Will a banged-up Ezekiel Elliott be ready to carry a bigger load against the Texans?
Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott came out of last Sunday’s physical but career-best performance in the 26-24 victory against the Detroit Lions with a sore ankle and knee bursitis.
Elliott, who had a career-high 240 yards of total offense (152 on the ground and 88 via the air), ended the game with a noticeable limp, even when he caught a 34-yard pass on the final game-winning drive.
But he said afterward that it was nothing serious.
And while coach Jason Garrett said they will manage Elliott in practice this week, he said it was nothing that will keep him off the field for Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans.
Owner Jerry Jones expressed a similar sentiment during his radio show on 105.3 The Fan Tuesday.
He said Elliott was banged up but not the extent that it would cause him to miss time.
And Jones wants doesn’t want a lightened workload for Elliott either, because he sets the tone for the offense with his physical style and opens things up for his teammates.
Elliott had 25 carries and four receptions against the Lions after averaging a little more than 19 touches the first three games combined.
“I do want that kind of workload for him,” Jones said. “He’s healthy. He’s very physical. You take more when you’re contesting Zeke than you give out. In other words, he wins most of those physical confrontations. He wins them. That takes its toll on the defense. Not only that, it inspires his teammates. It inspires the team.
“Football is physical. We’ve got us a really outstanding player that plays football by its definition. Then he’s got the finesse and got the speed to make the plays. It’s just instinctive. So we should use him, yes. We’ve got him and we should use him and he should really make it possible for a lot of players around him to have some big plays as well.”
Elliott currently leads the league in rushing with 426 yards on 73 carries, well ahead of Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley, who is second with 338 yards on 79 carries
Elliott led the league in rushing as a rookie in 2016 with 1,631 yards and led the league in yards per game last year with 98.3. A six-game suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy prevented him for his second straight rushing title.
Elliott is currently on pace for career-high 1,704 yards in 2018 and has yet to be maximized on the ground. He had five games last year with more than 25 carries in a game. He has none so far in 2018.
But coming off a 25-carry game against the Lions, Jones expects those numbers to continue to rise, starting Sunday against the Texans.
This story was originally published October 3, 2018 at 8:00 AM.