Zeke and Pollard

[USArmyVet]

No

Not sure if sarcasm but Pollard didn't do anything today that makes him the starter when zeke is healthy.

Zeke hasn't done anything to make himself the starter or a Top 5 highest paid RB either.

 

[aria]

Pollard was great but he only rushed the ball 13 times. Although Zeke gets tired a lot, he is still capable of getting 25+ touches a game.

That’s odd because zeke is the one who is known for asking to be taken out of the game, especially on critical downs and he has 4 games this year with 12 carries and 1 game with 10 carries.

Hell of an assumption to make about Pollard when your boy zeke has the same amount of rushes and less in multiple games this season when he’s been the starting RB.

 

[aria]

Pollard had one good run today and you annoint him? Sad!

And I'm not your buddy, guy.

That’s one more good run than zeke has had all season buddy.

 

[aria]

Your point is well taken. The problem, however, is getting both in the game at the same time. It's usually one or the other.

 

[USArmyVet]

Pollard was great but he only rushed the ball 13 times. Although Zeke gets tired a lot, he is still capable of getting 25+ touches a game.

....and what happens when Zeke carries the ball a lot? Let's review each season:

2020: when Zeke carries 21+ times he has rushed 6 times for 15 yards...a 2.5 ypc average

2019: when Zeke carries 21+ times he rushed 21 times for 114 yards....a 5.4 ypc average

2018: when Zeke carries 21+ times he rushed 29 times for 61 yards.....a 2.1 ypc average

2017: when Zeke carries 21+ times he rushed 53 times for 198 yards.....a 3.74 ypc average

2016: when Zeke carries 21+ times he rushed 37 times for 169 yards.....a 4.6 ypc average


Totals when Zeke carries 21+ times: 146 times for 557 yards.....a 3.82 ypc average

The point is Zeke carrying the ball 21+ times in a game does not necessarily equate to better production.

 

[aria]

Lol

Lol! He ran for 1357 and a 4.5 average just last season. He was running over 4ypc before Dak got hurt. Teams are still game planning to stop him and stacking 8 in the box to do so. Maybe you need to see the Doc for dementia....

No one’s game planning for him anymore. The amount of stacked boxes he’s faced has consistently gone down since his rookie year and I believe it was last year that ~24 other RB’s in the league faced more stacked boxes than zeke.

Maybe you need to brush up on your delusional zeke facts.

 

[USArmyVet]

Lol

Lol! He ran for 1357 and a 4.5 average just last season. He was running over 4ypc before Dak got hurt. Teams are still game planning to stop him and stacking 8 in the box to do so. Maybe you need to see the Doc for dementia....

Well, let's look at the stats. Here is Zeke before and after Dak got hurt:


Before Dak got hurt (5 games)

89 Carries 364 Yards 4.09 YPC 5 TD's 3 Fumbles


After Dak got hurt (8 games)

122 Carries 468 Yards 3.84 YPC 0 TD's 3 Fumbles


So basically since Dak was injured Zeke has averaged .25 Yards a Carry less than he was with Dak......not exactly a statistical argument that losing Dak has hurt Zeke in terms of his YPC performance.

That said, let's look at Tony Pollard's stats pre and post Dak injury for a comparison:

Before Dak got hurt

13 Carries 62 Yards 4.77 YPC 1 TD 0 Fumbles


After Dak got hurt

74 Carries 346 Yards 4.68 YPC 3 TD's 0 Fumbles


So for Pollard his YPC average went down only .09 yards when Dak got hurt.


Perhaps the issue in terms of running back performance isn't about Dak getting hurt but rather the simple fact that Zeke just isn't performing as well as Pollard.

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

Not sure why people think Zeke faces so many stacked boxes.

Stack boxes 2019
19.27%(27th most in the NFL)

Pollard is facing a higher % of stacked boxes this year than Zeke.
2020
Zeke-22.27%(25th most in the NFL)
Pollard-22.99(22nd most in the NFL)

Last 2 games
VS the Bengals Pollard faced 45.45% stacked boxes to Zekes 25%.
Vs the Niners Pollard faced 33.33% stacked boxes.

Stacked boxes has more to do with personnel grouping and alignment than they do with the individual RB.

Because they can’t explain his decline without spouting a bunch of fables they assume are just true.

 

[Bullflop]

What we're seeing with Zeke is that a RBs body routinely breaks down at about the 5-year mark with many starters. He is now experiencing the curse that many RBs do at this stage of their careers. It's far from an uncommon occurrence in the world of pro football.

The fact that he's now starting to miss games isn't an isolated happening, by any means. We're the witnesses of that now, with Zeke's performance averages dwindling to something considerably less than we've seen in the past. He's just one of man facing that misfortune.

By the looks of the evidence, this is the beginning of the end for Zeke. It will very likely only get worse before it gets better. It's, obviously, time to look to the draft for his replacement, before worse comes to worst. The Dallas FO would likely be well advised to be aware of this fact and act accordingly. Yes, admittedly, it's sad but it happens.

 

[aria]

What we're seeing with Zeke is that a RBs body routinely breaks down at about the 5-year mark with many starters. He is now experiencing the curse that many RBs do at this stage of their careers.

The fact that he's now starting to miss games isn't an isolated happening, by any means. We're the witnesses of that now, with Zeke's performance averages dwindling to something considerably less than we've seen in the past.

By the looks of the evidence, this is the beginning of the end for Zeke. It will very likely only get worse before it gets better. It's, evidently, time to look to the draft for his replacement, before worse comes to worst. The Dallas FO would be well advised to be aware of that fact and act accordingly. Yes, it's sad but it happens.

Good thing we may have another top 10 pick to draft another RB

 

[Bullflop]

Good thing we may have another top 10 pick to draft another RB

Lol, no real need to go there, yet again. There will be fine replacements available in the mid rounds, as we've seen with other teams.

 

[LACowboysFan1]

Nice day overall for Pollard. But his average per carry of 5.75 is misleading. "Average" has different measures, statistically. The 5.75 is more precisely the "mean", there's also "median" and "mode". Of course the mean is used for comparison among running backs, over the course of even a Dorsett's career, let alone Emmitt's, trying to figure the median and mode would give way too many numbers.

Commonly even to get a "true" mean, you take all the raw numbers and remove the highest and the lowest, and then compute the mean. Pollard had 12 carries for 69 yards, removing the 40 yard high and his zero yard low (if I didn't miss one of his runs), you have 10 carries for 29 yards, or a 2.9 carry. That's not good.

Has Zeke had some of those games? Sure, every back has. And this is only one game as a starter for Pollard, that's obviously not enough data to make a valid judgement as to his ability. But the really hard core Zeke detractors will say Pollard is better than Zeke, should be the starter, etc. Since we have only this one game so far, what you have is insufficient information to determine that, but again taking this one game, Pollard hasn't shown that.

Next year, barring a lengthy injury or illness to Pollard, we should be able to make a better determination. And the contract doesn't enter into it, Zeke will get paid next year one way or the other, not talking about "worth" here, just the ability to help the Cowboys win SBs...

 

[QuincyCarterEra]

Zeke > Pollard

Only in hype

That's it.

 

[LACowboysFan1]

Only in hype

That's it.

Though I do think Pollard has great value as a receiver out of the backfield, has more quickness and elusiveness than Zeke, so we should keep him around as a complimentary back to Zeke....

 

[MyFairLady]

There is no doubt in my mind that we lose that game if fat Zeke plays. Addition by subtraction. Fat Zeke is done.

 

[Tommy]

Zeke > Pollard

It might be true but he hasn't done a good job of proving it.

 

[blueblood70]

Zeke has been a great mentor and tutor for Pollard!!!
Thank you Zeke!!!

hope thats you usual sarcasm

damn good he was average at best..nice backup but pay attention to the entire game not one or two plays

nearly 4 full qtrs Pollard was,

11-29 1td need the math 2.9 ypc

ONE(1) nice 4th qtr run full of bad tackling ill take it =40 he saved his sat line on his final run..so 2.9 for nearly the entire game became what appears to be very solid game on his final run..

the rest were bad all game so for the game as runner hes was not good at all.not blaming him like you all blame zeke the OL can NOT run block and KM can not call runs fdor a true tail back..hes using our running backs like Full backs and its pathetic really..

you hear Pollards post game comment he accidentally had Freudian slip on Moores play calling being the 'usual " runs up the gut..lmao..go find it ..

the OL and the OC are far better in the pass game then the run game

 

[blueblood70]

It might be true but he hasn't done a good job of proving it.

this year neither has chance the OL is just bad at run blocking, period end of all comps we saw it 11-29 from pollard until his last run..2.9ypc for 50mins of football is great to you? hater hate trolls can TRY hard but we saw its truly a team issue with the run game this season..

 

[JohnsKey19]

Pollard was great but he only rushed the ball 13 times. Although Zeke gets tired a lot, he is still capable of getting 25+ touches a game.

Been saying it since 2019 preseason. Obviously the flow of each game is different, but on average Zeke can get his 22+ touches while Pollard gets 12+ touches each game. The organization needs to get over the fact that they gave Zeke that contract and not allow that to dictate how he is used on the field.

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

hope thats you usual sarcasm

damn good he was average at best..nice backup but pay attention to the entire game not one or two plays

nearly 4 full qtrs Pollard was,

11-29 1td need the math 2.9 ypc

ONE(1) nice 4th qtr run full of bad tackling ill take it =40 he saved his sat line on his final run..so 2.9 for nearly the entire game became what appears to be very solid game on his final run..

the rest were bad all game so for the game as runner hes was not good at all.not blaming him like you all blame zeke the OL can NOT run block and KM can not call runs fdor a true tail back..hes using our running backs like Full backs and its pathetic really..

you hear Pollards post game comment he accidentally had Freudian slip on Moores play calling being the 'usual " runs up the gut..lmao..go find it ..

the OL and the OC are far better in the pass game then the run game

Notice he doesn’t bring up a single one of Zeke’s poor performances this year (and there’s plenty to choose from).