Tag: Dallas Cowboys vs Houston Texans

Cowboys vs Texans Initial Injury Report: One-third of Dallas roster injured in Week 11

A look at who was able to participate in practice on Thursday, ahead of Cowboys-Texans, and to what degree. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys have licked their wounds, again, and are ready to get back on the bull. After four straight defeats, the team is reeling but they will no forfeit the rest of there 2024 season. Instead they will take on the Houston Texans in Week 11 and hope to begin an epic comeback from a 3-6 record.

Likely? Of course not, but that’s from an outsider’s perspective. The team isn’t going to turn over their entire roster in 2025, so having players who refuse to give up on the season is a good thing, draft order notwithstanding. As the club returns to practice on Thursday, they do so with only 2/3rds of their entire roster actually healthy.

Dallas listed 18 players, 34% of their 53-man roster, as dealing with some degree of a medical issue.

 Cowboys

CB DaRon Bland, Foot | Wednesday: Did Not Participate

CB Caelen Carson, Shoulder | Wednesday: Full Participant

CB Trevon Diggs, Calf | Wednesday: Limited

OT Chuma Edoga, Toe | Wednesday: Limited

TE Jake Ferguson, Illness | Wednesday: DNP

OT Tyler Guyton, Neck/Shoulder | Wednesday: Limited

LB Eric Kendricks, Shoulder | Wednesday: DNP

CB Jourdan Lewis, Neck | Wednesday: DNP

FB Hunter Luepke, Calf | | Wednesday: DNP

OG Zack Martin, Shoulder | Wednesday: DNP

LB DeMarvion Overshown, Knee | Wednesday: Full

LB Micah Parsons, Ankle | Wednesday: Full

QB Dak Prescott, Hamstring | Wednesday: DNP

QB Cooper Rush, Neck | Wednesday: Full

OG Tyler Smith, Knee | Wednesday: Limited

Safey Juanyeh Thomas, Concussion | Wednesday: DNP

LB Nick Vigil, Foot | Wednesday: DNP

Safety Donovan Wilson, Hip | Wednesday: Full

Houston Texans

Will update when available.

It’s Week 11, and Cowboys’ McCarthy just named his lead RB

From @ToddBrock24f7: Rico Dowdle has quietly surpassed two RBs with 7 Pro Bowl nods between them to land in the top-20 in a couple key rushing stats.

The Cowboys’ rushing attack has been a debilitating weakness all season, with the team ranking 31st out of 32 teams in rushing attempts per game, rushing yards per game, and rushing yards per carry with the season now more than half over.

The team’s running-back-by-committee approach has been the primary contributing factor in the eyes of most observers. The Cowboys split carries among Ezekiel Elliott and Rico Dowdle to start the season, finally called up Dalvin Cook only to have him turn in very pedestrian numbers, and they feed Deuce Vaughn and Hunter Luepke so sparingly it’s easy to forget they’re still on the team.

Of the five, only the fullback Luepke has taken offensive snaps in every game of the 2024 campaign, with the Dallas coaching staff unwilling to further commit to any of their other backfield options.

Except, maybe, now.

When asked Thursday about Dowdle, head coach Mike McCarthy- in Week 11 but for the first time this season- said out loud what most of Cowboys Nation has been thinking for months.

“He’s the lead back,” McCarthy said during a pre-practice press conference, “I thought he had a really good first half [versus Philadelphia], and I think that’s really illustrated by the attempts. Rico needs to touch the ball.”

Dowdle’s 10 carries for 50 yards in the first and second quarters of Sunday’s 34-6 loss to the Eagles represented his busiest and most productive first half of the season. And while the game getting away from the Cowboys in the third stanza slowed down the 26-year-old’s stats, Dowdle has quietly managed to climb his way up the rankings of several key categories among the league’s rushers.

At an average of 4.5 yards per carry, Dowdle currently stands 19th across the NFL, ahead of flashier names like Joe Mixon, Alvin Kamara, David Montgomery, Najee Harris, Breece Hall, and even ex-Cowboy Tony Pollard.

Filter running backs by success rate, and it gets even better. That metric calculates how often a ballcarrier gains at least 40% of the yards required on first down, 60% on second down, and 100% on third or fourth down.

Dowdle’s success rate of 55.4% puts him 10th in the league. That kind of clip makes his limited usage- just 83 rushing attempts (36th place) and only 374 rushing yards (35th place)- seem like outright negligence on the part of the Dallas coaching staff.

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Many have blamed that reluctance to let Rico run on some assumed mandate from the front office to lean on Elliott, the two-time rushing rushing champ, fan favorite, and prodigal son who returned to the team in 2024 after an obvious decline led to his release in early 2023. Elliott is having a career-worst season production-wise and has reportedly been enough of a distraction that he was made inactive and left in Dallas for a Week 9 away game.

Cook was signed late in the preseason but stashed on the practice squad until Week 8. While the hope was that Cook would be some sort of savior by providing fresh legs midway through the schedule, his performance has only emphasized why the Cowboys should have made a bid during free agency for Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs, or the aforementioned Mixon (all top-10 rushers currently).

Vaughn simply doesn’t look like a legitimate NFL running back (and that’s not a cheap shot at his height), and Luepke was never meant to be a volume rusher.

Dowdle is the lead back in Dallas… but not only because the team has no other choice (save for the practice squad’s Malik Davis, who hasn’t logged a carry since the finale of the 2022 regular season). Though he’s had to claw for every snap and even stand by during an unexpected inactive declaration in San Francisco due to a mystery illness, Dowdle, the undrafted free agent out of South Carolina, now leads the Cowboys- and by a lot- in rushing attempts and rushing yards. And he’s top-five on the team in receptions and receiving yards, too.

It’s shaping up to be a lost season for the Cowboys, but with eight games still left to play, it’s become clear that Rico Dowdle will be one of the keys to whatever glimmers of success the team is able to eke out.

And now, it seems, that’s finally clear enough for McCarthy to say out loud.

“Got to get him the ball,” the coach said Thursday. “That’s my focus, just continue to give him opportunities.”

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Cowboys fans get glimpse of another potential Mike McCarthy replacement in Week 11

The Cowboys face potential head coaching candidate Bobby Slowik in Week 11 when they take on the Houston Texans. | From @ReidDHanson

All indications are the Cowboys will be looking for new head coach this winter when Mike McCarthy’s contract runs out. Armed with draft picks, available spending cash, and a desire for change, Dallas will be an attractive place for a head coach looking to make an instant impact.

Bobby Slowik, the Texans’ prized offensive coordinator, is likely on his way out of Houston this winter. The Shanahan-like play caller has seen his stock rise to meteoric levels over the past season and a half and is now one of the hottest names on head coaching market in 2025.

Slowik is a play designer who creates deception by using a series of similar looking personnel groups and alignments. He’s a run truther but he backs it up by designing run-friendly plays and using run-friendly wrinkles. He’s taken a fledging Houston offense and built it up to sky-high levels with an inexperienced QB.

Play action, motion at the snap and various post-snap options all put his offenses in position to succeed. It’s allowed his offenses to produce higher outputs as complete unit than the individual pieces would otherwise provide.

It’s these traits that make Slowik such an attractive option for Cowboys fans. Eager to turn the page on yet another disappointing chapter in Cowboys history, many fans look at Slowik as a true step in the right direction. He’s not only an offensive savant up to date on all the tips and tricks that drive defenses wild but he’s also someone with a fair degree of defensive coaching experience.

Unlike most head coaches, Slowik is a coach who adds considerable value with scheme on one side of the ball and also has work experience on the other side of the ball. As if that wasn’t enough, Slowik worked for three years at Pro Football Focus, understanding analytics in a way very few NFL coaches can. Slowik is the complete package, and the Cowboys may be able to hire him this winter.

For anyone interested in getting a glimpse at the trending head coach candidate they needn’t look much further than Monday. In Week 11 the Cowboys take on the Texans and get a great firsthand look at someone who could be the next head coach of the Cowboys. Not since Week 6 against the Lions and Ben Johnson did Dallas get such a privilege. If Slowik can show half as much as Johnson did, fans are in for a real treat, so to speak.

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Cowboys starter with rehab group to start Week 11; backup OL has practice window activated

From @ToddBrock24f7: LG Tyler Smith was seen sporting a knee wrap on Wednesday, the same day Chuma Edoga’s 21-day practice window was activated.

Get ready for the possibility of more personnel swapping along the Cowboys’ offensive line.

With rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton already having sat out last Sunday’s game against Philadelphia with a neck/shoulder injury, backup Asim Richards got the Week 10 start and played well enough to leave Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy “impressed,” despite the team’s 34-6 blowout loss.

Guyton is reportedly “trending towards being healthy” for the team’s next outing, per the team website. But now the spot next to him on the Dallas O-line is suddenly worth monitoring with the 6-4 Houston Texans coming to town for a Monday night intrastate clash.

Third-year left guard Tyler Smith was seen wearing a knee wrap during the media portion of Wednesday’s practice session, according to multiple observers. The 23-year-old worked with the rehab group, along with cornerback DaRon Bland, who has yet to make his 2024 debut after a foot injury suffered in camp.

It is not known what sort of issue Smith is experiencing. The team will not release its first practice report of the week until Thursday.

Houston enters Week 11 ranked seventh leaguewide in sacks, with 29.

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In a separate move that may or may not be coincidental, reserve lineman Chuma Edoga had his 21-day practice window activated on Wednesday. The veteran had been sidelined with a toe injury prior to the season opener. Edoga started six games last season– four at left tackle and two at left guard- and could therefore theoretically be in play if Smith is unable to go.

T.J. Bass is officially listed on the team website as the primary backup to both right guard Zack Martin and Smith at left guard.

Smith currently has the third-most snaps on the Cowboys offense through nine games this season, appearing in nearly 96% of the unit’s on-field action.

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McCarthy reveals Cowboys’ Week 11 QB plan; report names third-stringer to be added

From @ToddBrock24f7: Cooper Rush will remain the starter vs Houston, per the coach. A late report says Will Grier is being signed to the team’s practice squad.

Cooper Rush turned in dreadful numbers during Sunday’s 34-6 pounding at the hands of the Eagles, but the poor stats won’t keep him from getting his second consecutive start next Monday night when the Cowboys host the Houston Texans to close out Week 11.

Head coach Mike McCarthy confirmed that the team would be moving forward this week with Rush as QB1, ostensibly leaving Trey Lance as the backup once again.

But a third quarterback is on the way, the coach explained in his Monday afternoon press conference, though he declined to share details about who it is.

“I’m just going to let him go through the process and make sure everything goes well,” McCarthy said, “but we’re in the process of signing one.”

NBC5 sports director Newy Scruggs reports that it is Will Grier, the 2019 third-round draft pick out of West Virginia who served as a backup in Dallas in 2021 and 2022. Grier, 29, was released by the Eagles on Nov. 7. He’ll join the practice squad.

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Rush, the seventh-year veteran who came in to the Week 10 divisional clash with a 5-1 record as the Cowboys starter, struggled to get anything going against Philadelphia. Per 96.7 The Ticket’s Matt McClearin, his 45 passing yards were the third-fewest by a Cowboys quarterback in a game with 20 or more attempts in franchise history.

The Cowboys teased the possibility of a special package of plays for Lance, the former first-round draft pick whose athleticism has made him a 14-month developmental project in Dallas. (Grier was cut after acquiring Lance in a 2023 trade.) Lance ended up taking 15 offensive snaps Sunday, going 4-of-6 passing for 21 yards and an interception.

Combined, Rush and Lance threw for just 66 yards on the day and had a team passer rating of 49.1.

Starter Dak Prescott was in New York on Monday to meet with a specialist about the partial hamstring avulsion he suffered in Week 9. Surgery is reportedly scheduled for Wednesday pending the results of that consultation and would put Prescott on a recovery timetable of about three months.

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Brotherly battle between Cowboys’ Trevon Diggs, Texans’ Stefon postponed again by injury

From @ToddBrock24f7: Last year, Trevon’s ACL injury scrapped a scheduled head-to-head between the two. This time it’s Stefon’s ACL tear, suffered last Sunday.

The highly-anticipated professional battle between the NFL’s Diggs brothers will have to wait… again.

Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs was set to square off against Houston wide receiver and older brother Stefon when the Cowboys hosted the Texans in Arlington in Week 11. The siblings’ first head-to-head showdown was supposed to take place last season, when the Cowboys visited Buffalo in December, but a knee injury suffered by Trevon shelved him early in the season.

Stefon’s move to Houston for 2024 had put a new Diggs-vs.-Diggs matchup in the spotlight, in a game that already carries an extra bit of juice as the two Lone Star State teams vie for the Governor’s Cup and bragging rights within the state.

Just like last year, a torn ACL has scrapped the brother-on-brother grudge match. But this time, it’s Stefon’s.

The Texans wideout, 30, suffered the injury last Sunday in the team’s 23-20 win over Indianapolis.

The Diggs brothers have always been close, often training together and competing against one another at events like the Pro Bowl skills challenge. Trevon even lobbied for Dallas to go acquire Stefon when the Bills wide receiver was unhappy with the Buffalo organization in a contract dispute.

Stefon wore a special message on his eye black after his younger brother’s injury last September; it would not be a surprise for Trevon to return the favor somehow when the Cowboys next take the field in Atlanta.

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Trevon, 26, would likely be all too happy to take the spotlight off himself after getting into a heated exchange with a Dallas reporter over a tweet following Sunday night’s Cowboys loss in San Francisco. Diggs later went on teammate Micah Parsons’s podcast and explained his emotional reaction while justifying his play; Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said in a press conference that he would expect his players to “be better” when facing outside criticism.

Trevon, a two-time Pro Bowler and 2021’s league interceptions leader, signed a five-year contract extension with the Cowboys last summer. Stefon, a four-time Pro Bowler and the NFL’s receptions and receiving yards leader in 2020, is on a one-year deal in Houston and could be on the hunt for a new team following this season.

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Paul-Tyson fight at AT&T Stadium rescheduled for 3 days before Cowboys-Texans on MNF

From @ToddBrock24f7: The July 20 fight was postponed due to Mike Tyson’s medical issues. The new mid-November date coincides with a big weekend for the Cowboys.

The highly anticipated fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson is back on. The bout will now be the first part of a blockbuster doubleheader weekend at AT&T Stadium, the opening act to a Cowboys primetime home date that could be one of the biggest games of their 2024 season.

The fight, originally scheduled for July 20, had to be postponed due to a recent medical issue for Tyson. The ex-champ, who will turn 58 later this month, suffered an ulcer flare-up in late May that required medical attention and necessitated a delay in his training.

To allow both men adequate preparation time, the fight has been rescheduled for Nov. 15. The unorthodox slating of such a marquee match on a Friday night- instead of a Saturday- will allow the event to still be staged at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, yet give crews time to repurpose the venue for the Cowboys’ Week 11 meeting with the Houston Texans, to be played three nights later on Monday Night Football.

“Our team has worked diligently with all parties involved to reschedule this monumental fight to a date that ensures both Jake Paul and Mike Tyson are fully prepared, with equal training time, as well as allowing us to keep the event at AT&T Stadium in the midst of the Cowboys’ season,” Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, said in a statement.

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Though they share the Lone Star State, the Cowboys and Texans are not traditional rivals. They do compete for the Governor’s Cup, however, to decide intrastate bragging rights; the Cowboys currently hold the Cup after a 27-23 win in December of 2022.

This regular-season matchup will be extra spicy. Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud is quickly becoming one of the league’s brightest new stars, and his off-the-field friendship with Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons will be among the fun storylines to watch as they square off under the Monday night lights. Also look for the sibling showdown between Dallas cornerback Trevon Diggs and his older brother Stefon, a wide receiver in his first year with the Texans. Houston tight end Dalton Schultz will be facing his former Cowboys teammates for the first time after five years wearing the star; same for wide receiver Noah Brown after six seasons in Dallas.

The I-45 series began in 1967 between the Cowboys and Houston Oilers, but this year’s installment figures to be one of the premier matchups of the entire NFL season, with the Cowboys and Texans both having won their respective divisions last year. The Paul-Tyson fight, which is being predicted to be the “most-watched boxing event in modern boxing history,” should act as the perfect appetizer.

Previously purchased tickets for the July fight will be honored on Nov. 15, while ticketholders unable to attend the rescheduled date can receive a refund. The heavyweight fight, scheduled to go eight rounds, will still be streamed live on Netflix.

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These 3 Cowboys stepped up the most to avoid chaos vs Texans

Who were the three stars according to @cdpiglet in a hard-fought battle for the Governor’s cup that ended with a come from behind victory for the Cowboys.

The Houston Texans thoroughly outperformed expectations against the Dallas Cowboys, and Dallas badly underperformed. A game that had more than a two-touchdown spread in favor of the Cowboys needed a goal-line stand and a 98-yard drive to pull out the victory.

An opening touchdown drive from Dallas, followed by a three and out for the Texans had this game looking like the blowout it was supposed to be early. Then KaVontae Turpin muffed a punt and the momentum turned with a recovery by the Texans.

From there the game became a back-and-forth, poorly-played battle that saw the Cowboys revert to many issues they have had during the Kellen Moore era. The team had a lack of pre-snap motion, Tony Pollard only had ten carries in the run game, and Dalton Schultz and Noah Brown had one less target in the pass game than CeeDee Lamb, Michael Gallup, and Tony Pollard combined.

Dallas didn’t play a very good game, but at the final whistle they escaped with a victory. Here are the three stars that helped the Cowboys win back the Governor’s Cup from their in-state rivals.

Good, bad and ugly as Cowboys eek out win over Texans, 27-23

The Dallas Cowboys played their best when they needed it to avoid the upset versus the Houston Texans, scoring late in the 27-23 in Week 14. | From @BenGrimaldi

The Dallas Cowboys needed an epic, late-game drive on Sunday to beat in-state rival Houston, 27-23. It was a contest that went down to the wire, with the Cowboys playing one of their worst games of the season but finding a way to win in the end.

Wins don’t need to be pretty, they just need to happen, and the Cowboys put another ‘W’ in the left-hand column on their record. It was ugly and it took almost the entire 60 minutes to put away the one-win Texans, but a late rushing score from running back Ezekiel Elliott gave Dallas a lead they would need just seconds to secure.

This was the type of game that gives haters pause in believing in the Cowboys, who are now 10-3 on the season. It would have been an embarrassing loss for Mike McCarthy’s team, but they found a way to pull out the victory.

Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly from the performance.

‘I’ve got to go’: CB Trevon Diggs overcomes injury, sparks Cowboys win with crazy fumble return

Even with one thumb rendered useless, Diggs made the most of his first NFL fumble return and just missed an INT en route to a dramatic win. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Things seemed bleak as TV cameras caught Trevon Diggs being escorted to the Cowboys locker room in the second quarter of the team’s Week 14 tilt versus Houston.

The Pro Bowler had been seen grabbing at his left hand a few plays prior, and as he made his way into the AT&T Stadium tunnel, the Dallas secondary was left frighteningly thin and woefully inexperienced at cornerback.

Jourdan Lewis and Anthony Brown had both been previously lost for the season. DaRon Bland, a fifth-round rookie who was prepping for the New Mexico Bowl this time last year, was already in, having just made just his fourth NFL start. Kelvin Joseph was seeing an uptick in snaps in a week that saw Cowboys owner Jerry Jones publicly announce that it was time for the second-year player “to become a man.” Even seldom-used Nahshon Wright was being leaned on for more than special teams.

Not a good time to lose last year’s interceptions leader.

Diggs returned to the field, though, after missing just one series.

“Whatever. I’m going to just fight through it, get through it, even though it’s hurting. I’ve got to go,” he explained of his mindset afterward.

So Diggs re-entered the game with a new tape job and a self-imposed mission to make an impact… even if he was missing the use of a digit.

“I got nine fingers to catch with. It’ll be alright.”

Diggs, in fact, even said that the shot he took to his left thumb might have been doing him a favor in that he wasn’t able to grip much. No grip, no holding penalties, he joked.

Thankfully, Diggs’s grip was plenty adequate when a loose ball bounced his way early in the third quarter.

A Donovan Wilson strip and a lucky hop gave Diggs the first fumble recovery of his career… and then the 24-year-old’s past as a college wide receiver kicked in.

Diggs initially retreated nearly 15 yards in the wrong direction while trying to elude the Houston offense and pick up enough blockers to possibly go the distance.

He ended up with the most exhausting fumble return in recent memory.

“I probably ran about 120 [yards] for 17 yards,” Diggs laughed to reporters. “But it was a good 17. It was worth it.”

Actually, the incredible effort put the ball a grand total of just nine yards past where Houston had previously snapped it. But Diggs reveals he made a wise business decision as he felt his gas tank bottom out toward the end of his run.

“Yeah, I saw two big linemen coming,” the Alabama product admitted. “And I know they were mad because I was running around the field. I know they were like, ‘When I get a hold of him, I going to crush him.’ So, I just went out of bounds.”

Diggs’s takeaway provided a Dallas spark, but that spark fizzled out before turning into points. The ensuing drive ended on the Texans goal line as running back Ezekiel Elliott was stuffed on a fourth-and goal play, prolonging a frustrating afternoon for the Cowboys.

But after a five-tackle day (ranking third on the team) and nursing a late-gotten lead, the dinged-up Diggs was sure he had one more highlight in him.

As Texans quarterback Davis Mills sent a 60-yard prayer into the end zone with eight seconds to play, Diggs was one of five Cowboys defenders to camp out under it.

Safety Israel Mukuamu came down with it for the first regular-season pick of his NFL career… but not without a bit of a fight from his teammate.

“Just saw the ball, went up there, and just high-pointed the ball to make a play,” Diggs explained. “My guys did a good job of boxing everybody out so that there was no one there.”

But Diggs, who had nine interceptions at this point in 2021, later lobbied for partial credit to add to his 2022 tally of three.

It seemed a fitting end to a game that didn’t go the way Diggs- or the Cowboys- had envisioned at kickoff.

“We need games like that just to see how are we going to respond to a little adversity,” Diggs admitted. “Game’s not going our way, things not going our way, so how are we going to respond? And I think we did a real good job of that.”

Even with one less thumb to work with.

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