You may think Zeke needs more carries to fix the Cowboys offense — but he doesn’t

Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott is tied for the NFL lead in rushing with 274 yards.

The Cowboys are 1-2, coming off his best rushing performance of the season with 126 yards on 16 carries in last Sunday’s 24-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

Elliott is averaging a career-low 16 carries through the first three games.

Does he believe he needs more touches to help the team’s ailing offense, especially with coach Jason Garrett declaring on Wednesday that there won’t “be any dramatic personnel changes. We’ve just got to get back and get locked in and start finding ways to move the ball, be efficient and productive offensively”?

And is he going to go offensive coordinator Scott Linehan asking for more carries?

“No,” was Elliott’s brief and succinct answer, which may come as a surprise to some.

But he says the Cowboys problems are poor execution and getting behind in games, not a lack of touches for him.

“I mean, I would love to see it more, but I just think the nature of the games we’ve played in these first three games, we’ve been down,” Elliott said. “We’ve been having to try to come back. It’s hard to come back and try to run the ball. When you run out of time in the game you can’t just be sitting there trying to pound it. You can’t have nine-minute drives when you need to score in three possessions. You know what I mean. You’ve got to conserve that clock and try to score as fast as you can.”

The Cowboys trailed by 16 before finally getting on the board in a 16-8 loss to the Carolina Panthers in the season opener and by 18 in last Sunday’s 24-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Elliott said the Cowboys have to find a way to start faster so they can stick with the run.

“At the end of the day, if you go back and watch the film, it’s poor execution on offense,” Elliott said. “You can’t run the ball if you’re down by 17 points. That’s what it is. If we get behind, we’re going to have to throw the ball. We’re not going to be able to do what we want to do. So what we have to do, so we can be able to run the ball more, is be better early in the game. If we’re better early in the game and we’re not taking those three-and-outs, if we’re not in long down and distance, we can run the football. If we can execute early then we can run the football as much as we want.”

Elliott said he needs to be better to help the team as well. He lost his place on the field and ran out of bounds, costing the Cowboys a touchdown against the Seahawks. He also had a fumble that killed another would-be scoring drive.

“I have to have better awareness,” Elliott said. “It was poor awareness by me. I have to be more locked in. I had the fumble. I can’t put the ball on the ground. When we execute we are going to be a better team.”

The team has executed well enough in the running game for Elliott to be among the league’s rushing leaders on limited carries.

It’s the passing game that has been the biggest problem. It ranks second to last in the league and quarterback Dak Prescott has passed for less than 200 yards in all three games and nine of the last 11 dating back to last season.

Elliott said the Cowboys remain supportive and confident in Prescott even though the Cowboys are shockingly averaging more yards per rush (6.0) than they are per pass completion (5.66).

“I think we have confidence,” Elliott said. “We have confidence in our plays. We have confidence in our quarterback going out there and making plays. We just have to execute. Dak is a great player. One of his biggest strengths is he leaves those bad plays behind him. That is what he going to continue to do. We believe in that.”

And about that league rushing lead?

“It’s early. We got a lot more football to play,” Elliott said. “Got to keep working, keep pushing, keep grinding and keep executing. We got to get better as a team.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2018 at 6:04 PM.