Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle can make franchise history on Sunday against the Lions
Sunday is an important day for the Dallas Cowboys. A win sends them into the bye week riding a three-game win streak with a victory over a top NFC team to boot. Should Dallas lose, well, it won’t feel like the end of the world, but sitting at .500 would feel like a victory in and of itself given the events of the last month.
It goes without saying we are rooting for the former, but we can also root for something very specific within the game. Dallas had two touchdowns last week in the win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the one that broke the seal was Dak Prescott finding Rico Dowdle. That marked the second week in a row in which Dowdle scored by way of a pass which had me wondering, how often have we seen back-to-back games in team history with a running back catching a touchdown?
As fate, I mean history, would have it, not a lot!
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Dowdle is just the 15th running back (using that term loosely since fullbacks were counted in this search) in team history to post back-to-back games with a receiving touchdown. Isn’t that weirdly fascinating?
If we limit our search a little bit more to asking when this occurred in a single season then Dowdle is only the 13th player to do it. Amazingly, all of these streaks were left to dry with none of them reaching a third game. This means that Dowdle has a chance to stand alone.
Should Dowdle catch a touchdown against the Detroit Lions this week, then he will be the first running back in team history to post a receiving touchdown in three straight games. In general, it is also a pretty rare thing for a running back to have three receiving touchdowns in a season as a whole, a list Dowdle would also obviously join.
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Dowdle doing it would be another point of interest given that both starting running backs that the team has employed in recent history (Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard) each did it at least once. A season of three receiving touchdowns from Dowdle (he just needs to catch one period to join this list to be clear, in any game this season) would mean their last three RB1s have done it.
Here’s to hoping Dowdle does it this week in a winning effort for the Cowboys.