Archer: Ezekiel Elliott's style will impact Cowboys on both sides of the ball

Cotton

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Ezekiel Elliott's style will impact Cowboys on both sides of the ball
7:03 AM CT
Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer

FRISCO, Texas -- Ezekiel Elliott carried the ball only seven times in the preseason, but oh what a seven carries they were.

Seattle Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor has been selected to the Pro Bowl the past three seasons. He is one of the bigger hitters in the NFL. And Elliott didn’t care.

Twice in his seven carries, the Dallas Cowboys' rookie running back went at Chancellor, lowering his shoulder into him, spinning out of a tackle.

“Honestly, when I’m out there, I really don’t even think about them as guys with names,” Elliott said after the game. “I look at them as numbers. Honestly, the type of runner I am, I’m a physical guy and I try to set the tone early in the game, so you’re going to see it a lot in the first and second quarter. I’m going to finish my runs hard and I’m going to try to set the tone.”

Dez Bryant did not make the trip to Seattle because of a concussion so he watched the game from his house. Elliott had Bryant screaming on just about every one of his 48 yards.

"He had me crazy,” Bryant said. "Had me crazy on fire. Like, 'Hey, that's what I'm talking about. He's ready. He's ready to go.'”

Elliott will make his regular-season debut Sunday against the New York Giants at AT&T Stadium. The expectations for Elliott have been extra high since the Cowboys selected him with the fourth overall pick in April.

He is already expected to be the Cowboys’ next great back, joining Hall of Famers Tony Dorsett and Emmitt Smith. He is already expected to challenge what DeMarco Murray did two seasons ago when he ran for a franchise-record 1,845 yards.

It is entirely unfair to pin those kinds of expectations on him, but the carries against the Seahawks offered a glimpse of what he can mean to this season’s team if not the organization’s past and future.

Even before Tony Romo suffered a compression fracture of his L1 vertebra on the same night Elliott made his preseason appearance, Elliott was expected to be a fixture in the Cowboys’ offense. Now that rookie Dak Prescott is the starting quarterback for the foreseeable future, the Cowboys will need Elliott more.

But it’s not just the production. It’s the attitude as well.

In 2014, Murray’s hard-running style transformed the Cowboys from a team that threw it entirely too much in their three straight 8-8 finishes from 2011-13 to a ground-oriented attack that accentuated Romo’s abilities and led to the quarterback’s best season. The Cowboys won the NFC East with a 12-4 record.

The toughness that Jason Garrett has wanted from his offense by drafting three offensive linemen -- Tyron Smith (2011), Travis Frederick (2013) and Zack Martin (2014) -- was finally achieved.

It was lost a year ago when the Cowboys suffered through a 4-12 record.

“Everybody feeds off of each other,” Garrett said. “If you're a runner in our system, I think you feed off the guys who are playing in front of you and those guys do such a good job coming off the ball and if you watched our guys closely play [against Seattle], there was a real physicalness to our play, not only the start of the play but the end of the play. I think if you're a running back, you feel that. Certainly it works both ways. If the runner is contributing that physicalness, I think it helps the offensive linemen, the tight ends, the fullback and the receivers be physical.”

But it’s not just the offense that is affected by a running back’s style. The Cowboys' defense fed off Murray two years ago and fed off Elliott against Seattle. The Cowboys want -- or need -- to see that carry over into the regular season.

“Just to see him in his first game in against a team that everybody fears, respects, whatever you want to call it, he goes out there and lowers the boom a few times and gets back up and tries to do it again,” cornerback Brandon Carr said. “We look forward to that physicality from him, that mindset from him that he can go run through any guy and make you miss at anytime. It should be a good year for him.”
 

ravidubey

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Murray's TD run in the Detroit playoff game underscored how much he meant to that whole season. His emotions were clear and the team fed off it. I could feel it through the set.

We need that kind of presence from all our backs.
 

Genghis Khan

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Murray's TD run in the Detroit playoff game underscored how much he meant to that whole season. His emotions were clear and the team fed off it. I could feel it through the set.

We need that kind of presence from all our backs.
Having a bell cow is so important for us, so I'm glad we have one again.
 
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