{"id":105075,"date":"2025-10-09T09:21:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T09:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=105075"},"modified":"2025-10-09T09:21:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T09:21:15","slug":"locker-room-heat-cowboys-players-fire-back-at-rico-dowdle-with-a-clear-message-prove-it-tension-behind-the-scenes-is-boiling-and-the-situation-could-escalate-fast-ll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=105075","title":{"rendered":"LOCKER ROOM HEAT: Cowboys Players Fire Back at Rico Dowdle With a Clear Message \u2014 \u201cProve It,\u201d Tension Behind the Scenes Is Boiling, and The Situation Could Escalate Fast..ll"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2239429895-e1759973735840.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2239429895-e1759973735840.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2239429895-e1759973735840.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2239429895-e1759973735840.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Cowboys Players Fire Back at Rico Dowdle: 'Prove It'\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" \/><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>Photo by Josh Lavallee\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Rico Dowdle #5 of the Carolina Panthers celebrates after the 27-24 win against the Miami Dolphins in the game at Bank of America Stadium on October 05, 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Josh Lavallee\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>If there is such a thing as a one-and-a-half game winning streak in a sport outside soccer or hockey, the Cowboys would be on one, having tied the Packers and come back with a win over the Jets over their last two outings. Keeping the momentum going might be the topic of discussion here entering Week 6, except that Dallas next faces the Panthers\u2013who happen to be the current employer of former Cowboys back Rico Dowdle.<\/p>\n<p>Dowdle struggled with injuries in the first part of his career with the Cowboys, from 2020-23, but in 2024, once he got the chance to get control of the running-back job, Dowdle showed was he could do, rushing for 1,079 yards. Now he is doing the same in Carolina, where he started in place of Chuba Hubbard in Week 5 against Miami, and came through with 206 yards in a surprise win.<\/p>\n<p>After that one, Dowdle was looking forward to facing his old team and said, \u201cThey got to buckle up. I think they know for sure. They didn\u2019t keep me there for five years for no reason.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Rico Dowdle \u2018A Good Running Back\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>On Wednesday, Cowboys defenders got their chance to shoot back at Dowdle, who was a popular locker room presence at The Star during his time in Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>Said defensive end Sam Williams, \u201cWhat do they say, a hard head make a soft (expletive)? Wait, that\u2019s not the saying. I guess we\u2019re just going to talk. We\u2019re just going to see.<\/p>\n<p>Williams added that he does not begrudge Dowdle his trash talk, and that his former teammate should consider his ex-team all buckled. \u201cRico good. He\u2019s a good running back,\u201d Williams said. \u201cBut what he did, 260 (206, actually)? We ain\u2019t going. I\u2019ll just say, we ain\u2019t going. \u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe buckled up. Car seat. All that, we ready. Rico played here since I got here, my first year. Rico\u2013that\u2019s Rico. He back it up. I ain\u2019t gonna lie. It\u2019ll be a tough one.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Cowboys \u2018Definitely\u2019 Heard Rico Dowdle Comments<\/h2>\n<p>No matter how many carried Dowdle gets, the challenge for the defense is to tighten up in all facets, and that includes a rush defense that ranks 23rd in the NFL. Linebacker Kenneth Murray was not Dowdle\u2019s teammate, but he did hear about the buckling up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe definitely heard about it. I mean, we\u2019ll see on Sunday. That\u2019s all I got to say about it,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n<p>Asked more about Dowdle, though, he said, \u201cWho knows? We\u2019ll see on Sunday. He\u2019s a back who had a good game last game, he had 200-something yards. I think for us it is going to be important for us to hone in on our keys, hone in on playing run defense as a unit. And just going out there and just flying around.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, obviously, everybody\u2019s asking the question about the comments and the things that he said\u2013obviously, he is a player that was here before. We\u2019ll leave it up to Sunday and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Cowboys Improving the Defense<\/h2>\n<p>Defensive lineman Kenny Clark, another Cowboys newcomer who came to the team at the end of August in the Micah Parsons trade, made it a point that it\u2019s on Dowdle to prove himself, not the Cowboys defense, which looked better against the Jets.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5473541\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-1343035727-e1756493728907.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300\" alt=\"Cowboys Players Fire Back at Rico Dowdle: 'Prove It'\" width=\"482\" height=\"270\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5473541\" data-lazy-load=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5473541\">GettyFormer Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cMan, he got to back it up,\u201d Clark said. \u201cProve it. I\u2019m not much into talking. They ain\u2019t play nobody like us. We ain\u2019t play them. So he\u2019ll watch the film and see what he\u2019s playing against. \u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s probably feeling real good. But it is going to be won in the trenches. \u2026 He\u2019s the one who\u2019s got to prove it. But like I say, I am worried about our process and what we are doing. That\u2019s all we are focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including &#8220;Fun City,&#8221; &#8220;Before Wrigley became Wrigley,&#8221; and &#8220;Facing Michael Jordan.&#8221; More about Sean Deveney<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cowboys defenders heard ex-Dallas running back Rico Dowdle warning them to &#8220;buckle up&#8221; and shot back before Week 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":105076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>LOCKER ROOM HEAT: Cowboys Players Fire Back at Rico Dowdle With a Clear Message \u2014 \u201cProve It,\u201d Tension Behind the Scenes Is Boiling, and The Situation Could Escalate Fast..ll - 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