Not many expected a 1,000-yard season from Rico Dowdle when the Dallas Cowboys finished training camp. But despite starting the year with a committee approach at running back, Dowdle is only 120 yards shy of that mark with three games to play.

“I’m closing in,” Dowdle said after Sunday’s 30-14 win over the Carolina Panthers. “It definitely feels good. I definitely want to hit that milestone with my first year being a starter. I’m looking for it. Definitely can get it.”

The best three games of his five-year career have come in the last three weeks. He had a career-high 149 yards on 25 carries against the Panthers. The week before that he totaled 131 yards on 18 carries against the Cincinnati Bengals. Dowdle recorded his first career 100-yard game on Thanksgiving Day, finishing with 112 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries against the New York Giants.

None of those teams have outstanding run defenses. Actually, no NFL team is worse than the Panthers and Giants in that area. But considering all the movement because of injuries along the offensive line, the run game has been arguably Dallas’ biggest bright spot over the last month.

“The guys up front (are) what is working well for me,” Dowdle said. “It all starts with them. Coach said before (Sunday’s) game that it all starts with those up front in the trenches, and it ends with those up front in the trenches. Those guys have been opening it up and doing a hell of a job. … We are going to keep building.”

The expectation entering the season was that if Dowdle could stay healthy, he had the best opportunity to be the Cowboys’ leading rusher. That probably meant he would end up with something like 600 to 800 rushing yards while No. 2 running back Ezekiel Elliott was somewhere in the 400 t0 500 range.

While the Cowboys tried splitting the carries early in the season, they eventually figured that plan wasn’t ideal. Dowdle was clearly their most productive back. The best example came Week 5 at Pittsburgh. He carried 20 times for 87 yards in Dallas’ biggest win of the season. Following their Week 7 bye, the committee approach was done. Dowdle was officially the No. 1 guy.

“I love his run style, especially when he goes vertical,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said. “I mean he breaks tackles. His contact balance is exceptional. He’s got so much power in his hips. He has a unique run style, which also, he’s done a much better job of protecting the football because that’s the challenge of that. He breaks a lot of tackles week in and week out.

“The thing I really want to see Rico do is take the next step and that’s to be a third-down back, too. Just be an every-down back. He’s doing a little more of that. And we’ll see how that looks moving forward because it’s important for him to touch the football.”

After losing No. 1 back Tony Pollard in free agency, there was a belief that Dallas would target a running back in the middle rounds of the draft. That never happened. Elliott was signed to a one-year deal in late April. Veteran Dalvin Cook signed to the practice squad in late August. Because Dowdle had struggled to stay healthy in the past, the Cowboys wanted to limit his touches early.

“Early on in the year we faced a gauntlet of defenses,” he said. “Also, early on in the season we still had some wrinkles to figure out. … It’s all about the rhythm and we’ve been firm on that since the beginning. It’s all about getting the rhythm and the attempts. I think we always could’ve did it earlier but, timing. It’s working for us right now so I’m not worried about it.”

On Tuesday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones shared a few reasons why he thinks the run game has improved. The three areas he focused on were changes in their blocking schemes, backup QB Cooper Rush doing an excellent job adjusting things at the line of scrimmage, and Dowdle’s violent running style.

“It’s a combination of things,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “Rush really reads quickly. He makes real quick reads out there and he makes quick reads after the ball is snapped of course as well. … Rico’s issue has been his availability. He’s been outstanding. He’s got about as much explosiveness when he picks his spot as anybody we’ve seen. We saw that last year and we’ve seen it the year before. We just didn’t avail ourselves of it because some of his availability.”

Rush praised Dowdle and the offensive line after the game.

“Our communication (and) coordination up front has been tremendous the last few weeks,” he said. “Brock Hoffman’s really in there leading the charge, talking, guys on the same page, we’re coordinated. When you’re coordinated you have a chance. It gives guys a chance, Rico can break tackles. There’s not free runners, things like that. So the whole group, along with the tight ends, are talking a lot better and I think that is contributing to the running game.”

Dowdle signed a one-year, $1.2 million deal to remain in Dallas in March. He’s an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. He’s likely made himself a lot of money over the last few weeks. Will that next contract come from Dallas? That will depend on the price. But he’s proven that he deserves to get more opportunities as an NFL running back.

“I think we see him getting stronger and better the more carries you give him,” Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said. “That’s not always the case for runners in this league. It’s a very physical, daunting task to be the guy that’s getting the bulk of the carries. But he just gets stronger as the game goes. He gets better as the game goes.

“When Rico’s shoulders are squared and he sees it, which he’s running with a lot of confidence right now, he’s extremely difficult to get down.”