Rico Dowdle ‘improve’ after fumble and have mainly excellent performance in Cowboys’ RB2 competition

The battle for a spot on the Dallas Cowboys’ depth chart at running back is now heated enough to burn your Pop Tart while it’s still in the box. Deuce Vaughn put on a show in his preseason debut against the Jacksonville Jaguars, while Rico Dowdle did well despite an early-game fumble that wasn’t his fault.

Cooper Rush needed only 26 yards to put the Cowboys on the board late in the first quarter, and he connected with Dowdle on a short toss that the veteran running back turned into a 25-yard gain.

“I felt really fresh out there,” Dowdle remarked.

It was one of the better plays of the night, but a block by KaVontae Turpin pulled the defender into Dowdle’s ball-carrying arm, causing a fumble that the Jaguars recovered on their own one-yard line.

And, while it wasn’t anybody’s fault in the end (excellent block by Turpin, but the spacing went against Davis in that phone booth), Dowdle is owning it as his mistake, not anyone else’s.

“Obviously, that fumble, gotta take care of the ball,” he explained. “I’m going to be stuck on that until the next game — but I thought I did okay.” Though that blunder was a minus that ruined my entire day.

“Overall, I’ll get ready to improve and fix the mistakes next week.”

Dowdle finished the game averaging nearly four yards per carry and 11 yards per reception on nine offensive touches for a total of 54 yards from scrimmage.

Looking at the film of his performance, he continues to look ready to compete for the role of RB2. Time will tell if Ronald Jones (groin) will be available to add to the battle when the Cowboys visit the Seattle Seahawks on Aug. 19, but for Dowdle, it’s about knowing what he did well and doing it again, as well as dissecting what he believes went wrong and improving.

“Just seeing it and hitting it — that was my burst,” Dowdle explained. “I was moving well and getting where I wanted to go [before the snap], and [running backs coach Jeff Blasko] has helped a lot with that.” I saw it, whacked it, saw it again, and hit it again. I was a rush of energy.”

Dowdle’s explosiveness was on full show for the special teams unit and coordinator John “Bones” Fassel when he took a kickoff return for 44 yards, demonstrating his worth beyond the offensive side of the equation.

“I told Bones that I’m like four returns for 250 [yards],” Dowdle joked. “It felt good to go out there on the kick return and show a little bit more of the burst and that I can handle things like that.”

Dowdle called this season the “biggest opportunity of my life” last week, and he’s determined to play like it.

“I’m really looking forward to these next two games,” he remarked.