South Carolina alums shine in NFL contest with seven former Gamecocks

On Sunday, seven former South Carolina football stars faced off in one NFL contest between the Carolina Panthers and Dallas Cowboys. For Carolina, defensive back Jaycee Horn, EDGE players Jadeveon Clowney and DJ Wonnum, and wide receiver Xavier Legette represented the Gamecocks. For Dallas, it was running back Rico Dowdle, wide receiver Jalen Brooks, and defensive back Israel Mukuamu.

The game wasn’t particularly close (the Cowboys won 30-14), but the former Gamecocks stood out all day.

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For the winning Cowboys, Dowdle continued his strong play. For the third straight game, he ran for 100 yards and set a new career-high yardage total. This time, he went off for 149 yards on 25 carries. No other player in the game had more than 32 rushing yards.

Jalen Brooks had just one catch on the day, but it was a big one. For the first time in his NFL career, Brooks found the end zone. In the 3rd quarter, quarterback Cooper Rush found the former USC pass-catcher in the back of the end zone for a diving catch.

On the other side of the ball, Mukuamu had a pair of tackles. However, he also picked off a Bryce Young pass just in front of the end zone. The turnover came in the 4th quarter and sealed the victory for his Cowboys.

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In defeat, Horn was good for the Panthers. He was an obvious focus for the Cowboys’ offense as they intentionally motioned away from him and threw to the opposite side of the field a lot. Because of that, he didn’t have a huge statistical output in the box score. Even so, for the game, he knocked away one pass and picked up a sack in the 1st quarter.

Clowney and Wonnum showed some flashes for the Carolina defense. The two veteran defensive ends combined for six tackles and knocked down three passes. Clowney also made the hustle play of the game by chasing down Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb on a big gain.

1st round pick Xavier Legette is playing injured (wrist) and was limited to just two touches for nine total yards.