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Cowboys RB Rico Dowdle edged Ezekiel Elliot for the backfield lead in Sunday's 44-19 loss to the Saints. Dowdle carried seven times to Elliott's six and beat Elliott 5-3 in targets. He tallied 30 yards rushing (4.3 per carry) and 29 receiving (7.3 per catch). Elliott went 6-16 rushing and 2-16 receiving. Second-year RB Deuce Vaughn also mixed in for 4-11 rushing and a 6-yard catch. He bumped from just two snaps in the opener to 10 against New Orleans.
Dowdle after the game on the work split: "That’s something that Coach McCarthy wants. He wants a fresh back in at all times. As long as we can go out there and produce, there’s no problem with it."
Dowdle, asked about the backfield's identity so far: "Right now, I really wouldn’t have an answer for that question. We haven’t had a lot of at-bats at the plate…It’s September. We have a lot of football to play. I think as the season goes along, we’ll define what our identity is more."
That's two weeks of basically no real fantasy value from the Dallas backfield, and it's apparently by design.
The Cowboys went from a lopsided victory in Week 1 to a lopsided loss in Week 2. Elliott has logged 16 carries to Elliott's 15. And neither has done much to show he deserves to take over.
Vaughn's increase in playing time this week only complicates the situation further. All four of his carries came in the first half, matching Elliott in that timeframe and trailing Dowdle by just one.
We'll see whether Cowboys coaches switch things up for a Week 3 home date with Baltimore. But until something changes, there's not much reason to trust a Dallas RB if you don't need to.
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