'Balancing Act': Dallas' Dak Prescott & Ezekiel Elliott Exactly What Contending Cowboys Need
About a month ago I wrote the following about the Dallas Cowboys’ season-opening loss to Tampa Bay, one that saw Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott set an NFL record for most completions in a Week 1 game and running back Ezekiel Elliott basically ignored, as he carried the ball 11 times for 33 yards:
What the Cowboys have to do is find a balance, one that allows Elliott to be productive and allows Prescott to change the game. The Cowboys probably weren’t going to solve that balance issue against the Bucs.
Well, after five games, it looks like they’ve solved the ‘balance issue.’
Late in the broadcast of the Cowboys’ 44-20 win over the New York Giants, Troy Aikman mentioned the Cowboys had run the ball 57 percent of the time since that Week 1 loss. Now that makes it sound like the Cowboys overreacted to Week 1 and are handing the ball to Elliott and Tony Pollard too much.
But that’s actually not the case.
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A word about ‘balance’ in the NFL. It shouldn’t be some strict adherence to trying to make sure the run game receives the same amount of touches as the quarterback throws the ball. That’s simply not what any NFL coach is going for. ‘Balance’ is about making sure that one half of the offense gets the ball enough, and creates enough production with their opportunities, to help the other half succeed, and vice versa.
My point in Week 1 was that the run game wasn’t even given the chance to help the pass game. There was no investment that night in Tampa, even with a relatively healthy team. And it all felt eerily reminiscent of the Cowboys’ first five games last season, when Prescott put up mammoth numbers before his injury.
What we’ve seen from the Cowboys the past month is the kind of ‘balance’ I was hoping to see entering the season.
The phrase Dak used in the postgame presser, multiple times? "Complementary football.'' And how does that work?
Elliott now looks like the Zeke that won rushing titles. His 110 yards rushing on just 21 carries included a touchdown. He now has five rushing touchdowns this season and has gained at least 70 yards in each game since Week 1.
The time he has ceded to Tony Pollard is part of that balance, too. Pollard has received roughly 10 carries per game since Week 1 and he’s rushing for at least 60 yards in each of those games, including the 109 yards against the Chargers in Week 2.
None of this is coming at the expense of Prescott, who is still putting up great numbers and now doesn’t have to play like Superman to do it. He had completed 75.2 percent of his passes and had thrown for 1,066 yards and 10 touchdowns, along with two interceptions, going into Sunday’s game. He completed 100 of his first 133 passes. Incredible stuff.
So, on Sunday, while Elliott got his 110 yards rushing and Pollard got his 75 yards rushing, Prescott was brilliant again, throwing for 302 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
You’ve heard some announcers in recent weeks call the Cowboys ‘multiple.’ That’s just another way of saying the Cowboys are balanced. When you have balance, defenses can’t load eight in the box to stop the run and dare you to pass. And defenses can’t play deep zone and dare you to run. The way the Cowboys are playing right now, a defense dares Dallas to do anything at its own peril.
Now, if we’re comparing last season to this season, there are some qualifiers. By this time last season, the Cowboys were already banged up — and not just Prescott’s gruesome injury. The offensive line was down two starters, with Tyron Smith and La’el Collins done for the season. Both are back, though Collins is serving a five-game suspension that has made its way to Federal court. The Cowboys were breaking in a rookie center, Tyler Biadasz, and he looks like a new player this year. Other younger offensive linemen, like Terence Steele, Connor Williams and Connor McGovern, are a year older and more mature, too.
It’s much easier to grade the road and protect the quarterback when the offensive line is relatively healthy and isn’t in a weekly shuffle to try and close the cracks up front.
Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore deserves credit, too. He seems particularly unleashed as a play-caller this season, more so than in any other season he’s served in the position. Sure, having all the toys helps. But he’s in Year 3 as an offensive coordinator. The experience of knowing what works — and what doesn’t work — with generally the same personnel he’s managed since 2019 helps him pull the rights strings. Few of his calls have gone awry the past month.
The Cowboys now look like a team that could run away with the NFC East (that’s hyperbolic and we KNOW nothing is easy in the NFL). But I made the point a month ago about WHY finding that balance was so important:
If these Cowboys wants to make the playoffs, they have to solve it. A one-dimensional Cowboys offense, as we saw on Thursday night, won’t make it happen, no matter how many turnovers the Cowboys’ defense creates.
So, now that take that ‘balance’ and combine it with the Cowboys’ continued nose for creating turnovers, and well, maybe the hyperbole of running away with the NFC East doesn’t seem so hyperbolic anymore.
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You can reach Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
