Archer: Despite stellar start, Ezekiel Elliott sees room for improvement

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,705
Despite stellar start, Ezekiel Elliott sees room for improvement
Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer

FRISCO, Texas -- Believe it or not, Ezekiel Elliott says the Dallas Cowboys' running game can be better.

He is still waiting to break the long runs consistently.

“I mean I broke that one run but there was no one there,” Elliott said. “I’ve yet to show the dominance at the second level and beat the safeties and score long touchdowns. Once that starts happening, you know, it’s going to be kinda scary.”

Elliott was referring to his 60-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second half against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Even though he leads the league in runs of 20 yards or more with seven, Elliott says it can be better.

A year ago, the Cowboys had 17 runs of 20 yards or more. In 2014, when DeMarco Murray led the NFL in rushing with 1,845 yards, the Cowboys had 19 runs of 20 yards or more.

Elliott leads the NFL with 703 yards and is the first rookie in NFL history with four straight games with at least 130 rushing yards.

“He’s a student and he wants to be good,” running backs coach Gary Brown said. “He wants to be great and he listens to advice and he listens to coaching. He’s taken that and been able to adapt to his game what he did at Ohio State and be able to slow his game down a little bit and be able to see things differently. He’s been excellent at it so far, so we’ve got to maintain that excellence.”

Elliott also leads the NFL in carries with 137, putting him on pace for 365 for the season.

The day after games, Elliott spends time in the cold tub to rejuvenate his legs. Two days after, he goes through running work with his teammates. Three days later, he gets a massage.

“My body feels great,” Elliott said. “I think I’ve been doing a good job of just making sure that I’m taking care of my body. Found a good routine and make sure I rehab and get back ready by Sunday but ... I’ve not really taken too many big hits. We got that great O-line so that helps.”

Before the draft, Elliott lobbied to play behind the Cowboys’ offensive line.

“It’s been exactly what I expected,” Elliott said. “Those guys, they work their tails off and you see it in game. You see the results in the games.”

Two years ago, the weekly question around the Cowboys was Murray’s workload. He ended up carrying the ball a franchise-record 392 times. Elliott is averaging 22.8 carries a game. While not at Murray’s pace, Brown said the Cowboys try to monitor the work.

“I think what happens is once he gets into the flow of a game, you want to kind of try to monitor but you understand in tough games you don’t want to compromise your team,” Brown said. “We’ve got to monitor his reps, obviously, but when the game is in the balance, he’s going to be in there.”
 
Top Bottom