Dallas Cowboys Head Coach Mike McCarthy has finally named Rico Dowdle as the team’s lead running back despite previous commitments to running the ball by committee earlier in the season.
McCarthy talked about the impact Dowdle has had in recent games and said the team will “have to get him the ball” over the remainder of the season as they look to make a late run to the playoffs.
“That’s my focus, to continue to get him opportunities. He’s the lead back,” said McCarthy, per NFL.com.
Despite receiving a low number of carries in certain games, Dowdle has rushed for an average of at least four yards per carry in each of his last seven appearances.
The Cowboys have struggled all season to find any consistency in the rushing attack as the team ranks 31st in the league for total rushing yards with 753 yards through nine games, leading the Las Vegas Raiders by only 61 yards for the lowest total in the NFL.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, both Dowdle and Ezekiel Elliott ranked near the bottom of the league’s running backs in rushing yards over expected through the first three games of the season.
Although Elliott has fallen out of the statistical rankings due to a lack of carries in recent weeks, Dowdle has significantly increased his ability to pick up yards in the last six games as he continues to see more carries.
Dowdle opened the first three games of the season with the eighth-lowest expected yards per carry at -1.29 yards per attempt, but he has improved these numbers to the 13th lowest in the league at -0.38 yards per attempt.
While the Cowboys would prefer this number to be in the positive, the improvement from the early portion of the season is a good indication that the fourth-year running back has begun to find his stride.
Dowdle has just 374 rushing yards on the season and has failed to score a touchdown on the ground, but he also gotten these yards on just 83 carries for an average of 4.5 yards per carry.
He has also collected 166 receiving yards on 24 receptions while pulling in three touchdown receptions during his eight appearances this season.
Dowdle recently discussed his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield, explaining that he believes all the best running backs force the defense to pay attention to them in multiple ways.
“You want to be able to do both, it’s hard to take you off the field when you can run it out the backfield, catch it out the backfield, just being versatile,” he said, per The Cowboys.
“That’s what the game has come to, I definitely take pride in that.”
Dowdle will have his first opportunity of the season as the Cowboys’ lead back on Monday against the Houston Texans at 7:15 p.m., as both teams look to bounce back from losses in Week 10.