{"id":6978,"date":"2024-12-18T11:28:10","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T11:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=6978"},"modified":"2024-12-18T11:28:10","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T11:28:10","slug":"breaking-news-why-cowboys-rb-rico-dowdle-has-been-so-effective-over-the-last-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=6978","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING NEWS : Why Cowboys RB Rico Dowdle has been so effective over the last month"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"CHARLOTTE,<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m closing in,\u201d Dowdle said after Sunday\u2019s 30-14 win over the Carolina Panthers. \u201cIt definitely feels good. I definitely want to hit that milestone with my first year being a starter. I\u2019m looking for it. Definitely can get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\n

Dowdle’s surge: The past 3 games<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u2019 biggest bright spot over the last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys up front (are) what is working well for me,\u201d Dowdle said. \u201cIt all starts with them. Coach said before (Sunday\u2019s) 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. \u2026 We are going to keep building.\u201d<\/p>\n

The expectation entering the season was that if Dowdle could stay healthy, he had the best opportunity to be the Cowboys\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

While the Cowboys tried splitting the carries early in the season, they eventually figured that plan wasn\u2019t 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\u2019 biggest win of the season. Following their Week 7 bye, the committee approach was done. Dowdle was officially the No. 1 guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love his run style, especially when he goes vertical,\u201d Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said. \u201cI mean he breaks tackles. His contact balance is exceptional. He\u2019s got so much power in his hips. He has a unique run style, which also, he\u2019s done a much better job of protecting the football because that\u2019s the challenge of that. He breaks a lot of tackles week in and week out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I really want to see Rico do is take the next step and that\u2019s to be a third-down back, too. Just be an every-down back. He\u2019s doing a little more of that. And we\u2019ll see how that looks moving forward because it\u2019s important for him to touch the football.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Why<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cEarly on in the year we faced a gauntlet of defenses,\u201d he said. \u201cAlso, early on in the season we still had some wrinkles to figure out. \u2026 It\u2019s all about the rhythm and we\u2019ve been firm on that since the beginning. It\u2019s all about getting the rhythm and the attempts. I think we always could\u2019ve did it earlier but, timing. It\u2019s working for us right now so I\u2019m not worried about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s violent running style.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a combination of things,\u201d Jones said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. \u201cRush really reads quickly. He makes real quick reads out there and he makes quick reads after the ball is snapped of course as well. \u2026 Rico\u2019s issue has been his availability. He\u2019s been outstanding. He\u2019s got about as much explosiveness when he picks his spot as anybody we\u2019ve seen. We saw that last year and we\u2019ve seen it the year before. We just didn\u2019t avail ourselves of it because some of his availability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rush praised Dowdle and the offensive line after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur communication (and) coordination up front has been tremendous the last few weeks,\u201d he said. \u201cBrock Hoffman\u2019s really in there leading the charge, talking, guys on the same page, we\u2019re coordinated. When you\u2019re coordinated you have a chance. It gives guys a chance, Rico can break tackles. There\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dowdle signed a one-year, $1.2 million deal to remain in Dallas in March. He\u2019s an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. He\u2019s 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\u2019s proven that he deserves to get more opportunities as an NFL running back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we see him getting stronger and better the more carries you give him,\u201d Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said. \u201cThat\u2019s not always the case for runners in this league. It\u2019s a very physical, daunting task to be the guy that\u2019s getting the bulk of the carries. But he just gets stronger as the game goes. He gets better as the game goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Rico\u2019s shoulders are squared and he sees it, which he\u2019s running with a lot of confidence right now, he\u2019s extremely difficult to get down.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rico Dowdle’s best three games of his five-year career have come in the last three weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[24,204],"class_list":["post-6978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-fantasy-football"],"yoast_head":"\nBREAKING NEWS : Why Cowboys RB Rico Dowdle has been so effective over the last month - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=6978\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING NEWS : Why Cowboys RB Rico Dowdle has been so effective over the last month - 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