Rico Dowdle’s mysterious illness leads to conspiracy theories

The Dallas Cowboys suffered an epic collapse in the third quarter against the San Francisco 49ers which ultimately cost the team the game. After entering the half with a 10-6 lead, Dallas was outscored 21-0 in the third.

Dallas made a late attempt to make it a one-score game, but it was too little too late as the offense stalled late in the game with four straight incompletions.

The rushing attack again went nowhere, despite Dalvin Cook’s long-awaited rise to the practice squad. Cowboys leading rusher Rico Dowdle was inactive due to a mysterious illnesswhich has led to conspiracy theories making the rounds in Cowboys Nation.

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During pre-match warm-ups, after Dowdle was ruled out, he came out of the tunnel and greeted fans.

Dowdle took time to sign autographs for fans before walking onto the field. Ed Werder shared a video of Dowdle’s pre-game activities and asked: “Does a player who is too sick to play come onto the field early to sign autographs?”

After the video went viral, conspiracy theories began to emerge.

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Did the Cowboys make Dowdle inactive to save Ezekiel Elliott from the embarrassment of being a healthy scratch? Are the Cowboys tanking? We were out of tin foil hats.

One fan commented: “Looks like I need to know what he has evidence that team tanks are happening.”

“Jerry scandalsanother added. “He probably doesn’t want to hurt Zeke’s feelings.”

Without Dowdle, the rushing attack sputtered again with just 56 yards and one touchdown on 19 carries, for an average of 2.9 yards per carry.

Cook, who was brought in from the practice squad to provide the spark, rushed six times for 12 yards.

There’s no telling what exactly happened Sunday night, but Cowboys Nation isn’t buying the story that Dowdle developed a mysterious illness just before the inactive list was submitted to the league.

Either way, the team needs to find answers in the ongoing game, and they need to find them quickly.

Next up for Dallas is a Week 9 showdown against the 5-3 Atlanta Falcons on the road.

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