PITTSBURGH – Before Sunday's game in Pittsburgh, Rico Dowdle, or any Cowboys running back for that matter, had yet to have a rush from scrimmage longer than 10 yards.
Against the Steelers, Dowdle did that three separate times, and clearly had his best game of his career, likely establishing himself as the starting tailback moving forward.
More importantly, Dowdle gave the Cowboys a spark the team desperately needed, rushing for 87 yards on 20 carries. And if that wasn't enough, he also caught a touchdown pass for the second straight week, hauling in a 22-yard pass from Dak for the Cowboys' first touchdown of the game.
"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."
Actually, Dowdle's last carry of the game was nearly disastrous as he fumbled the ball at the 1-yard leaping for the go-ahead score. Luckily for the Cowboys, Dak Prescott fell on the ball, giving the offense two more tries to find the end zone.
Dowdle said it was "like a movie" with the back-and-forth drama and was still upset with himself for fumbling, but was glad it didn't turn out to be a game-changer.
Aside from that, Dowdle said the fact the Cowboys kept giving him the ball helped him get stronger as the game went on.
"That's always been the case for me," Dowdle said. As the games goes along, I think I get stronger and it was just about finding a rhythm. I was feeling good and they kept feeding me."
Dowdle finished game with 114 all-purpose yards with 22 touches. Ezekiel Elliott, who also had a big third-down conversion on the final drive, had just six carries for 17 yards
