Twitter: The plan is for Pollard to get the majority of the touches today

[Coogiguy03]

What a horrible use of $$ and cap space that Zeke contract has been. Not only diminishing returns on the field but injuries keeping him from playing.

So stupid of Jerrah to cave on Zeke's holdout. Hopefully his will be his last season here.

He'll do it again!!!!!!

 

[RonnieT24]

Yep and they quit using him and running the ball. For some reason in a big game they think they have to pass more. If you run you will start breaking longer runs then you play action later and the big pass plays are there. This is a big game so let’s see if they can resist.

Man don't remind me. I lose all hope of us winning any big games as long as Moore is callin the shots. I mean dude didn't lean on the running game when we were ahead most of the way in Green Bay facing a Hall of Fame QB with essentially two rookies at corner. He made no effort to control the clock and protect the defense that was getting gashed. It's like he's not even paying attention when we don't have the ball. Which comes back to McCarthy.. he has GOT to walk over to Moore and get in his face and tell him "Do you see what's happening to our defense? We need to play keep-away!" In fact if Dak is audibling out of runs maybe McCarthy needs to bring him into that meeting too.

 

[USArmyVet]

But a healthy Zeke may have averaged 8 YPC.

Zeke would not have averaged 8 ypc as he is done.

 

[fansince68]

What a horrible use of $$ and cap space that Zeke contract has been. Not only diminishing returns on the field but injuries keeping him from playing.

So stupid of Jerrah to cave on Zeke's holdout. Hopefully his will be his last season here.

That backfield is loaded with horrible uses of the salary cap.

 

[USArmyVet]

A healthy Zeke did average ~7 ypc against Philthy... so maybe we don't have to go back that far.. But you probably didn't see that game as it was blacked out in all but a couple of markets.

Zeke averaged 6.2 ypc vs. Philly....and 4 of Zeke's 7 games saw him average between 2.6-3.8 ypc

 

[RonnieT24]

What a horrible use of $$ and cap space that Zeke contract has been. Not only diminishing returns on the field but injuries keeping him from playing.

So stupid of Jerrah to cave on Zeke's holdout. Hopefully his will be his last season here.

Jerry's mistake was turning over the play calling duties to a guy who needed about 5 more years of training before he would be ready to do it. The result has been absolutely no rhythm or identity to the offense these last 4 years. The pattern is clear.. rack up amazing numbers against teams with inferior talent or feeble coaching, then look like a high school team against teams with equal or better talent and better coaching. If the Cowboys had kept building their offense around Zeke and the offensive line they would have been a much better team, a much tougher playoff out and they would have gotten their money's worth from Zeke. Turning him into a glorified fullback has contributed mightily the decline in his production and hastened the onset of his injuries. People can continue to blame Zeke for that all they want.. and they're always going to be wrong.

 

[RonnieT24]

Zeke averaged 6.2 ypc vs. Philly....and 4 of Zeke's 7 games saw him average between 2.6-3.8 ypc

Yeah I corrected that after looking it up.. But he was averaging right at 6 ypc against Detroit before he had 3 goal line carries and then 3-4 other end of the game falldowns. Context matters.. His average suffered a similar fate as we ran down the clock against the Bengals, Commanders and Rams. He has willingly sacrificed his personal stats for the team time and again. I find the lack of appreciation for that astounding.

 

[lukin2006]

Every-time Pollard touches the ball he has a touch to take it to the house. We need a receiver like that as well…

 

[glimmerman]

Man don't remind me. I lose all hope of us winning any big games as long as Moore is callin the shots. I mean dude didn't lean on the running game when we were ahead most of the way in Green Bay facing a Hall of Fame QB with essentially two rookies at corner. He made no effort to control the clock and protect the defense that was getting gashed. It's like he's not even paying attention when we don't have the ball. Which comes back to McCarthy.. he has GOT to walk over to Moore and get in his face and tell him "Do you see what's happening to our defense? We need to play keep-away!" In fact if Dak is audibling out of runs maybe McCarthy needs to bring him into that meeting too.

Agreed. Someone said in the bucs game Dak audibles out of runs 12 times. That’s changing the game. Elliot was running good in the game. That’s got to stop. He has to know how much easier it is on him later in the game if he establishes the run first. These defenses are showing him something that makes him want to change. I would be interested how many times when he changes the play that it works.

 

[USArmyVet]

Yeah I corrected that after looking it up.. But he was averaging right at 6 ypc against Detroit before he had 3 goal line carries and then 3-4 other end of the game falldowns. Context matters.. His average suffered a similar fate as we ran down the clock against the Bengals, Commanders and Rams. He has willingly sacrificed his personal stats for the team time and again. I find the lack of appreciation for that astounding.

Well he is playing like a FB and getting paid like a Top 3 RB, which he no longer is so there's the lack of appreciation.

 

[RonnieT24]

Agreed. Someone said in the bucs game Dak audibles out of runs 12 times. That’s changing the game. Elliot was running good in the game. That’s got to stop. He has to know how much easier it is on him later in the game if he establishes the run first. These defenses are showing him something that makes him want to change. I would be interested how many times when he changes the play that it works.

That was after the 2021 game not this year's. Given that we ran the ball 20+ times in this year's game after only 14 last year I can only conclude that we stuck with it a little more this time around. The problem was the Bucs defeated out line and got Pollard for losses on something like 3 of his 6 carries. That's the biggest positive Zeke brings.. he gets positive yards most of the time even when the line loses. When that happens to Pollard it's generally a negative play.

As for Dak changing plays though.. I have been saying since the Romo days that the Cowboys need to overhaul their automatic call sheet. Automatics are the plays that you go to whenever you see certain looks from the defense. They are designed to exploit certain exposed areas. The problem that I have seen is that teams know this about the Cowboys offense and frequently show those looks pre-snap then drop into the perfect defense for the automatic. It used to defeat Romo time and again and force a lot of head scratching interceptions. It wasn't until late 2013 when the light bulb went on for Romo and he started reading it and torching it. HE adjusted the calls on the fly and abused the defense for playing that game with him.

Before 2020 Dak pretty much stayed with the call upwards of 90% of the time.. but in 2020 you could see he took more command of the offense and started orchestrating things more at the line of scrimmage. That has been a mixed bag. When he has been right the results have been spectacular. When he has been wrong it has been a disaster. Mind you he is right WAY more often than he has been wrong.. which is why the offense has been among the best in the league for the last three years when he has been on the field. But against top DCs and teams with top defensive talent, he (and Moore) has been found wanting. Now Romo was in year 10 when it clicked for him.. Dak is in year 7.. I sincerely hope we don't have to wait another three years for him to see the light. The main thing he has to do is quit allowing the defense to okie doke him out of running the ball. No matter how much confidence he has in his arm and his receivers.. nothing takes a defense's heart like ramming it down their throat 4-5 yards at a time.

 

[RonnieT24]

Well he is playing like a FB and getting paid like a Top 3 RB, which he no longer is so there's the lack of appreciation.

So lemme ask you this.. You think Zeke is over there in Kellen Moore's ear saying "All I wanna do is slam into the middle of the defense 10-12 times and stay in and block and repeatedly let some 260 pound dude with a head of steam punch me in the face today?"

Edit: As long as whatever he's doing is helping my team win, why the hell would I care about his paygrade?

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

Yeah I corrected that after looking it up.. But he was averaging right at 6 ypc against Detroit before he had 3 goal line carries and then 3-4 other end of the game falldowns. Context matters.. His average suffered a similar fate as we ran down the clock against the Bengals, Commanders and Rams. He has willingly sacrificed his personal stats for the team time and again. I find the lack of appreciation for that astounding.

Hey guys, you heard it here first. The reason why Zeke YPC is low is because he’s the not RB in the league asked to carry on short yardage situations.

Please tweet Zeke your apologies.

 

[Starforever]

First play of the game, Zeke off right tackle for three, and here we go.