Ezekiel Elliott averaging 3.6 yards per carry

[Wood]

Though 4 games Ezekiel Elliott averaging 3.6 yards per carry and is on pace 1108 yards rushing for the season.

I'll be honest, to my untrained eye he doesn't look any bigger despite repeated threads here on CZ that he has gotten fat.

What do you attribute his mediocre performance to this season? The court case? Lack of conditioning? Lack of cohesive offensive line play?

he looks exhausted. We don't know whats going on behind scenes. He likely isnt partying as much. Probably has family members in his ear daily about doing right things. Has Cowboys staff in his ear about staying on right path. Plus court appearances. I just think his life took big turn he wasn't planning for and its had an effect.

 

[aria]

I think he's taking his dumb feed me celebration a little too literally. And seriously what kind of grown man wears a shirt/jersey like that and carries a purse? I'm willing to bet the chump has more issues then what we (the public) are already aware of. He's a head case and god knows with a head that size there's plenty of room for crazy.

 

[Sepia]

15 percent drop in max speed is significant.

When the eyeball matches the statistics something is up.

He's not in the same shape he was his rookie year. And given his offseason hijinks is anyone surprised?

Does he seem like a grinder to any of you?

I vaguely remember the mic'd up video comment he made early last season about being out of shape or overweight. I think it was either against the Bengals or Green Bay. I think the Bengals game was the first time we saw his real track speed. Maybe it takes him a while to play himself into football shape after doing nothing in the preseason.

 

[aria]

I vaguely remember the mic'd up video comment he made early last season about being out of shape or overweight. I think it was either against the Bengals or Green Bay. I think the Bengals game was the first time we saw his real track speed. Maybe it takes him a while to play himself into football shape after doing nothing in the preseason.

Could be but it's pretty pathetic and selfish if that's the case. Based on his character, I'm not surprised but would hope he would be in football shape during the preseason or game 1 at the latest. It's his job and his teammates, owner and fans rely on him to be ready to go.

He's still well above average, just a headache, immature, and unprofessional.

 

[Toruk_Makto]

I vaguely remember the mic'd up video comment he made early last season about being out of shape or overweight. I think it was either against the Bengals or Green Bay. I think the Bengals game was the first time we saw his real track speed. Maybe it takes him a while to play himself into football shape after doing nothing in the preseason.

That's nonsense. Skill position players always have limited game reps in the preseason. That hasn't stopped a host of them needing a quarter of the freaking season to wake up.

I just don't think Zeke worked hard this offseason. Everything went perfectly his rookie season and he thought he'd just step into season 2 and pick up where he left off.

 

[Cmac]

Zeke was making something from nothing yesterday....and we wanted him to overpower 3 Rams on the last play.

Back on JG.....never see him impacting his Coordinators' play calling or scheme. Maybe it happens (which would be further indictment), but I don't see any progress regarding mediocre or bad play......Nothing.

 

[Sarge]

The offensive line has been a problem for both Dak and Zeke.

We have a winner here.

 

[fairviewfarmer]

Though 4 games Ezekiel Elliott averaging 3.6 yards per carry and is on pace 1108 yards rushing for the season.

I'll be honest, to my untrained eye he doesn't look any bigger despite repeated threads here on CZ that he has gotten fat.

What do you attribute his mediocre performance to this season? The court case? Lack of conditioning? Lack of cohesive offensive line play?

Look no further than the O-line. jmo.

 

[lukin2006]

There is nothing wrong with Zeke that better coaching and play calling won't solve...and I almost forgot give him the rock 20 + times

 

[John813]

Teams have studied what made us successful last year and are forcing us to go deep.
Offensive line has regressed. Either with the loss of Leary(and even Free) and/or regression to the All Pro linemen.
Dak has had some inaccurate outings. I vaguely remember last year he had some bad starts but fixed his issues. This year he has stayed in slumps all game.
Offensive playing calling is as predictable as a 12 year old playing Madden. 2014 and 2016 teams knew what we were going to do, but most struggled to stop us. This year, not so much.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

We have a winner here.

No one wants to admit it because of their man crush for the line but it isn't up to par. Not this year.

 

[khiladi]

Romo couldn't do it either.

Just repeating it doesn't make it true..

 

[Everson24]

I thought there were a few wide open holes today and they just continuously tried to throw the ball. Seems they are content on trying to force things to Dez.

I haven't looked at the all-22 coaches tape yet, But I think teams are taking away the run first (on first and second downs) and then Beasley is their main focus on third and less than 10. This coverage is forcing Dak to throw a lower percentage pass to the outside to Dez. Our #2 WRs are not good enough to get consistently open against man coverage and move the chains. Witten bogs down the middle of the field on anything longer than 3rd and 3 too.

We may need to get Switzer more involved on third downs and we absolutely need to pass teams out of the double-A gap run blitzes on early downs. We tried some WR screens early but they were poorly executed.

 

[mahoneybill]

Zeke is actually the only player right now I have any confidence in on offense. I thought we should have dumped it off to him the whole time in the 2 minute. The Oline sucks now and our OC is not adjusting or changing anything. That's the issue.

So true. 2, TD s and more production than our starting WR. May be wrong but I think Dez had a 50% catch ratio. Time to use him on slants and let him muscle his way as downfields are jump balls that he isn't coming down with

 

[mahoneybill]

I haven't looked at the all-22 coaches tape yet, But I think teams are taking away the run first (on first and second downs) and then Beasley is their main focus on third and less than 10. This coverage is forcing Dak to throw a lower percentage pass to the outside to Dez. Our #2 WRs are not good enough to get consistently open against man coverage and move the chains. Witten bogs down the middle of the field on anything longer than 3rd and 3 too.

We may need to get Switzer more involved on third downs and we absolutely need to pass teams out of the double-A gap run blitzes on early downs. We tried some WR screens early but they were poorly executed.

Good point on the screens. This game reminded me of an NFC east match as the rams were ready for every play. Credit wade also for knowing our tendencies.

 

[Aven8]

So true. 2, TD s and more production than our starting WR. May be wrong but I think Dez had a 50% catch ratio. Time to use him on slants and let him muscle his way as downfields are jump balls that he isn't coming down with

Problem with that is he has dropped at least two slants already and one of them got picked because of it. I can deal with slow, aging WR, but to lose his hands?? His head is somewhere else it seems.

 

[khiladi]

Dak was the most accurate passer off of play action. Our usage of play action during the Romo era was essentially non-existent, but it was a staple of the offense with Dak.

The problem necessarily with the following article in its comparison with Commanders and Seahawks is that the very fact that Elliott was running well is a point in favor it was Elliott that allowed Dak to be that accurate.

The Commanders ran over 100 times less with Cousins collectively, less effectively and the Seahawks maybe around 80 and below 4 YPC average collectively.

A large part of Dak's success last year is because of Zeke.. and now Zeke, whatever the reason, isn't having as great a year..

https://www.___GET_REAL_URL___/s/th...ak-prescott-play-action-pass-completions/amp/

 

[khiladi]

And just to point out a fact, Demarco Murray's rushing attempts on first down were not what Zeke's was doing last year at 5 YPC regularly with essentially the same OL. We often sucked on first running so it wasn't just the OL that was responsible for our rushing attack.

So Dak was benefitting tremendously in the passing game from Zeke.. play action and first down chunks of yardage Dak was getting to work on second and third down with.

Teams are probably taking 'more risks', particularly the DBs and LBs moving up, to stop Zeke on first down and preventing that 5 YPC stat.

 

[MarionBarberThe4th]

He's not getting mile wide holes to run thru

Thought he was overrated as blank last season. As I said then: he gets what's there. I never saw it from him.

I agree about his weight. Dak haters will say 9 in the box.

He got what was there on those two scoring plays?

 

[mcmvp]

Cowboys will likely rank 7th in the NFC and 14th in the NFL in rushing offense after week 4 (after tonight's game)

NFC http://www.espn.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/rushing/league/nfc
NFL http://www.espn.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/rushing