Cat Scratch Reader
The NFL posted its players of the week for Week 5, and a Carolina Panther made the list.
Panthers running back Rico Dowdle got his first start of the season in place of an injured Chuba Hubbard, and he popped off. He ran for 206 yards on 23 carries, tied for the second most in Carolina Panthers history. He added a go ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter to put an exclamation point on his day.
As was pointed out on the broadcast, Dowdle did the vast majority of his damage running off the right side behind Taylor Moton and Brady Christensen.
He wasn’t a run blocking merchant though. He broke through contact at the second level, including on both of those big runs.
Chuba Hubbard is supposed to be back before long, but Dowdle did more than enough to eat into his carries and make the backfield more of a timeshare. They provide a little bit of a thunder/lightning dynamic where Hubbard is a bit better of a grinder while Dowdle showed explosiveness than we typically see from Chuba.
Dowdle gets a chance at revenge against the Cowboys on Sunday, and he’s surely going to be motivated to replicate last weekend’s outing against his old team.
