FRISCO, Texas -- The words "one thousand" and "yards" were never formed into a full question before Dallas Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle answered.
"Two-sixty-nine," Dowdle said. "Yep, two-sixty-nine."
That's how many yards Dowdle needs in the Cowboys' final four games to reach 1,000. In a season full of team disappointment with a 5-8 record and playoff talk dismissed the way Jim Mora dismissed it so many years ago -- "Playoffs?!" -- an individual milestone is still in play for Dowdle.
How much does he want to reach that mark?
"I definitely want it," he said. "Definitely I'm trying to do it. That'd be nice to get [my] first 1,000-yard season. Definitely want to do it. It's out there, so trying to."
Dowdle leads the Cowboys with 731 rushing yards on 152 carries, both career highs. That he has a chance at 1,000 yards is remarkable in a way, considering the start of the season.
The Cowboys began with Dowdle and Ezekiel Elliott as a running back by committee. At different times, Dalvin Cook and Deuce Vaughn got some looks as the third runner.
In the first six games, Dowdle topped 46 yards once (87 yards on 29 carries against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 5). He had more than 11 carries once, although some of that had to do with how out of whack the scores were in some of the Cowboys' losses.
He did not play in the Cowboys' seventh game -- at the San Francisco 49ers -- because of a game-day illness.
But he has had at least 10 carries in each of his past six games. He has topped 46 yards in all but one game (28 yards versus the Houston Texans). In the past two games, he posted back-to-back 100-yard outings, the first Cowboys running back to do so since Tony Pollard in 2022.
If he reaches 100 yards Sunday against the Carolina Panthers, who have the 32nd-ranked rushing defense (170.1 yards per game), he will be the first Dallas runner to do it three straight games since Elliott in 2019.
"He's obviously grown in every area," coach Mike McCarthy said. "Really proud of what he does off the field and everything. I mean, it's cool to see young men grow and develop.
"He had that injury bug there early [in his career]. He fought through that and has really taken advantage of this opportunity. I think like anything, particularly in the running back room, the opportunity to be a No. 1, having one guy, he's done a good job of that."
How good?
From Weeks 9 to 14, Dowdle's 485 rushing yards rank second in the NFL, trailing only Saquon Barkley (857) of the Philadelphia Eagles.
"I've always been confident, even [when] I had like 28 yards, I came out confident the next week," Dowdle said. "I don't think it kills your confidence. The games play themselves out. You just got to continue to try and build and stack off the previous week."
Mike Clay points to Rico Dowdle's volume and matchup against the Panthers as reasons why the Cowboys running back can succeed in Week 15.
Entering this season, Dowdle had 385 yards rushing in 36 career games with no starts. He never topped 12 carries, 79 yards or had a gain longer than 21 yards.
But he has not found the workload this season to be taxing.
"I feel pretty good right now," he said. "You got your nicks and knacks from the games, but other than that I feel pretty good honestly. Feel like I can go for another 12."
Twelve games?
"Yeah, sure," he said. "If they allowed us."
Dowdle has a routine during the week that includes stints in the cold and hot tubs. He spends time in Normatec compression sleeves. He will get soft tissue work done. On the days after games, he will do squats and striders just to get the soreness out.
In the offseason, he changed his diet. He cut out pork and cut way back on red meat.
"Sometimes if I go to a nice steakhouse or something, but other than that, yeah, just chicken or turkey," Dowdle said.
Nobody told him to change his diet. It was something he wanted to do, and he did research online. After about a month, he felt better. He said his body fat came down from the check-in before training camp in 2023 to training camp in 2024.
"I felt a lot fresher, a lot healthier," he said. "My body recovered faster and stuff like that. It might not just be that. A lot of things play into it, but that's one thing I wanted to stick with."
Perhaps the biggest change came when he was named the lead back by McCarthy before the Week 11 meeting against the Texans.
One more change came to the running plays called by McCarthy. Dowdle said the Cowboys are sticking with their "bread and butter" runs after not being efficient earlier with a more varied running attack.
"Those guys up front have been playing their asses off," Dowdle said.
And it has him 269 yards away from 1,000 for the season.
Which brings us to another math equation. How many yards does he need to average during the final four weeks to reach 1,000?
"Sixty-seven point five," he said.