• Nico Collins‘ returns: The Houston Texans‘ top wide receiver was back and immediately bolstered the team’s offense.
• CeeDee Lam bounces back: Lamb had one of the worst games of his career last week, with 21 receiving yards, but he scored 17 PPR points as the Dallas Cowboys‘ main source of offense in this game.
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Houston Texans @ Dallas Cowboys
- Joe Mixon: 20 carries, 109 yards, 3 touchdowns, 2 receptions, 43 receiving yards
- CeeDee Lam: 8 receptions, 93 yards
Nico Collins returns to the Texans: The Texans’ star receiver had a quick count but led the team in receiving production.
Collins spent four weeks on injured reserve with a hamstring injury and was inactive last week. He returned against the Texans and would have scored a 77-yard touchdown on the first play of the game, but an ineligible downfield pass penalty nullified the catch-and-run.
The Texans opted to put Collins into action with ease, as he played just 13 of the first 34 plays on the Texans’ first five drives. He was in a rotation with Xavier Hutchinson for the X receiver spot and was consistently on the field on third downs during that span. Collins was on the field for the two-minute drill to end the first half and played more often in the second half.
In recent weeks, the Texans have fallen into a general pattern of Robert Bos playing as the Z receiver in two-receiver sets, Tank Dell playing that role in three-receiver sets and John Metchie III playing in the slot in three-receiver sets. Collins’ return did not disrupt that strategy.
Given Collins’ increased playing time as the game progressed, it’s safe to trust him to play at least 70% of the offensive snaps going forward. Last season he normally played between 70% and 80%. The hope is that he will get back to playing 80%-85% of the snaps like he was at the start of the season.
Rico Dowdle earns and loses a feature rollback: Dowdle dominated the snaps early in the game, but was substituted more often later.
Dowdle played 71% of the Cowboys’ offensive snaps in Week 9. That dropped to 52% last week, but only because the Cowboys found themselves in a lot of passing situations, with Hunter Luepke is the primary back. The big takeaway is that the Cowboys have stopped rotating their running backs by driving.
Everything looked good for Dowdle heading into the night. Head coach Mike McCarthy called him the “lead back”, and the team was not activated Dalvin Cook off the practice squad for the second week in a row. Luepke was inactive with a calf injury, so Dowdle was expected to play his biggest role of the season.
He played 30 of 33 snaps on the first five drives. He was only off the field for three third downs, but he also stayed on the field for a few other third downs. However, Dowdle averaged just 2 yards per carry. This led to Ezekiel Elliott taking the last ride of the half. In the second half both Elliott and Deuce Vaughn became more involved. Vaughn has been a healthy inactive or special teams-only player since Week 5.
Dowdle will likely remain in Dallas’ leadership role, but Luepke should regain his passing game role once he’s healthy. Additionally, other running backs will likely get opportunities if the run game is not successful.
Jonathan Mingo makes his Cowboys debut: The former Carolina Panther was retained in a backup role without issue.
The Cowboys traded for Mingo two weeks ago and made him inactive last week. This week Mingo was active with Jalen Brooks as a healthy inactive one. Brooks had played at least 35 snaps in each of the Cowboys’ past five games as their third receiver, with Brandin cooks on injured reserve. He has caught just eight passes for 107 yards and no touchdowns on the season, so Dallas was ready for a change.
Sixth round rookie Ryan Flournoy stepped into the third wide receiver role for this game. He caught one pass for 15 yards. Mingo and KaVontae Turpin were used as the primary backups, and Turpin stole the show with a 64-yard touchdown reception.
Ideally, Mingo will earn more playing time as the season progresses, as the Cowboys’ third wide receiver spot appears wide open, at least until Cooks returns. Once Cooks returns, Mingo won’t have a strong path to playing time.
Monitor Jake Ferguson‘s health: Ferguson suffered a concussion early in the match and was immediately ruled out.
Ferguson played seven of 10 possible snaps on the first two drives. He caught one pass for 11 yards. After the injury, Lucas Schoonmaker And Brevyn Spann-Ford took over. Both tight ends became favorite targets Cooper Rushbut they were used interchangeably. There were no strong trends in their situational use, with each largely playing a few times before rotating.
The Cowboys play again in six days, so Ferguson will have one less day to go through the concussion protocol. If he misses time, it’s probably best to leave the Cowboys’ other options on the waiver wire. Their rotation makes it difficult to trust either player.
Various comments
- The Cowboys drafted a quarterback Dak Prescott on injured reserve after undergoing season-ending hamstring surgery last week.
- Dallas activated the tight end Princeton Fan from the practice squad for this game. He played a few snaps after Ferguson’s injury in several tight sets.
- Eleven Cowboys conceded at least one goal in this match, which was tied for the most by any team in a match this season.
- Dameon Pierce was active after missing the past two games due to a groin injury. He returned to the primary backup on early downs.
- The Texans released running backs JJ Taylor to make room for more defensive players.
- With Nico Collins back, wide receiver and returner Steven Sims was a healthy inactive one.
Table notes
• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. These plays have been removed from the other three statistics.
• Objectives may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be the result of an obviously thrown pass, where the NFL could give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data does not.
• Carries are only possible on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles do not count toward the total number of carries in the game.
