Game turned when they put Zeke back in for Pollard

[CalPolyTechnique]

Sadly, he is the perfect RB for this Cowboys team and he is being wasted. They actually completely nailed the pick. If it wasnt for Zeke we would be talking about another complete steal in the draft.

What annoys the hell outta me is when we split Zeke out wide as if he’s Marshall Faulk in his prime. That pass thank clanked off his chest last game wasn’t his fault; he has no business being asked to make those catches, lol.

I think Zeke still has utility in this offense, but I would agree with the notion Pollard needs more touches in the offense. I would certainly use him more in the passing game over Zeke.

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

Its not tough stuff really. You dont even have to understand football. YOu just need to be able to count.

6.5 yards per carry is better than 2.8 right? No? Dont get it still?

All of our #2's put up gawdy yards. Until they go #1.

"It's not tough stuff really". Factual history.

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

The oline is fine?

When you hate zeke as much these yahoos do...you convince yourself to say stupid *&^@# like that.

 

[RonnieT24]

Yeah, you’ve missed the point. He’s already “as good” as Zeke as a runner.

Would you pay him $13-15M per season?

Thanks for playing.

Chris Carson is a year older than Zeke and has already missed 18 games in his career. He is never getting anything above 5-6 million a year if that. If he was as good as Zeke Russell Wilson would not be running for 600-700 yards a season. The main reason Carson even looks as good as he does is that defenses consider him an afterthought with Russ on the field. Zeke is the number one target of every defense he faces.. Carson is #4 at best on his team behind Russ, Metcalf and Lockett.. Kinda like Tony Pollard.. well in Pollard's probably more like 6th behind Zeke, Coop, Lamb and Gallup.. (and Dak when he was playing) .. Degree of difficulty matters.. Having a QB who runs as much as Russ does and as well as he does makes life easier on Carson which is why many of us used to implore Dak to run more.. Of course none of us will be doing that going forward.. Or if he does he needs to work on his slide. Russ is a master at it.. but Russ is also like a 4.5 guy.. Dak is closer to 4.8.

 

[Trendnet]

All of our #2's put up gawdy yards. Until they go #1.

"It's not tough stuff really". Factual history.

Elliott suffers from Gameplanivid - Pollard will be suffer from that worse if he was elevated to full time RB. More exposure and all that.

 

[aria]

The oline is fine?

Do you have any legitimate stats that say it isn’t or are you just going to pull the “eye test” crap? They looked pretty good against Pitt to me and allegedly they have a top defense.

 

[RonnieT24]

Elliott suffers from Gameplanivid - Pollard will be suffer from that worse if he was elevated to full time RB. More exposure and all that.

There is a long long list of #2 running backs whom the fans clamored to be the #1 guy who then promptly fell on their face once elevated to #1 target of the opposing defense status. I think these people who hate Zeke know that. I can't believe anyone can be that stupid and still be able to log into a computer. They just don't care.. They need an outlet for their hate and Zeke is it for some.. It's Dak for some others. Tank for still others.. Jaylon.. Tyron.. anybody that got a big contract.. Except Jarwin.. you never seen anybody complaining about his contract. Isn't he making like 6 million this year for his one catch? Come to think of Lee got a nice deal and nobody complains about his either.. And nobody has a problem with Frederick's deal when he signed it.. Or Zack's deal.. There's something different about the group people want to get rid of and the group people are okay with getting big contracts.. but I can't quite put my finger on it.....

 

[LACowboysFan1]

Who cares if he cant handle a full load? There is no reason to give one back 25 carries a game. Its a waste of the position. Teams carry 3 backs for a reason. Use them all. Pollard is the perfect split carry/rotation RB for this offense. And he is on a rookie contract.

I am assuming the posts here essentially are saying Pollard should be the starting running back. You can't be the starting running back and split carries with Zeke, that's running back by committee. If Pollard gets a few more carries a game then the situation is essentially the same as it is now, so what's all the discussion/arguing about?

Zeke got the big contract, he's here for another couple of years at least, barring injury or some team offering, and Zeke accepting, a trade. I understand the frustrations with Zeke getting $15 mil a year and the team's not a SB contender, wanting the backup to be the starter is a time honored tradition with Cowboys fans, from Meredith to Morton, Staubach to Morton, White to Hogeboom, Jones to Barber, Bledsoe to Romo, Romo to Prescott.

But you'll note few of the above really worked out well, Staubach obviously and Romo a bit less. Hating on the starter because the team isn't doing well doesn't help anything...

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

Chris Carson is a year older than Zeke and has already missed 18 games in his career. He is never getting anything above 5-6 million a year if that. If he was as good as Zeke Russell Wilson would not be running for 600-700 yards a season. The main reason Carson even looks as good as he does is that defenses consider him an afterthought with Russ on the field. Zeke is the number one target of every defense he faces.. Carson is #4 at best on his team behind Russ, Metcalf and Lockett.. Kinda like Tony Pollard.. well in Pollard's probably more like 6th behind Zeke, Coop, Lamb and Gallup.. (and Dak when he was playing) .. Degree of difficulty matters.. Having a QB who runs as much as Russ does and as well as he does makes life easier on Carson which is why many of us used to implore Dak to run more.. Of course none of us will be doing that going forward.. Or if he does he needs to work on his slide. Russ is a master at it.. but Russ is also like a 4.5 guy.. Dak is closer to 4.8.

“If he was as good as Zeke Russell Wilson would not be running for 600-700 yards a season.”

First, that’s a completely laughable argument.

Second, you’re making it up as you go. Wilson hasn’t run for more than 380 yards since 2017.

Carson came into the league in 2017 (and played only 4 games), lulz.

Thirdly, Wilson is a scrambler and an adept runner. You’re trying to make it sound as if the Seahawks are forced to run Wilson because Carson can’t carry the burden which is completely bunk. The decreases in Wilson’s carries/yardage directly coincides with Carson’s playing time.

This is comedy...

 

[LACowboysFan1]

Do you have any legitimate stats that say it isn’t or are you just going to pull the “eye test” crap? They looked pretty good against Pitt to me and allegedly they have a top defense.

First of all, looking at Pittsburgh's schedule, I have to question whether their defense is really as good as advertised. They did beat the Ravens and the Titans, so obviously there a good defense, but until they take on the good offenses week and week out, I'll have to be convinced. So looking pretty good against Pittsburgh may not be a ringing endorsement.

But saying a line full of backups is a pretty good line doesn't make much sense, now it's possible some of them just needed a chance to show how good they are, and any line that gets to play together for a while can do some good things. But they've not been either on the field nor played together much.

Eliminating the Steelers game, the offense in the last few weeks scored 10, 3 and 9 points. So the line is "fine" yet the team is averaging 7.33 pts a game?.

 

[RonnieT24]

Do you have any legitimate stats that say it isn’t or are you just going to pull the “eye test” crap? They looked pretty good against Pitt to me and allegedly they have a top defense.

Here's one.. they gave up 5 tackles for loss on 31 running plays. The only reason it wasn't more was because Zeke dragged one or two unblocked guys back to the line of scrimmage on at least 4 occasions. They also gave up 2 sacks, 2 TFLs on screens and 12 QB hits on 40 dropbacks. That is not "fine." Maybe better than the previous week.. but still several miles from "pretty good."

So zero or negative yards on 9 of 31 running plays.. including 4 of the great Tony Pollard's 9 totes.
Hits on the QB on 14 of 40 dropbacks and crappy blocking on two screens. So the line got whupped on 25 of 71 snaps.. an overall win rate of 64.7%
I don't know how they do it now but when I was in school that was a failing grade.

In that same game the Steelers gave up 3 TFLs and 2 no gains on 18 running plays and 3 QB hits and no sacks on 45 passes.
They lost on 8 of 63 snaps. giving them a win rate of 87.3%
Again depending on your school system that was either a A- or a B+. Either way THAT is pretty good.

Okay that was more than one stat.. My bad..

 

[RonnieT24]

“If he was as good as Zeke Russell Wilson would not be running for 600-700 yards a season.”

First, that’s a completely laughable argument.

Second, you’re making it up as you go. Wilson hasn’t run for more than 380 yards since 2017.

Carson came into the league in 2017 (and played only 4 games), lulz.

Thirdly, Wilson is a scrambler and an adept runner. You’re trying to make it sound as if the Seahawks are forced to run Wilson because Carson can’t carry the burden which is completely bunk. The decreases in Wilson’s carries/yardage directly coincides with Carson’s playing time.

This is comedy...

Okay you got me there.. I didn't bother to go look up Russ' latest rushing stats .. Now that I did the first thing that jumps out at me is that he is currently less than 60 yards behind Carson for the rushing lead on that team. Mainly because Carson has already missed two games and will probably missed a couple more. The reason he only played 4 games in 2017 was because he was hurt.. He misses games every year.. He aint gittin bellcow money doin that.

 

[LACowboysFan1]

I understand the frustrations with Zeke getting $15 mil a year and the team's not a SB contender, wanting the backup to be the starter is a time honored tradition with Cowboys fans, from Meredith to Morton, Staubach to Morton, White to Hogeboom, Jones to Barber, Bledsoe to Romo, Romo to Prescott.

Of course I meant Morton to Staubach, sorry, got my progressions out of order...

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

Okay you got me there.. I didn't bother to go look up Russ' latest rushing stats .. Now that I did the first thing that jumps out at me is that he is currently less than 60 yards behind Carson for the rushing lead on that team. Mainly because Carson has already missed two games and will probably missed a couple more. The reason he only played 4 games in 2017 was because he was hurt.. He misses games every year.. He aint gittin bellcow money doin that.

You’re making an argument I’m not.

I don’t believe Chris Carson is a $13-15M/season running back.

If you wanna make the argument that Zeke is durable...okay, I’d agree with you. My point though is when healthy, Carson and Zeke are comparable backs in terms of running the ball, with the exception that Carson has shown he can break long runs.

I bring up the fact that Carson was a 7th round pick because it adds to the mountain of evidence that of all the positions on the field, running back is the one with a demonstrated and undeniable history of providing quality/productive players in late round/rookie free agents.

 

[gimmesix]

The fact is that Elliott hasn't played as well as we expect this season. The fact also is he's playing without his starting quarterback and behind a makeshift line, which means defenses want to stop the run and force us to pass.

These two facts need to be married in any praise or criticism or him.

 

[Big_D]

Carson is still on his rookie contract. Let's wait and see what he gets in his next contract before we laud him for being about as good as Zeke but doesn't get paid as much. If he gets a $13 - 15 million dollar contract what will you say then?

specially if he holds out 2 years ahead of time?

 

[Big_D]

The Rams are better off without Gurley and it will be the same deal here with Elliott if Jerry ever decides to wake up? lol you don’t pay a guy to be a workhorse when a committee is necessary in today’s nfl. It’s just flat out stupid and 2 years into a ridiculous deal your seeing it first hand. Plus the guy is a monumental jackazz on top of it. Him and Jerry are perfect together!

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

Do you have any legitimate stats that say it isn’t or are you just going to pull the “eye test” crap? They looked pretty good against Pitt to me and allegedly they have a top defense.

"Eye test" is how we watch football.

The o-line is what got two QB's injured as they scrambled out of a crumbling pocket. I saw that with my own two eyes stats be dammed.

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

The Rams are better off without Gurley and it will be the same deal here with Elliott if Jerry ever decides to wake up? lol you don’t pay a guy to be a workhorse when a committee is necessary in today’s nfl. It’s just flat out stupid and 2 years into a ridiculous deal your seeing it first hand. Plus the guy is a monumental jackazz on top of it. Him and Jerry are perfect together!

Apparently you're included.

 

[Fastpitch Dad]

Ask Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh defense.. They played a 8 and 9 man boxes on run downs with Zeke in the game a lot of the time.. and sorta laid back and said "prove it" when Pollard was in. That's why there were too many defenders for us to block on so many of Zeke's runs. Most of which he still managed to turn into positive yards. If you honestly can't understand the value of a guy who gets positive yards on 90% of his carries and does the heavy lifting as opposed to a guy who gets a couple of big plays but loses yards on 30-40% of his carries then we will simply have to agree to disagree. Take the second drive of the game when Pollard had his first big run.. He goes for 20 ... then goes for -1 then whiffs on blitz pickup and allows a sack.. After his 20 yarder in the 3rd quarter we go pass pass pass then kick the FG. How you manage to blame Zeke for that is the real mystery here. The next drive he goes 5,12 then -2. Then we sub Zeke in and he goes 16 on the pass.. NG, pass pass, Zeke for 1 , Zeke for 8, FG. We should have gone for it on 4th down there.. McCarthy punked out there.. Then the next drive after the long KO return Zeke goes 5, 10, 2 then we decide to become Air Coryell again and throw the pick.. After Zeke gets us first and goal at the 7. Bad coaching on those two drives cost us 11 points.. Both should have ended in TDs instead of a FG and an INT.

And yeah.. 2nd and 7 is better than 2nd and 11 or 12. Whether you like it or not.. You have more of your playbook at your disposal on 2nd and 6 or 7. You lose a lot of it on 2nd and 10+.

I enjoy reading your posts, they are all well thought out in my opinion.