Many probably won’t agree with me on this take, because we all love to see six, seven and eight yard gains on every single rushing attempt.
Yet the ground game Sunday against the best defense in football was not flashy, but it worked.
The Cowboys ran the football a total of 25 times; the knee down at the end of the game counts as a rush. So 24 times for a total of 102 yards. Just over 4 yards a carry.
Now that I can relax after the game, I understand it is not going to be flashy on the ground, and it still needs to get WAY better, but I will take that against the best defense in football on the road.
Dak & Zeke forever. pic.twitter.com/qpZ5fScnXk
— NFL (@NFL) September 8, 2024
Takeaways
Ezekiel Elliott was the lead back for at least Sunday. He ran 10 times for 40 yards and found the end zone. That was fun to watch.
Zeke struggled to make any jump cuts, or get to the second level against the Browns, but I figured that is what we would see.
Rico Dowdle rushed eight times for 26 yards. They rotated just about every other possession.
As Mike McCarthy said over the summer, this team is going to be a running back by committee. I would have liked to see Deuce Vaughn touch the ball more than once. He gained four yards on his only carry.
If you are going to keep him on the roster, use him.
The best ground game this team has is the jet sweeps they run for CeeDee Lamb and sometimes Brandin Cooks. Lamb got the call three times and had 25 yards, averaging 8.3 yards per attempt.
I found myself wanting more and more from the running backs as the game went on, but we have to understand what this team has out there. I will take 4 yards a carry, honestly. I thought it was less than that.
What I am most happy about is when they got into the red zone, they didn’t struggle to punch it in. From First and Goal from just inside the five, the first carry to Zeke went for score.
That refreshing.
Ezekiel Elliott playing well in his first game back with the Cowboys
First half: 8 touches, 41 yards, TD pic.twitter.com/siLHfZbMrI
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) September 8, 2024
How Will It Improve?
Your guess is as good as mine, but I think they were more worried about Myles Garrett just not being a game wrecker. Two starting rookies on the offensive line in the first game, I will take over 100 yards total.
Cooper Beebe was awesome at center, and will only get better, and as for Tyler Guyton, it looked bad at times just because of who Garrett is, but man for his first NFL start, he hung in there for a lot of the time.
With LT Tyler Guyton and C Cooper Beebe starting yesterday, it marked only the second time since the NFL merger that the Cowboys started two rookie offensive linemen in a season opener. The other time: Tyron Smith and Bill Nagy in 2011.
Dak Prescott on Guyton and Beebe: “I love…
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) September 9, 2024
It marked only the second time since the NFL merger that the Cowboys started two rookie offensive linemen in a season opener. The other time: Tyron Smith and Bill Nagy in 2011.
At some point, I would have to guess we are going to see Dalvin Cook at least get a chance to show if he has anything left in the tank, and adding him won’t hurt them.
Every game is not going to be like this, and they will need to throw the football, so it worked on Sunday, but this game plan could be completely different next week.
It would just be nice to see them be able to have a drive like the Lions did in the overtime win last night. March down the field to win the game.
Goff threw the ball ONE time for 10 yards. The other seven plays were all on the ground.
We will see a lot of games where the total is over 100 yards, but we won’t see many individuals that do it on this team, and that is okay. The run defenses will get easier as the season goes on.
