“They’ve got to buckle up. … it’s going to be a very physical game. I take pride in that. Buckle your chinstraps up. I will be coming.” With these words, Carolina Panthers running back Rico Dowdle had issued a challenge to his old team. Now, after a 30-27 win over the Dallas Cowboys, Dowdle has taken another dig at his former crew.

Post-game, Dowdle did a follow-up on his earlier challenge, sharing a sharp four-word assessment of Dallas’ performance: “They wasn’t buckled up.”

Dallas’ defense let Rico Dowdle run wild on the field. Not only did he plough through his rushes for 183 yards across 30 carries, but he also added 56 receiving yards and a touchdown. With this, Dowdle has now posted two consecutive 150+ rush yards in Weeks 5 and 6. Even Cowboys franchise quarterback Dak Prescott admitted post-game, “He told us to buckle up. He got the last laugh.” As for the Cowboys, this is becoming a serious trend that they need to address, fast.

For the most part, the Dallas offense did its job. Dak Prescott looked poised, completing 25-of-34 attempts for 261 yards and three touchdowns. Wideout George Pickens showed supreme athleticism throughout the game. But yet another close game slipped through the Cowboys’ defense. And Prescott called them out on it.

Dak Prescott’s post-game woes

In the post-game presser, Prescott didn’t sugarcoat it. Speaking about the defense, he noted, “It’s a team game. You’ve got to trust the other side. Unfortunately, we just didn’t get it back.”

The Dallas defense allowed a whopping 216 rushing yards, with Rico Dowdle carrying the bulk of the load. Panthers quarterback Bryce Young did the rest, passing for 199 yards and three touchdowns. The only silver lining? Dallas picked off Young once and landed a sack for a loss of 5 yards. But is Prescott frustrated with the defense? The answer is still no.

As Dak noted, “I don’t ever go out there thinking, ‘Let’s punt the ball, or, after a first down, we’re good.’ If we don’t score, the last thing I’m doing is being frustrated at the defense. Like, that’s my problem – our problem, somebody on offense or something that we didn’t do better.”

The Cowboys are now 2-3-1 heading into Week 7. The offense is firing up the scoreboard, and Dak Prescott is throwing like a man on a playoff mission. As for the defensive gaps, Prescott believes those will get fixed over time. As he noted confidently:

“That we go against them every day. It’s an iron sharpens iron mentality. I understand the players and pieces they have over there. You see them getting better. They’re getting better.”

When Dallas hosts the Washington Commanders next in AT&T Stadium, we’ll get to see if they have, indeed, gotten sharper.