The Misuse Of Ezekiel Elliott (Part 3)

 

At this point, we can only imagine what Ezekiel Elliott (and Tony Pollard) could do with a head coach and offensive coordinator that believed in the running game. Zeke had a career-low 237 carries for the 2021 season. I understand that he was playing injured for the majority of the season, but when healthy, that total is nowhere near enough. His carries need to be somewhere in the 300s. The Cowboys need a run-first offensive coordinator that builds from the team's true strength, and then we would be much better off.

In my unpopular opinion, the Cowboys would be better off if Zeke started winning rushing titles again. In both of the previous years he did that, the Cowboys made it to the Divisional round of the playoffs, and were a couple of questionable coaching decisions away from being in the NFC Championship Game. Of course Zeke would have to stay healthy, but the coaches would also have to commit to the running game. And YES, there are ways for Tony Pollard to still get his touches even with Zeke getting 300+ carries. Bottom line, once we started giving Zeke the ball less, we started losing more.

There is an increasing number of people by the day saying that TP actually needs to replace Zeke in the starting lineup. These people have been fooled by TP's production in his current role. As well as he's been playing, he's not built to carry a full load. He didn't even do it in college. Also, TP doesn't pick up blitzes nearly as well as Zeke. I also think it's better to have a punishing back late in a game to pound the defense.

Aside from all of those things, the pro-Tony Pollard crowd also needs to brush up on their history. The Cowboys have made the mistake of moving the change-of-pace RB to the starting lineup multiple times in the past. Do the names Troy Hambrick, Marion Barber, Felix Jones, and Joseph Randle ring a bell? In the case of T-Ham, MBIII and Randle, the starter was run out of town and they got promoted to that spot. The results were not good. This is what happens when you try to fix what's not broken.

Tony Pollard's plays are designed for space and flash, but you can't let yourself get fooled by that. Again, he's not the type of RB that can hold up with a heavy workload. He needs to stay fresh so he can come in late in games and take advantage of a defense that Ezekiel Elliott has softened up. You still need Zeke to come in and put his hat in the pile time after time and to block a linebacker, or even a DT/DE that the O-line missed. Like I said, go back and look at what happened every time we gave a backup the starting job.

It's absolutely dumbfounding how people who claim to be football fans can be so clueless about the basics of the game. I'm not calling out any specific person, but common sense should tell anybody that follows the game that the change-of-pace RB has a huge advantage in his yards per carry average when he's not asked to make many short yardage runs and is frequently sent into the game with fresh legs after the starter has softened the defense up. 

When have we heard of a head coach or defensive coordinator talking about designing a game plan to stop Tony Pollard? How can people not know that having a RB like Ezekiel Elliott threaten the defense is the reason the passing game was so successful in 2021. The teams that dropped and played coverage and let the running game work got run on for over 200 yards.....and still lost. This is still a pick-your-poison proposition.

Even the media is now of the opinion that TP needs to be the starter and that he's the better RB. Not only are people parroting that opinion, but now people have the nerve to call Zeke an average RB. By definition, average is basically "middle of the pack". Zeke was top 10 finisher among the NFL's rushing leaders, so he was decidedly NOT average. Even on 1 leg he averaged more than 4 yards per carry. To pull that off in the NFL might be more impressive than winning a rushing title.

As long as Zeke is getting over 4 yards per carry as primarily an inside runner and continues to protect his quarterback, he's definitely not average. If you have any doubts about the value of keeping your QB upright, all you have to do is watch ESPN or NFL Network on any given Sunday evening and see how many QBs are getting their block knocked off because their RBs don't do what Zeke does for Dak Prescott. Or you'll get a reminder when TP misses a block that leads to a forced fumble by Dak.

People that hate Zeke will hate him no matter what, and most are just mad at him because of his salary. But nothing will change the fact that before Zeke got hurt, he was 2nd in the NFL in rushing and averaging more than 5 yards per carry. But asking him to always have to break tackles in the backfield and be Dak's personal protector started taking a toll on him, and frankly, shortening his career. All in all, Zeke is effective in giving the offense exactly what it needs, which is steady positive yards on the ground to keep defenses from being able to tee off on Dak or drop 7 into coverage.

You can say what you want about Zeke not being as effective after his knee injury or how he should have sat out until he healed. But I applaud him for playing under the circumstances. I don't see how you can trash a man that's giving his team as much as he gave the Cowboys in 2021. He played hurt. He had his touches reduced. He's had to hear people proclaiming his demise and the need to replace him with Tony Pollard. Yet, he's still giving his all for the team and he keeps putting his body in front fast moving men that are bigger than him for the good of the team and to his own detriment.

When people say that Zeke doesn't care since he got paid, they ignore the amount of physical pain that he played through and had to endure every time he had to protect his quarterback. And before you say Zeke doesn't take the kind of beating he used to now that he splits carries, think about all those collisions with blitzers. Those also come with a price to his body. His legs might not have to work as hard, but his upper body will be every bit as sore as if he carried the ball 350 times. I don't see the logic in this kind of hating, especially towards a player on your favorite team.

If I had to pick out anything I'm not too crazy about with Zeke, it would only be 1 thing: his love for contact. He goes LOOKING for it instead of trying to avoid it. Zeke would rather hit somebody and make them pay for the tackle than run free and clear. He's always been that way, but that's not conducive to a long career. I personally want to see him play as long as he possibly can, and be an impact player for as long as he can. This makes it even more imperative that the Cowboys get that offensive line fixed. Then he'll have bigger holes to run through, which means you can't smash into anybody if there's nobody there to hit.

If I had to come up with a way to help Zeke get back to an All-Pro level, of course I would start with fixing the O-line. I would also bring in and actually USE a fullback that can block. I would give Nick Ralston the first shot at it. I personally don't care that the NFL is trending away from the position. Fullbacks are worth their weight in gold in short yardage situations. Zeke is at his best when he has a fullback in front of him, so that would be an important cog in my offense.

With a fullback in the backfield, we would be in the I-formation most of the time, which means no more delayed shotgun handoffs that take away a RB's ability to hit the line with a head of steam. I would have my O-line doing some basic trap blocking and double teaming at the point of attack. My running game would be more than just running straight ahead into a pile. I would be hitting the edges and running off tackle, even mixing in some misdirection too. I would also let Dak use his legs when necessary, which adds another weapon to the offense. Oh, and the empty backfield would be almost nonexistent.

Most importantly, I would make my offensive coordinator commit to the running game and stick with it, or go find one that will. We can't have anymore games where we run for over 100 yards in the 1st half and then start the 2nd half passing on 12 of your first 13 snaps like we did against the Giants in Week 15. I would also work extensively with my wide receivers and tight ends on their downfield blocking, which is a serious weakness. This is the key to being able to get long runs. Good blocking from your WRs and TEs also allows you to consistently run outside. 

When you are a dominant running team, with a featured running back, he gets the ball consistently, both early and late in games. Usually, when teams play to defend a feature back, he might average less than 4 yard per carry on his first 10 carries. When a team is committed to running the ball, a feature back will start picking up bigger chunks of yards later in the game as the defense wears out. Again, when the running game is working, it opens up the rest of the playbook for you.

You WILL NOT be able to consistently win in the NFL doing the same thing over and over every week. In fact, you can't even win doing it every possession within a single game. Balance is absolutely critical if you want to win a Super Bowl. You don't necessarily have to be 50/50, but 75/25 won't get it done. You can get away with that against bad teams, but if you want to go to Green Bay in January and win, you need to be able to run the ball. You can't beat anybody in the playoffs with an entire dimension of your offense missing.

The old saying is true: the running game and defense travels. High-flying passing offenses can be grounded by the weather, and sometimes just by crowd noise. Also, you lean on your running game when your quarterback is struggling. You have to be a complete team to beat playoff teams, and Kellen Moore seems to be purposely making the Cowboys an incomplete team. This has been going on for more than a decade. Play calling is what's holding back our talented team.

Fans love exciting plays from explosive offenses with creativity. That's what the Cowboys supposedly have in Moore's play calling. When it's not working, EVERYBODY looks bad. Like his predecessors, he also doesn't go back to whatever seems to work. At this point, the team is good in several areas, but not great or dominant at anything and definitely show no committed strategy to win games. We also have no identity. Make sure you take all of these things into consideration before you say Ezekiel Elliott is done or no longer cares about football. Because to ignore all of these facts is intellectually dishonest to this discussion.

The Misuse Of Ezekiel Elliott (Part 2)

Many Cowboys fan have been terribly misguided in their belief that Ezekiel Elliott is washed up and that he's been terrible since signing his 2nd contract in 2019. Some have even said the he got lazy and doesn't care about football anymore. In fact, it's even been alleged that Zeke was satisfied with winning a national championship in college and that the NFL was all about money and being a celebrity for him. Also, over the past couple of years, people have been calling for his backup Tony Pollard to replace him in the starting lineup. Even the media has gotten in on it.

Some people even went as far as calling Zeke a bust and a good example of why you don't take a running back within the top 5 picks in the draft or give them 2nd contracts. I'm sorry, but a guy that's been a 2-time rushing champion, 3-time Pro Bowler, and the No. 3 all-time rusher in his team's history is not exactly a bust. Granted, he hasn't accomplished all he could have in his 6 years in the NFL, but it's definitely not all on Zeke. His production has even gone down in his last 3 seasons, but here are the reasons for it:

*Several injuries in his last couple of seasons

*The demise of the offensive line

*The play calling

*Splitting carries with Tony Pollard

I have seen an increasing number of complaints from lots of Cowboys fans on message boards and social media over the last 3 years complain that we should have taken Jalen Ramsey at No. 4 in 2016 and then Derrick Henry in the 2nd round. Those chants got even louder after King Henry's 2000-yard season. It's almost a guarantee that his monster season wouldn't have happened if he played for the Cowboys instead of the Titans, especially with Kellen Moore as his offensive coordinator. In fact, the results wouldn't look much different than they do now.

In other words, Derrick Henry more than likely would have been misused the same way Ezekiel Elliott has. He's no more suited for all the delayed runs up the middle than Zeke is. In fact, the results with King Henry might be worse because he's even slower to get up to speed than Zeke. I'm almost certain that if Zeke had been drafted by the Titans, he would have sat behind DeMarco Murray for a year or 2, and would be tearing up the NFL with fresh legs right about now. Then Cowboys fans everywhere would be mad at the front office for not drafting him.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Derrick Henry and rooted for him every week when he was playing his college football at Alabama, and would have been extremely happy if the Cowboys drafted him. But I won't act like having him would change Kellen Moore's offense. It's possible that it would. But if having a 2-time rushing champion at your disposal and a 31-0 record when you run the ball more than you pass doesn't scream "RUN THE BALL!!", I don't know what else will.

It's not a stretch to say that Ezekiel Elliott was arguably the best player in football his first 3 seasons. If he had played for a smarter (for lack of a better word) coach, he would already have at least 1 Super Bowl ring by now. That's why he was worth the No. 4 pick. I can't put all the blame on Jason Garrett, but he did waste Zeke's rookie year with many of the choices he made. Roger Goodell stole a year from Zeke with that bogus suspension, which is another story within itself. Then Jerry Jones stole half of another year with his "receiver-by-committee" garbage. 

In Zeke's first 3 years, he was talked about being a potential 2,000-yard rusher, and quite honestly should have been one as a rookie. But again, going away from what's working is nothing new to the Cowboys, which brings me to my next point. Admittedly, the last 3 seasons haven't been Zeke's best, and there are some things he could have done better, such as seeking out less contact to preserve his body more, but let's not act like his decrease in production is all on him.

The lazy and popular thing to do is saying that Zeke stopped caring and mailed it in once he got paid, which conveniently glosses over the real root of his decline. When the Cowboys gave Zeke his money, they also changed the offense and became a passing team. Zeke and the running game were the strength of the team from 2016 to 2018, but in true Cowboys fashion, they decided to fix what wasn't broken. Why would you stop featuring your star running back after paying him all that money? That's where the problems started.

So, what happened to Ezekiel Elliott since 2018? 2 words: Kellen Moore. Him taking over as offensive coordinator in 2019 was the worst thing to happen to Zeke. It was compounded in 2020 when the Cowboys hired Mike McCarthy to replace Jason Garrett as head coach. THIS is the real reason Zeke's production went down. They gave Zeke his money, then turned around and hired coaches that favor the passing game and reduce the running game to an afterthought. I have said to anybody who would listen for the last 3 years that if this was the direction the Cowboys wanted to go in, they never should have re-signed Zeke. They're wasting his career and their money.

They gave the guy that's been the focal point of the offense a contract that made him the highest paid ever at his position (at the time) and then turned around and changed the offense, going away from their identity and the approach that had brought them the most success in recent years. Where's the logic in re-signing the focal point of your offense and then switching to a new system that's not tailored to fit him? If I'm giving a guy a contract like that, I'm going all in to maximize my return on that investment. My first 2 priorities would have been finding the right coaches to maximize Zeke's talents and maintaining the offensive line.

The worst part about Kellen Moore being promoted to offensive coordinator was that he got the job before he was ready. Think of it like giving somebody keys to a Ferrari before they're qualified to drive it. The car can still go fast, but it ends up in the ditch a lot because the guy driving it can't handle 850 horsepower. Moore had zero experience as a quarterback coach, but was chosen over proven QB coaches. Then after only 1 year in the position, he gets promoted to OC, another job he had zero experience in and with more responsibilities, over proven OCs.

In going from a practice squad quarterback to an offensive coordinator in 2 short years, Moore skipped quite a few steps in his development. I put all of this on Jerry Jones. This is basically a repeat of the Jason Garrett learning-on-the-job situation. In both cases Jerry handicapped his players by hiring former players that he likes and is comfortable with over coaches that are more qualified for the job. Trusting an inexperienced and unproven coach with that much talent, with most of your core players in their prime years, is just flat out reckless any way you look at it. 

Kellen Moore as the Cowboys offensive coordinator reminds me in a lot of ways when we had David Shula calling the plays and Emmitt Smith was his running back. To me, this is history repeating itself in terms of both coordinators having star RBs that they don't know how to use. They both have blind spots to running the football. Shula's inability to fit Emmitt into his offense cost the Cowboys a playoff spot in 1990 and ultimately led to his exit. The Cowboys brought in Norv Turner to replace him in an effort to make the most out of Emmitt. The rest is history.

I would love to see what Zeke could do if he got his own "Norv Turner", an offensive coordinator that knows how to maximize his abilities. I would even like to see what Norv himself would do with Zeke, given his track record with guys like Emmitt, Eric Dickerson, LaDanian Tomlinson, and Adrian Peterson. Much like Emmitt had in David Shula, Zeke has in Kellen Moore an OC that doesn't use the running game enough and uses his backs incorrectly. It's not just that Moore doesn't call enough running plays or knows when to call them, it's like he has no feel for what type of runs to call.

In my opinion, Moore's biggest flaw is that he doesn't show anywhere near the originality and creativity with the running game as he does with the passing game. Nor does he have the same attention to detail. In addition to not wanting to run the ball, Moore also doesn't like to feature 1 receiver or focus on favorable matchups. His mindset is to "take what the defense gives you". With that much talent at your disposal, you should be TAKING WHAT YOU WANT and imposing your will on defenses, not letting them dictate to you.

What bothers me most about Moore is how he uses Ezekiel Elliott. Zeke is a downhill runner that's at his best when he can take handoffs with a full head of steam, and even better when he has a fullback in front of him. Since Moore's been in charge, he's been getting all these bland shotgun delayed handoffs. These slow-developing running plays have been frustrating. When your O-line is getting beat like ours did often this past season, you can't ask your RBs to dance around in the backfield and look for holes. They won't be there. With a runner like Zeke, you call some drive-blocking plays and let your line hammer the defense. Then let your RB hit it downhill and see what happens. Even if you don't get a big run right away, eventually the defensive line wears down and the dam will break. 

The worst part about these shotgun running plays is how often they seem to be called in short yardage situations. The main problem with running in shotgun is what it does to the RB. It forces him to take the ball without a head of steam, at a standstill, which robs him of a lot of his power. The object of short yardage situations is to hammer your O-line and for your RB to move the pile to get the yardage for a 1st down. That's done much better when the runner has momentum built up when he gets to the line of scrimmage instead of taking a handoff at a dead stop.

The thing that's most deflating about the Cowboys offense is how little we even try to establish any kind of rushing attack. There is clearly no commitment to running the ball from Kellen Moore. We almost never run the ball 2 plays in a row. It seems like he's allergic to it. No matter if a running play gains 3 yards or 30, you can bet the next play will be a pass. He's notorious for going away from it when the offense gets inside the opponent's 20-yard line, then having to settle for a field goal. Moore's stubbornness with the running game can probably be traced back to him throwing the ball 80% of the time in college and throwing it 80% of the time in the NFL whenever he got to play. That's all he knows.

One other problem with the running plays that Moore calls is that there is no purpose to most of them. They seem to be just placeholders until he can get to his next set of passing plays. That's what the delayed shotgun handoff up the middle is to me. And with the O-line doing slide steps, the RB is supposed to find the hole. But most times there won't be a hole, especially since defensive coordinators figured out that pattern and always have at least 1 guy shooting the gap behind our strong side. As a result, there's almost always a free runner in our backfield on running plays.

After the season opener in Tampa Bay, Moore's "yards are yards" quote when he was trying to justify calling only 15 runs in that game told me that he understands ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the cumulative effects that having 300+ pound guys beating up on a defense with a 225-pound running back slamming into them has over time. Run blocking attacks the defender and pushes him. Pass blocking steps back and lets the defender come at the blocker. It's about time he acknowledges the value of allowing his offensive line to fire out into the defensive line and dishing out blows instead of taking them on every play. A 5-yard run takes a much bigger toll on a defense than a 5-yard pass. All yards ARE NOT created equal.

Again, even if you're not getting big yardage, every time you let your O-line hit the D-line in the mouth, you take a little bit of starch out of them. Fighting through double teams, legs getting rolled up, and bodies falling on top of them takes a serious toll on them. As long as you're getting at least 3 yards a run, you keep doing it because it sets up everything else on your offense. The 3-yard runs gradually become 5-yard runs, then late in the game they turn into 10+ yard runs. As long as your defense doesn't let the game get away, you should ALWAYS have the running game in play.

Every running back that's ever carried a football will tell you that he needs a few carries in a row to get into a groove. It also gives him a feel for the defense and how his O-line is blocking. No RB will be consistently productive if he only gets 5 or 6 carries a half. This is especially true for a runner like Ezekiel Elliott. He's a definitely a runner that gets stronger as the game goes on. Splitting carries also makes it harder for Zeke to get into a rhythm. What also hurts him is that his coaches don't have any kind of feel for when to do substitutions. 

The coaches like to give the RBs an arbitrary series at a time. I personally can't stand seeing a hot RB on the sidelines. It used to drive me crazy seeing Alfred Morris or Darren McFadden in the game after Zeke got rolling. Say what you want about Zeke tapping out a lot, but he's not always tired or banged up when he gets pulled from the game. Zeke did have a bad knee for most of the 2021 season, but 9 carries doesn't give him a chance to shine. The biggest issue is having an OC that doesn't understand a run offense, which has killed us time and time again.

In the past 3 seasons, Zeke has carried the ball 20 or more times in just 12 games, and he got over 100 yards in 8 of them. He only got those numbers in 2 games this past season. When Zeke has carried the ball 20 or more times in his career, he's averaged 104 yards a game and 4.7 yards per carry. It's hard to do much with 9 carries and an OC that keeps abandoning the running game. When we give Zeke the ball, he delivers and we win. But in spite of that, the coaches want to make us a passing team, and it's failing miserably. Again, if they don't plan on using Zeke, why did they pay him?

The Misuse Of Ezekiel Elliott (Part 1)

The popular opinion that's been spreading for the past couple of years is that Ezekiel Elliott is washed up, stealing money from the Cowboys, and keeping a better running back on the bench. I definitely don't have the same opinion, but I understand why people keep parroting that opinion. His production has dropped off and he's been dealing with lower body injuries for the past 2 seasons. More than anything, people are mad at Zeke for holding out for a new contract in 2019 when he still had 2 years left on his rookie contract. And since he hasn't been running for 1,400 or 1,500 yards and winning rushing titles, Cowboys fans are wanting to run him out of town.

Running backs tend to get screwed in the NFL, especially on rookie contracts, because they provide their most value when they are most limited on the salary they can command and are run ragged, making a 2nd contract risky for their team. Having seen many RBs get screwed, I didn't object to Zeke looking for security. What gets lost on a lot of Cowboys fans is that the offense was non-existent without #21, and that's why he got paid. Look no further than the stretch in 2017 where the team went 15 straight quarters without the offense scoring a single touchdown during his 6-game suspension.

After carrying the Cowboys offense on his back and getting 350+ touches in 2 of his first 3 seasons, Zeke realized that they were going to run him into the ground and then give him the DeMarco Murray treatment. He had them against the ropes because both the front office and coaches knew the team wouldn't go anywhere without a great running game, and up to that point, Zeke had given them that. In those 3 seasons he led the NFL in rushing twice, and in the year he didn't, he still led the league in rushing yards per game.

The real reason Ezekiel Elliott's production has been going down the last 3 years, and a big part of why he hasn't been able to reach his full potential, is because he has been badly misused throughout his career. At times he's even been underused. It's been an ongoing thing since the very beginning of his career. For instance, people were already starting to call Zeke a bust after the first 2 games of his rookie season. But here's what was really happening:

In those 2 games, the Cowboys had Zeke offset, trying to run a bunch of offset slashing plays that were limiting his ability to see the field, forcing him to make only 1 cut or not cuts at all. When you couple that with his inexperience at the time, and trying to hit the hole as hard as he could, he never gave himself a chance. Neither did his offensive coordinator. You could see Zeke developing patience in Games 2 and 3. Once he got to Game 4, it was on.

Ezekiel Elliott is a 1-cut-and-go runner. A lot of running backs try to get to the sideline, but he gets north and south fairly quickly, and then it's him against the defender. Short yardage and dirty runs are the most important part of the game for a RB. That's how you create the big plays. Zeke continues to drive his legs and finish forward, not getting knocked backwards. He also knows how to protect himself and the football at the same time. Late in games, defenders don't want to tackle him. A true quality RB gets better as the game goes on.

Unfortunately for Zeke, in his 6 years with the Cowboys he hasn't had the right coaches to put him in a position to maximize his talents. For starters, he had Jason Garrett as his head coach for his first 4 years. Garrett had ZERO imagination and ZERO innovation. He would run Zeke up the middle on 1st and 2nd down, and then either throw it to him on 3rd down or ask him to block. Zeke was getting hit on every play. That was absolutely the wrong way to protect the investment of your top 5 draft pick, No. 4 overall to be exact.

Let's also not forget that Zeke was 21 in his rookie season, which is very young for a guy to be getting punished by grown men that have been in an NFL strength and conditioning program for 5+ years. Garrett beat him down by trying to mold the Cowboys in the image of those 90's teams he played on. That's why Zeke and his people asked for and got a new contract when they did. Outside of the Jimmy Johnson debacle, sticking with Jason Garrett too long is the biggest mistake of Jerry Jones' ownership tenure. The residual impact of that choice is still being felt.

To me, the worst thing about the Jason Garrett era, especially with Scott Linehan as the offensive coordinator, was that the Cowboys were notorious for going away from their greatest strength and short-circuiting their own offense. A lot of times they went away from their identity against teams that showed no capability of stopping what they did best, which was running the ball. Not only did they give away several games by doing that, they robbed Ezekiel Elliott of even more greatness, more specifically in his rookie season. Here's a rant from me about both of these things:

***Ezekiel Elliott was TOTALLY robbed of literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by his coaches in 2016. Yeah, I'm talking about the NFL rookie rushing record. It's bad enough that they grossly underused Zeke in several games that year, but part of me thinks Jason Garrett intentionally kept him from having any shot at the record in the last game of the season just so he wouldn't be forced to let him go for it. If Zeke had been within 100 or so yards of getting the record by Game 15, or even after, Garrett would have been in a tight spot when it comes to resting him in the season finale.

For what it's worth, Eric Dickerson had 68 more carries in his rookie year than Zeke did. If Zeke could have gotten half of that amount he would have gotten the record. I get that the Cowboys already had home field advantage wrapped up and that it was a meaningless game in the standings. I also understand that all players, especially running backs need rest, but to hold Zeke back the way Garrett and Linehan did was ridiculous. He only played in half of the Lions game and didn't play at all against the Eagles, and with the Cowboys having a bye in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, that was almost a month of inactivity.

If I had been a reporter at the press conference after that Lions game, I would have straight up asked Garrett why he pulled Zeke when so much time was still left, with a follow-up of whether Emmitt Smith would have had the career he had playing for a head coach that was too conservative. You only get 1 shot at breaking a rookie record, and they should have let him go for it. Falling short of the record also likely cost Zeke the AP Offensive Rookie Of The Year award, and possibly the Offensive Player Of The Year too.

Most people agreed with Garrett's decision to pull Zeke early, saying that a Super Bowl is more important than records and individual accolades. While that is true, I don't see how winning a Super Bowl and breaking a record are mutually exclusive. Also, when you have MVP, OPOY, DPOY, or ROY candidates on your team, it makes things easier on your team. The cool thing to say is "I want rings, not personal achievements.", but they go hand in hand with postseason success. Let's not act like it's an either/or scenario.

Special opportunities in life don't show up every day, so you need to take advantage of them when they arise. Personal accomplishments and achievements are a great thing and shouldn't be discouraged. I think it's safe to say that most people have some sort of goals set for their lives. Anybody that thinks that record wasn't important to Zeke is being entirely delusional. With that being said, you collect whatever trophies and records you can as they come. What if Zeke never wins a Super Bowl? If given the chance, at least he could have had that record. You think Emmitt would give back his MVP and rushing records?

Ezekiel Elliott breaking the NFL rookie rushing record would have been seen as a great accomplishment by the entire Cowboys offense. It's also something his offensive line would have been proud to do for him with the appreciation he showed them. A record like that takes a team effort to accomplish, and the coaches let a golden opportunity slip away. That would have been a special moment for them. I would even argue that it would have made them play harder in the playoffs and brought them closer as a team.

Why bother keeping track of stats at all other than the score if breaking records is such a bad thing? Do Cowboys fans not appreciate the fact that the NFL's all-time rushing record is held by a Cowboy? The single-season rookie rushing record would have been nice to have right next to that one. It would have been a hell of an accomplishment, given that the record has stood since 1983. Those "anti-record" fans also acted like the Cowboys were guaranteed a Super Bowl win since Zeke didn't get the carries necessary to break it.

The rookie rushing record is a hard one to break. Not only do you have to be really good and durable, you have to have a bunch of other things fall in place as well. The 1983 Rams were a 9-7 team that needed to win their last game just to make the playoffs. What ultimately hurt Zeke's quest for the record was that his team was too good. Winning the Super Bowl that year would have been the perfect solace for not getting the record. Since the Cowboys didn't win it, Zeke came up short in a lot of ways in his rookie season.

Now let's talk about why the Cowboys came up short as a team in 2016 after a strong regular season showing. The coaches, specifically Jason Garrett and Scott Linehan, were coaching scared. As a result, the team came out rusty in the playoff game against the Packers. The worst thing coaches can do is overthink their game plan in the playoffs just because it's a 1-and-done tournament. You have to go with what worked for 16 weeks. It's nice to do great things in the regular season, but what's the point in even playing if you're going to continue doing those same things when the playoffs roll around?

I knew before we played the Packers that if we lost the game it would be because of coaching. The Packers ran a base defense for a grand total of 5 plays. They were begging us to run with Zeke, but Garrett and Linehan wouldn't bite. I know the Packers' secondary was bad at the time, but if you're facing a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers, your best chance of winning is to dominate the time of possession and keep him off the field as much as possible.

They did everything possible to rest Zeke in the regular season, to the point of barely using him the 2nd quarter all season, and then "rested" him for the last 6 quarters of the regular season, giving him 3 1/2 weeks off. With that much inactivity and the fact that they kept Zeke from breaking the record, you would think they would give him a full workload. These fools only gave him 22 carries (23 total touches), which was nowhere near enough. I don't care if a defense is putting 13 in the box, you make them prove they can stop your running game before you stop it yourself.

It wasn't just the volume of Zeke's touches that irritated me, it was also the lack of running plays in key situations. Him having only 10 carries at halftime and 22 total absolutely should have been a fireable offense. He finished with 125 yards and averaged 5.7 yards per carry, so it's not like they were shutting him down. The Packers feared Zeke more than anything, yet he wasn't even in the backfield on key plays. It was unreal.

With Garrett and Linehan being so pass-happy from the start, we waited until we were down 21-3 to finally start running the ball. There were 2 statement opportunities in the 1st half to assert our dominance: the opening drive at 3rd and 2, and the last drive at 1st and goal. Both times, Zeke was nowhere to be found, and both times we had to settle for field goals. In fact, when we had the 1st and goal, we used an empty backfield and had 3 straight incompletions instead of running Zeke.

The head coach and offensive coordinator were detriments to the Cowboys against the Packers. They had the best offensive line in the NFL and the league's leading rusher, but they kept outsmarting themselves and letting the Packers off the hook. What's worse is that we had the ball on 3rd and 2 or less 8 times and only ran the ball ONCE. With these coaches, that down and distance was virtually a guaranteed pass play, with an empty backfield the majority of the time, when everybody in the stadium knows it's a pass.

You have to let your stars flourish. Ezekiel Elliott stabilizes everything and gives balance to the Cowboys offense. Everything plays off of what he does in the running game. When you have #21 in your backfield, you are NEVER out of a game. You just knew he would touch the ball at least 30 times against the Packers. Not only are you never out of a game with Zeke, you're also 1 missed tackle away from a touchdown. As a result of him not touching the ball enough, we lost the game by 3 points.

How can you claim to be a physical, smash-mouth, run-first team when you won't even run it on 3rd and short? This game was a classic betrayal of our identity as a team and core belief in physical football. The score didn't dictate the majority of those decisions at the time, it's just something that the coach(es) individually or collectively opted to do. Going away from the strength of the team once again came back to bite us hard, and that seems to be a habit no matter who calls the plays, whether it's 2016 or 2021.***

Jason Garrett during his tenure and the Cowboys franchise as a whole, even today with a different coaching regime, have always been reactionary. Garrett used to get criticized all the time for not running the ball enough, then he finally "changed", but you still saw his stubbornness creep back up in key situations. We used to get criticized for neglecting the offensive line before we finally reacted. 

Another thing Garrett got criticized for was his bad clock management before it seemed like he had finally corrected it in 2016, before it reared its ugly head again in the Packers playoff loss. Bottom line, the Cowboys are never ahead of the curve. Sometimes the organization appears to be geniuses when something is finally addressed, but then some other issue pops up that was neglected for too long. What we saw in that playoff game was old mistakes resurface that appeared to have been corrected in the regular season.

When have the Dallas Cowboys EVER won without an elite running game? Duane Thomas, Calvin Hill, Tony Dorsett, and Emmitt Smith all won Super Bowls with this team. I'm not saying run the ball just for the sake of running it, but an elite rushing attack balanced with a potent pass offense seems to be what worked in winning the 5 trophies that we do have. The quarterback is important because he touches the ball on every play, and we haven't won anything without a top tier QB either, but those Cowboys teams were balanced. There were more prolific passers than Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman when they played, but they both had a top-notch running game to lean on. 

Many people to this day are still upset about the Cowboys drafting Ezekiel Elliott in 2016, but I still believe it was the right pick even with the way things have played out. Why? At that time, the Cowboys had the best offensive line in the NFL, which was the strength of the team. If those guys are your building blocks, why not maximize that strength by getting a blue chip RB to put behind them? In 2015, we needed the O-line to take over a couple of games for us, but we didn't have the RB to help them do it. We needed a 3-down back, not a committee of backs that you hope could be serviceable. With that line having 5 potential Pro Bowlers, it was best to give them every chance to succeed.

The Cowboys didn't necessarily have to draft a RB in the 1st round of the 2016 NFL Draft, but if you get to the No. 4 selection and Zeke is the best player on your board, you need to go ahead and take him. I heard quite often over the years that Joey Bosa likely would have been the pick if he didn't go at No. 3, and if that was the case, a lot of times the best laid plans don't always work out. You end up with a guy like Emmitt Smith in 1990, CeeDee Lamb in 2020, or Micah Parsons in 2021, because that wasn't the plan.

Unfortunately, it's a shame how fans can be ungrateful sometimes. Zeke has carried the Cowboys since 2016. Even this past season, teams still chose to stop him first and make Dak beat them. It's just that Zeke has been beat up the past couple of seasons and not able to bail out the passing game whenever it's struggled. The fact still remains that when he runs for over 100 yards the Cowboys almost always win. The problem is that too many times throughout Zeke's career he's been shut down by the Cowboys' decision makers. This is what happens when you have 2 coaches in charge that are former quarterbacks and are in love with the passing game. Our players often have to win in spite of the coaches, and that makes it tough.