Unheralded Cowboys star made Jerry Jones eat crow on Thanksgiving

The Dallas Cowboys won at home for the first time all season. They did it against the New York Giants with the entire country watching on Thanksgiving, and yet seemingly half the fan base pouted that Dallas harmed its draft position by winning the game.

No victory is worth apologizing for. Finding ways to win divisional games without your star quarterback is not a bad thing.

Reason to celebrate has been scarce this season. A shining light through and through, though, has been running back Rico Dowdle.

It wasn't even a month ago that the Cowboys finally conceded that Dowdle is the best RB on the roster and decided to make him their workhorse. That it took nearly 10 games and a full summer's worth of evidence for that to register is an indictment on the organization.

Cowboys RB Rico Dowdle's career game on Thanksgiving makes Jerry Jooks look foolish

While Mike McCarthy has an affinity for Ezekiel Elliott, we like to think he recognized pretty early on that Dowdle deserved to have the backfield all too himself. That leaves Jerry Jones, the franchise's foremost string-puller, as the mastermind behind Dowdle's baffling usage for the first two-plus months of the campaign.

Dowdle was once again the engine of Dallas' offense. He rushed for 122 yards and a touchdown on 5.1 yards per carry. He bounced off tacklers at will and ripped multiple explosive runs to take the pressure off the team's struggling passing game.

Dowdle became the first Cowboy to rush for 100 yards in 26 games. He forced 10 missed tackles, according to Next Gen Stats. That is the most by a Cowboy since Ezekiel Elliott in Week 16 of the 2020 season.

These numbers are not a mirage. Cowboys fans have shouted from the rooftop for months that Dowdle is capable of this. He's a legitimate starting running back when healthy and given the opportunity. While new information, it is not surprising whatsoever.

Imagine from day one if Dallas had committed to Dowdle as their RB1. It is franchise malpractice it took nine games for that decision to come. It is also a miracle that Dowdle kept his head down while the front office insisted that Ezekiel Elliott and Dalvin Cook could provide a spark.

Dowdle even went three possessions on Thursday without a carry. That's complete negligence on Mike McCarthy's part, but this has been a Jerry Jones playing favorites issue. The solution at running back was staring him in the face the entire time.

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