Of all the maddening storylines of Sunday night’s 28-24 loss to Minnesota, the Cowboys’ stubborn insistence on sticking with a rushing attack that simply wasn’t working is near the very top of the list. But that failure in and of itself has two different components to it. There’s the playcalling from coach Jason Garrett and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. And yes, that was atrociously bad in key moments. But there’s also the ineffectiveness of the players actually executing those ground game plays, namely, defending rushing champ Ezekiel Elliott. And that’s the thing that might actually be more concerning for this team in the long run.
The Cowboys have made it clear since his rookie year in 2016 that Elliott is the centerpiece of the offense. With two rushing titles in three seasons (and an equally torrid pace in the season he was suspended for six games), the former top-five draft pick has performed like it, mostly. The message in Dallas is clear: when you play the Cowboys, you’re going to get a heavy dose of No. 21.
But according to owner and general manager Jerry Jones, a different message was broadcast early in Sunday night’s contest.
“You just basically could have put a sign on the start of the game that said ‘Zeke’s not going anywhere,'” Jones told the media after the loss in which Elliott gained just 47 rushing yards despite 20 carries, an average of 2.35 yards per run. “And that was the story of the game.”
Most games with 20+ carries and fewer than 4 yards per carry since 2016:
Ezekiel Elliott – 9
Le'Veon Bell – 7
Carlos Hyde – 7— Bobby Belt (@BobbyBeltTX) November 11, 2019
“It’s definitely frustrating, Elliott said after the game, his fifth (including playoffs) as a Cowboy in which he gained under 50 yards on the ground. “They’re a pro team, too; they did a good job bottling up the run. They were better than us.”
Wideout Amari Cooper, despite his own performance filled with good numbers and highlight-reel catches, shared in that disappointment.
“It’s very frustrating,” Cooper told reporters. “We love to run the ball here. That’s part of our identity. So when a team takes that away, we’re limited. We have the best running back in the league, so…” Cooper trailed off, seemingly at a loss, before summing up, “We just have to be better.”
Last year’s midseason acquisition of Cooper as a legitimate downfield threat was- theoretically- supposed to not only make it easier for Elliott to find some running room, but also reduce his workload. After nine games thus far in 2019, Elliott has 788 yards on 178 rushing attempts, a per-carry average of 4.4 yards. Nine games into last season, Elliott had 168 carries for 831 yards and a 4.9 average. The first seven of those games came without Cooper on the team.
So let’s review. This season has Amari Cooper in the huddle, Michael Gallup no longer a secret, Randall Cobb in the slot, Jason Witten running Y-options again, Travis Frederick back on the O-line, Tony Pollard providing a speedy change of pace, and wunderkind Kellen Moore dialing up an offense that was supposed to be versatile and multifaceted. Yet in 2019, Elliott is actually getting more chances and doing less with them.
Is this pushing the panic button in the immediate wake of a demoralizing loss? Perhaps in part; no one was all that worried about an Elliott decline last week after he ripped off 139 on the ground in New York and averaged six yards per tote. Much of Monday morning’s concerns are indeed a direct result of Sunday night’s opponent.
“I think it’s definitely one of the best defenses we’ve played this season,” Elliott admitted of the Vikings squad. “Definitely, run defense did a great job just neutralizing our run and really giving us nowhere all day to run the ball.”
“Obviously, there was a lot of attention there,” Garrett told the press of Minnesota’s focus on Elliott. “They have a really good front, and they have good linebackers. They’re a good run defense. They were trying to make sure that they stopped the run. I thought that we did a good job responding to that; we were pretty effective throwing the football.”
Pretty effective. Quarterback Dak Prescott finished the night 28-of-46 for 397 yards and three touchdowns to three different receivers. He took just one sack and logged only one interception, the failed Hail Mary as time expired. Yes, Prescott was “pretty effective.” And that’s what made the coaching staff’s blind allegiance to the middling rushing attack so difficult to watch, especially after the passing game had put the Cowboys in a position to win the game late.
With under two minutes to play, down by four, and on the Minnesota 11-yard-line, Dallas ran Elliott on second down for no gain. And then again on third down for a three-yard loss. Prescott, incidentally, had gone 6-for-7 and 79 yards through the air on the drive up to that point.
So after the rally ultimately fell short, everyone with a microphone and a notepad wanted to grill the Cowboys players, coaches, and brass about why they seemingly took the ball out of Prescott’s hands in crunch time.
“You want to attack different ways,” Garrett said. “It’s important for us to continue to try to run the ball. In normal circumstances, you would think if we give it to Zeke a couple times, second and inside of two yards, we’re going to make that first down. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen in this game.”
“You ask that offensive line, you ask the running back, they’re going to say that they need to execute those plays,” Prescott stated in his postgame press conference. “We get that first down, nobody in here’s even talking about [how] they took the ball out of my hands, right?”
But Elliott didn’t get the first down. Either time. And so everyone is, in fact, talking about how the coaches seemingly took the ball out of Prescott’s hands.
Jones was blunt when asked about the ill-fated decision to force the run late.
“I’m not going to get into that,” he said. “Since it didn’t work, we’d all like to have that back. But you’ve got to keep trying.”
It appears that Garrett and Moore will do exactly that, no matter the opponent, no matter the situation, no matter if it’s working or not.
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