Steelers, and made a move—however slight—up the rushing yards chart to 31st.
Baby steps. But the Cowboys may have found something in Dowdle they’ve been lacking—a reliable, every-down option they can give the ball to, allowing them to limit the touches for veteran Ezekiel Elliott, who has struggled this season in returning to Dallas after spending last season with the Patriots.
The Cowboys let Pollard walk in free agency last winter, and after they did not draft a running back in April, they signed Elliott and committed to a “committee” approach for 2024.
But Dowdle has established himself as an option to be the team’s lead back, and with veteran Dalvin Cook on the practice squad and eager to be called up, the team may be ready to juggle its committee.
Rico Dowdle: ‘They Kept Feeding Me’
Dowdle did nearly blow the entire affair for the Cowboys late in the final game-winning drive. With 35 seconds to play and the Cowboys trailing, 17-13, in a second-and-goal situation from the Pittsburgh 1-yard line, Dowdle attempted to score on a dive up the middle, but had the ball batted from his hands for a fumble. Quarterback Dak Prescott quickly dived to cover the ball, though.
Dallas scored on a fourth-and-4 pass play to Jalen Tolbert for the win. Before that, Dowdle did account for 21 yards on the 70-yard touchdown drive.
He told reporters that getting the ball consistently helped him be better late in the game.
“That’s always been the case for me,” Dowdle said. “As the games goes along, I think I get stronger and it was just about finding a rhythm. I was feeling good and they kept feeding me.”
