Zeke is on pace for 1,300+ yards

[Thomas82]

I felt like he was pretty consistently getting 4-6 yards on first downs, which isn’t bad. I was hoping to see a few longer runs mixed in, but games don’t always go as I would like. It seemed he was on the verge of breaking a few. I suspect Zeke will get his share of longer runs at all points in the game as the season goes along.

Yeah, he almost broke a few yesterday. In fact, he almost broke one when we were on our own 3-yard line, but he still got 8 on that play.

 

[PoetTree]

Zeke has looked good since coming back.

When Emmitt got back from his no-show in '93, they brought him along slowly and used him sparingly --even less than we've used Zeke this year. Emmitt's first two games produced a combined:

21 carries for 116 yards, 1 TD, 5.52 ypc

... and that was even over a three-week span of time, as the Cowboys bye came in week-4, one-game after Emmitt's return (in which he only received 8 carries). Following the bye, having had two full weeks of practice, they still only handed the ball to him 13 times.

Zeke, on the other hand, has accrued 36 carries for 164 yards, 2 TDs, 4.60 per-carry since his return. He's being positively force-fed by comparison. Remember, this guy missed all of training-camp. Emmitt attested recently that it took him some time to get his legs back under him.

These guys are not robots. Kobe Bryant forged his way into the conversation of 'greatest ever' through unrivaled, unrelenting practice; something Ezekiel didn't have but three of before the season-opener. He was a questionable illegal-motion penalty against Amari Cooper away from averaging 4.9 yards-per-carry in his first game back. He averaged 4.8 ypc yesterday.

Those are both excellent marks regardless of circumstance.

Had you "projected" how Smith's season would have gone based on only his first two games back, as you've done here with Zeke, it would have calculated out to a 147-carry, 812-yard season. Instead, he went on to record an MVP-winning, 283-carry, 1,486-yard campaign.

After the first two games of Emmitt's return, detailed above, in which he was regaining his rhythm & stamina, his season went on to look like:


week-6

25 carries, 104 yards, 1 TD, 4.2 yards-per-carry


week-7

27 carries, 92 yards, 1 TD, 3.4 yards-per-carry


week 8 --(1993, when they had two byes)


week-9

30 carries, 237 yards, 1 TD, 7.9 yards-per-carry


week-10

24 carries, 117 yards, 2 TDs, 4.9 yards-per-carry


week-11

24 carries, 80 yards, 1 TD, 3.3 yards-per-carry


week-12

1 carry, 1 yard, 0 TD, 1.0 yards-per-carry


week-13

16 carries, 51 yards, 0 TD, 3.2 yards-per-carry


week-14

23 carries, 172 yards, 0 TD, 7.5 yards-per-carry


week-15

19 carries, 104 yards, 1 TD, 5.5 yards-per-carry


week-16

20 carries, 91 yards, 0 TD, 4.6 yards-per-carry


week-17

21 carries, 153 yards, 1 TD, 7.3 yards-per-carry


week-18

32 carries, 168 yards, 0 TD, 5.3 yards-per-carry


Now, bear with me: Emmitt got injured early in the week-12 game against Atlanta, recording 1 carry for 1 yard. This injury slowed his pace as he worked his way back into form over the next week's game. We'll keep that somewhat gimped performance as part of the tally, but subtract the meaningless 1-yard game from the equation, and what it reveals is that over an 11-game span following those first two "warm-up" games to start the season, Emmitt reeled off:

261 carries, 1,369 yards, 8 TDs, 5.24 yards-per-carry @ 124.45 yards-per-game

Though not in sheer statistics, 1993 was probably Emmitt's most dominant season. You might not have thought so by averaging the totals from his first two games back. Just as it would be foolhardy to presume Zeke's 2019 by what he's done in his first two games back.

In fact, if you project his season based solely on his second-game back, which is probably a better barometer for how he'll be used than game-1 was, then Elliott is on pace for a 358 carry, 1,718 yard, 16 TD, 4.8 yard-per-carry season --which would give him a very good chance of leading the league in rushing.


Any fan who wouldn't think Elliott worth the money after that sort of campaign, doesn't understand football...

 

[iamliko22]

Two games...

 

[blueblood70]

Everybody that got paid is having a bullseye on them lol. Tank should have 5 sacks, Jaylon 10 tackles for loss, Zeke 6 tds. Right? Lord help us when Dak gets paid.

right..

 

[blueblood70]

I know this is odd way to do these lists om yards vs everything else but I found it interesting

NFL top 10 in every category on page 1, where sall the cowboys? wheres dak?

Oh wait we have atop 5 it EE lol ;0) still the best lol

http://www.nfl.com/stats/weeklyleaders

 

[Thomas82]

Zeke is currently 8th in the NFL with 164 yards.