Dallas Cowboys need to feed Zeke less and give Tony Pollard the ball more

[bbgun]

By Mac Engel
November 17, 2019 07:16 PM

At 24, Ezekiel Elliott is a young man with his entire life ahead of him but as an NFL running back he’s starting to look old compared to his backup.

An NFL running back these days ages not in dog years, but has the lifespan of seemingly of a Mayfly (which lives for a day).

Zeke got Jerry’s money, and now he doesn’t look quite as fast. Stop the Zeke is a fat guy nonsense. The man has more ab muscles than you have bones in your body.

Zeke is in good shape. His time in Cabo during his contract holdout has nothing to do with his current state.

What has everything to do with his current state is that he looks like an old 24, and his backup is a young 22.
Good for Zeke for getting his, but the Cowboys, head coach Jason Garrett and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore are deliberately ignoring a talented playmaker because the starting running back has a giant contract.

As Zeke demonstrated with one catch and run in the fourth quarter of the Cowboys’ 35-27 win against the Lions on Sunday in Detroit, he is the starting running back for a reason.

Tony Pollard needs to see the ball more frequently.

ZEKE WHO?

With eight minutes remaining in the game, the Cowboys nursing a six-point lead and facing a third down, quarterback Dak Prescott slung a screen pass that Zeke caught with one hand well behind the line of scrimmage.

He turned what was a difficult catch into a 17-yard touchdown that effectively ended the Lions’ dying chances of actually winning this game.

“We had been struggling the ball and we have to figure that out,” Zeke said. “But we gutted it out. We got the win. The touchdown doesn’t matter to me. Getting the ‘W’ matters to me.”

And when you have the security of a six-year, $90 million contract, you can mean that.

For a second consecutive game, Zeke was not the “best running back in the league.” Against a bad Lions defensive line, Zeke ran the ball 16 times for 45 yards.

On his first run of the day, and the second offensive snap of the game, he lost a fumble that set up a short field for the Lions, which they converted into a touchdown.

This is one week after he ran the ball 20 times for 47 yards in a loss to the Minnesota Vikings, and was stopped on consecutive plays when the Cowboys were driving to take the lead and win the game.

Can you imagine how badly this game might have gone if Prescott was not in the middle of what is quickly becoming the career season he needs to justify the insane contract that is coming?

Barring injury, or suspension, Zeke will run for more than 1,000 yards again this season for the third time in his four-year career. By season’s end, he will rank among the top rushers in the league.

But trust the eyes: Tony Pollard has a level of acceleration, and stop-start ability, that Zeke does not. Tony has the juice.

WHY TONY POLLARD NEEDS TO SEE THE BALL MORE

The rookie fourth round pick has no choice but to be the good soldier and throw a party every time he sees the ball.

On Sunday, he caught four passes for 44 yards. He ran it twice for 12 yards. And he had a 24-yard kick return.

After Zeke scored on his touchdown catch, he was the one who told Pollard “to go for it” on the ensuing two-point attempt.

“I was gassed,” Zeke said. “I knew it was a run play. I didn’t think I had enough to go out there and run the play. Just trusted him to go out there and get the job done. No moment is too big for that kid.”

Pollard is not as physical as Zeke, but he can make people miss. He can beat a defender to the corner. He can out-run a corner, or a safety. He did all of that Sunday.

“I had an idea (they may use him on Sunday) from what we had been practicing and what we had been working on,” Pollard said, “but when it comes to the game there is no telling if it’s going to actually get called.”

What he didn’t have was enough opportunity. He was given one series in the first half, and spot duty thereafter.

Pollard’s legs are younger, and he looks to be just a tick faster than Zeke even in his rookie year.

When the Cowboys selected him out of Memphis, he was drafted to be a backup. Not a replacement.

What he did on Sunday is similar to what he did in college at Memphis. He averaged 3.4 carries per game at Memphis, and 2.6 receptions.

He’s doing the same thing with the Cowboys as he did with the Tigers.

Because Zeke was gone on his sabbatical in Mexico, Pollard had the chance to run with the first team and “be the starter” in training camp and preseason.

Now it is 10 games into the regular season, and Pollard has repeatedly demonstrated he can contribute plays that matter. He has shown he can block.

Just as there is no reason to bench Zeke, there is no reason not to give Pollard the ball more often.

 

[dbair1967]

People overreact to shit all the time. The fact is it doesn't matter who you play at RB the last two games, the run blocking has been atrocious. Nobody is going to consistently gain yards when 2-3 guys are easily into the backfield virtually every play.

Dumbass Zoners wanted to pin all the issues on Conner Williams, but the run blocking was just as bad (and apparently worse) than it was vs Minnesota yesterday. At least the Vikes had a good run defense coming into the game, the Lions were near the bottom of the league.

Martin is clearly nowhere near 100% and it's apparently Fred is not anywhere near the same level he was pre-disease (at least not yet). Neither of those guys is generating much of a push or opening many lanes, in fact both guys have been pushed back a lot into the backfield this year.

I don't think there's much the team can do to fix it this year, the only thing that might help is teams now have ten weeks of film of defensive backfields getting pretty much torched by Prescott and our receivers, and it might force some adjustments where there wont be as many 8-9 man fronts to run into.

 

[bbgun]

And the way we were raping them through the air, there's no way they were committing 8 in the box to stop Zeke. They were simply stopping him with their regular defense. Pass blocking is okay but run blocking has regressed badly this year, which is bad news because Zeke is not gonna make something out of nothing. Like Emmitt, he needs road graders up front. I expected him to look slower than Pollard, but not a journeyman plodder like a Scarbrough.

 

[MrB]

And the way we were raping them through the air, there's no way they were committing 8 in the box to stop Zeke. They were simply stopping him with their regular defense. Pass blocking is okay but run blocking has regressed badly this year, which is bad news because Zeke is not gonna make something out of nothing. Like Emmitt, he needs road graders up front. I expected him to look slower than Pollard, but not a journeyman plodder like a Scarbrough.

Both Zeke and Pollard can both catch the ball. Put him in there with Zeke and you have a dual receiving threat coming out of the backfield. With Cooper, Gallup, and Cobb also out there running routes... the defense can cover everyone. Someone is going to be WIDE open.

Fredrick is not the same. He’s gotten his ass whipped much most often than he ever did before his illness. He would benefit from having 1 more off season under his belt. There is also the chance that he never gets back to being the same player. Martin and Collins have been battling injuries too. Kind of funny that Tyron Smith has been our healthiest OL. He’s clearly lost a step too though. He’s still really good but has been beaten more often this year than he has in the past.




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