McCarthy focused on showcasing Dowdle as ‘lead back’

Those numbers don’t blow anyone out of the water, and Dowdle has yet to eclipse a 100-yard rushing game or score a rushing touchdown all season, but that doesn’t mean the ground game isn’t part of the offensive equation.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s been terrible,” Dowdle said. “I know our numbers and things aren’t where we want them, but that’s just football.”

The first three weeks on the ground for Dallas were glaringly bad, but the unit has refocused on what they do best schematically, and slowly but surely, progress is being made.

“It’s just been a lot simpler and we’ve attacked with our bread-and-butter concepts and things we’ve been good at in the past…” Dowdle said. “And just sticking with it, that was the most important thing from Week 1 to now.”

Dowdle has added a lot of value in the receiving game this year for Dallas as well, scoring three touchdowns, 24 receptions and 166 yards. That flexibility is a big part of Dowdle’s game and a key piece to staying on the field.

“You want to be able to do both, it’s hard to take yourself out of the backfield when you can run it out of the backfield, catch it out of the backfield, just be versatile,” Dowdle said. “That’s what the game has come to, I certainly take pride in that.”

The switch to lead back is really only in the title because the trust in Dowdle has been there from his teammates all season and he only continues to put together good games as Dallas tries to get back in the win column.

“Rico runs hard, he runs fast, runs hard,” Cooper Rush said. “He broke a couple of long ones there for us last week and he’s been doing that all year, he’s been consistent and we look forward to it every time he touches it.”