We saw a little bit of everything in last night’s game that started over an hour late due to the weather hitting the area pretty hard.
The game was your typical low scoring, gross football game these teams tend to play when they match up, and I honestly thought the Cowboys defense did a heck of a job against the Steelers being as short-handed as they were.
The other side of the ball should have put that game away long before it came down to the 4th-and-goal with less than 30 seconds left.
RB1
This team might have found their RB1. This running game is better when they don’t use it as a committee. We saw that last night.
Dowdle ran for 87 yards on 20 attempts, which was the best output the team has had this season. He also had 27 yards and a touchdown through the air. It was the best performance of his career.
After five games, Dowdle now has 221 yards on 54 attempts. He has yet to score on a rushing attempt but does have 11 receptions for 101 yards with two touchdowns. He’s asserted himself as the RB1 and should continue to be fed.
“It felt good. It was just like I said the whole time, it’s just all about finding a rhythm,” Dowdle said. “We stuck with it. The linemen were making holes and we were able to pound it down against a good Pittsburgh defense.”
I loved what I saw from him, even with the fumble at the end of the game, that was just a heck of a play by the Pitt defender. Kinda like Troy Polumalu used to do in the early 2000s when he played for them.
Stop The Committee
Ezekiel Elliott needs to be used for what he should be used for, just to give Rico a break and let him pick up the short yardage at different times in the game.
Dowdle is younger and has tread on the tires, you let him get a rhythm like they did last night, and ride him.
When you use a running back by committee, none of these guys can stay hot and in a groove.
An undrafted fifth-year player, Dowdle had career highs in carries (20), yards rushing (87) and scrimmage yards (114). Elliott has 20 carries in the past four games combined.
Now, I am not going to sit here and tell you I have all bought into Rico just yet, but he has clearly shown that he should be the guy at this moment.
Deuce Vaughn was inactive for yesterday’s game, so I think it may be time to activate Dalvin Cook and allow him to have 3–5 carries a game, just like Zeke.
Cook, who has been on the practice squad since late August, has yet to be elevated to the active roster.
They are going to need to be able to run the ball next week when they play the Lions at home. You want to keep that ball out of Detroit’s hands as much as possible.
Their offense looks like one of the best in all of football, and if you can’t run the ball, you will give them short fields.
Let’s hope Dowdle and Jalen Tolbert, who also had his breakout game, will keep it going until this team can get healthy. They host the Lions next week, and they have a bye week.
When they return from that they go on the road to play the 49ers, a team that just can’t beat, so a win over the Lions heading into the bye week would be massive.
If they beat Detorit short handed with the team we saw on Sunday night, I think people will start buying into them a bit.