Elliott, Prescott, and the New Normal in Dallas
Ezekiel Elliott leaves another defender in his wake. He’s on pace for 1700+ yards this season.
If someone had told the Dallas Cowboys at the end of the 2016 Draft that their fourth overall pick, an Ohio State running back with the name of a Biblical prophet and an overlooked fourth-round selection whose name (Dak) sounds more like a hammer falling on a wood desk than the name of a starting NFL quarterback, that these players would go on to lead a super-charged offense to the league’s best record, Owner Jerry Jones might have laughed at them, especially considering longtime starter Tony Romo still had a firm grip on the number one spot. Of course that was months before Romo took a shot from Seahawks’ defender Cliff Avril minutes into the third game of the preseason. He left for the locker room with a compound fracture in his back. The injury effectively sidelined him for ten weeks. In that time, Prescott has established himself as the clear starter and heir to the Cowboys dynasty. Meanwhile, rookie RB Ezekiel Elliott is running straight into the record books with one of the best rookie seasons in NFL history.
Now, Prescott and Elliott have the Boys thinking Super Bowl. After losing their first game of the season, they seemed to work the kinks out. Since then, they’ve won eight straight games, scoring more than 25 points in seven of those. The offense has been rolling on all cylinders week in and week out. This past Sunday, they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 35-30 nail-biter. Elliott had one of his best games with 209 yards from scrimmage, and three touchdowns. After taking a screen pass 83 yards to the end zone in the last seconds of the first quarter, he ran consistently for the rest of the game, averaging 5.4 yards on every touch. In the final two minutes, he scored twice on the ground—the second of which came as the game clock wound below ten seconds. In the wake of the game, no one has any doubts as to who the top team in the NFL is.
It’s been a truly magical year for Dallas. Asked if he’s ever witnessed two rookies leading a team like Prescott and Elliott, the 74 year-old Jerry Jones said, “Not two that are so in sync to where they’re feeding off each other and the team feeding off them. I haven’t seen that.”
Feeding off each other might be an understatement. Following plays where Elliott runs for five yards or more, Prescott is completing over 80% of his passes. That’s quite a one-two punch. When Elliott gets going, teams have to stack the box to stop him. And when the box is stacked, Prescott has a mean play-action to bait the secondary. Plus with Dez Bryant and Jason Witten, he’s got no shortage of quality targets. It also helps that his offensive line–perhaps the best in the league–gives him loads of time to throw the ball.
With such a strong front five, it’s no wonder that Elliott is running like an MVP. Pundits are comparing him to Cowboys’ great Emmitt Smith, some even saying that he’s the better back. Nine games into the season, he’s run for 1005 yards with a per carry average of 5.1 yards. He’s not just leading rookie runners; he’s leading the whole league. The next best back is Oakland’s DeMarco Murray with 930 yards. Not bad, but not even close to Elliott’s monstrous year. Elliott is the fifth player in NFL history totaling more than 1,000 rushing yards and 250 receiving yards through the first nine games. The last rookie running back to play like Elliott was Eric Dickerson back in 1983. Last week, after gaining 209 yards from the line of scrimmage, Elliott notched his sixth game with more than 140 yards from scrimmage. No other rookie has accomplished that feat in 33 years. But here’s the biggest argument in favor of Elliott for Most Valuable Player: the NFL, perhaps more than ever, is a passing league. When we think of the league’s best players, we think of Tom Brady; we think of Matt Ryan; we think of Drew Brees. But it’s Elliott who has everyone talking. It’s Elliott that’s making mush of the history books. At the rate he’s playing, he’s on pace for 1787 yards on the ground. Right now he’s averaging 111.67 yards each game. If he stays consistent and manages a two hundred yarder one week, he might just surpass Dickerson for the greatest rookie season for a running back in the history of the NFL.
The fact is, we’re witnessing history right now. As teams come to rely more and more on the passing game, Elliott shows that a good run game is far from obsolete. In fact, Elliott has probably been the biggest reason for the Cowboys’ success this year. His performance opens things up for Prescott to do his thing, and do his thing he does. Through nine games, he’s thrown 12 touchdowns and a mere two interceptions, while maintaining a QB rating of 106.2—that’s the fourth best rating in the league, following the three aforementioned QBs Brady, Brees, and Ryan. So in terms of efficiency, Prescott finds himself among the NFL’s best field generals.
If you watch Prescott’s tape, you won’t see a happy-footed, uncertain quarterback under center. You’ll see someone with the capacity to scramble, to evade the pass rush, to stand tall in the pocket, to throw a solid short pass, and a drone strike of a downfield pass; you’ll see shades of Cam Newton; but most importantly, you’ll see a rookie who, by the sheer strength of his performance, has earned the starting spot in Dallas—even as Romo returned this past week from injury. You’d have to be crazy to bench Prescott at this point. He, Elliott, and the rest of the team have some serious mojo working. If everyone stays healthy (fingers crossed) they could easily win 14 games this year. December 12, they travel to New York for their toughest match remaining in the regular season.
At the start of the year, with Romo out and a largely untested rookie Prescott under center, Dallas’ season was one big question mark. Now it’s looking more and more like a bold period, or at the very least a well-placed ellipsis. Whatever the case, we might be witnessing the Cowboys not so quietly reclaiming the title of America’s Team. With Prescott and Elliott leading the charge, this might just become the new normal down in North Texas.
