Ezekiel Elliott has chance to make amends for his role in ‘the burning of Atlanta’
Jerry Jones has made no secret about last year’s 27-7 loss at the Atlanta Falcons being the backdrop to everything the Dallas Cowboys did in the off-season to improve the team.
He even dubbed it “the burning of Atlanta.”
The Cowboys shored up an offensive line that gave up eight sacks in the game, drafting guard Connor Williams and adding three veteran backups in free agency.
They made wholesale changes on the coaching staff to better handle in-game adjustments and they drafted linebacker Leighton Vander Esch to provide insurance for another injury to Sean Lee.
The Atlanta loss started a three-game losing streak, taking the Cowboys from 5-3 to its eventual 9-7 finish and out of the playoffs.
However, the biggest turning point in the derailing of the 2017 season was actually out of the Cowboys’ control.
The game coincided with star running back Ezekiel Elliott’s season-long battle with the NFL over his six-game suspension ending with a final loss in federal court.
The Falcons game was the start of the suspension and the team was never the same. The mental and physical toll on quarterback Dak Prescott as well as the rest of the team and organization was too much to overcome.
Elliott returned in 2018 admittedly motivated to make amends.
And as fate would have it, he now gets a chance to return to the scene of the crime with opportunity to truly help the Cowboys breathe new life into what has largely been a lost season.
The Cowboys (4-5) play at the Falcons (4-5) again Sunday.
They revived their hopes with a victory against the Philadelphia Eagles last week. But it would mean little in the grand scheme of things if they can’t build on it with a win against the Falcons, getting them back to .500 with an NFC East showdown against the division-leading Washington Redskins (6-3) four days later on Thanksgiving Day.
“I was at home watching it,” Elliott said when asked for his memories of last year’s game. “It was tough to watch, a tough time for me. I am out here this year and able to help my guys go out there and try to get that win.”
Elliott doesn’t like to talk much about his travails of last season and the suspension. He has put it behind him.
But he acknowledged early in training camp that he has learned from his mistakes. He has grown, matured and tried to change how he goes about things on and off the field.
Coach Jason Garrett said Elliott has always been serious-minded when it comes to football, but allowed that he has been impacted by his experiences for the better.
“I think he’s handled it all really, really well,” Garrett said. “One thing you know about Zeke right from the start, we knew this in the draft process and since we got him here, he loves football, he works very hard at it and cares a great deal about it. He wants to be a great player, wants to have a big impact on our team.
“I thought he handled a lot of the distractions last year very well. He came back from them and now he’s focused on those same things that we always thought he was all about. He demonstrated that each and every day and certainly on Sundays. Feel really good about him, where he is and where he’s going.”
While the Cowboys have struggled as an offense for much of the season, Elliott has done his best to hold up his end of the bargain.
He is second in the league in rushing with 831 yards. He already has a career-high 35 catches as the Cowboys are using him in all parts of the offense more than ever.
Last Sunday’s victory against the Eagles was a prime example. He had 187 yards of total offense, including 151 on the ground, 31 through the air and two touchdowns.
“I think he’s played awfully well,” Garrett said. “He’s run the ball the ball well. He’s caught the ball well. He’s blocked well. Certainly hasn’t been perfect, nobody is. But he’s an awfully good football player. He has a big impact on our team.
“He certainly takes advantage of it. The more ways you can attack a defense the better. The more weapons you have, more guys you’re throwing the ball to challenges the defense that much more, so getting him the ball I think is a priority for us whether you hand it to him or throw it to him he has a positive effect on the game.”
Elliott’s focused on developing some consistency by putting back-to-back wins together for the first time all season.
He said he is not using the memory of last year’s absence as extra motivation on Sunday.
The state of the Cowboys’ season has him and his teammates angry enough. They plan on taking the same passion and must-win attitude that spurred them to victory against Eagles into the Falcons game and the other remaining games.
“That is how we are going to be for the rest of the season,” Elliott said. “It’s hard to need extra motivation when you go into this game 4-5. For the rest of this season, our backs are going to be against the wall. We have to do what we can to go out there and try to win every one of the rest of these games.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2018 at 7:32 PM.