Why Zeke Elliott wants more red-zone touches and craves the Super Bowl not Pro Bowl

Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott entered the season looking to make up for disappointing 2017 that was marred by an eight-week court battle with the NFL and a six-game suspension for violating the league personal conduct policy.

He has more than lived up to his goal, leading the league in rushing with 1,349 yards and leading the team with a career-high 72 catches for another 543 yards while helping power the Cowboys (8-6) to within one win of clinching the NFC East title heading into Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But Elliott, who was named to Pro Bowl for the second time in three seasons, is not satisfied. He wants more. He wants something super.

“I think I’ve done a great job just making my case for that, but we got hopefully a lot of ball left and a lot bigger goals than that, and it’s exciting to go on that journey with this team,” Elliott said reaching his goal of being one of the league’s best backs and possibly adding to the NFL rushing title he won as a rookie in 20106. .

“It’s nice to get in the Pro Bowl,” he added. “But like I said, we’re chasing goals a lot loftier than the Pro Bowl. It’s definitely an honor for my peers and the coaches and the fans to honor me as one of the best backs in the league and to represent the NFC. But we’re definitely chasing a Super Bowl not a Pro Bowl.”

To that end, Elliott wants more a role in helping the Cowboys offense solve its biggest problem: an inability to score in the red zone. He has just six rushing touchdowns in 2018. He had 15 as a rookie and seven in 10 games last season.

The Cowboys are 31st in the league in the red zone with a conversion rate of 44.19 percent, including only 19 touchdowns on 43 trips in 2018. That number is 18.18 percent over the last three games, so they are trending in the wrong direction at the wrong time.

“I think it’s just a lot of it comes down to when we get down there, its executing, going out there and not missing out on opportunities and not taking advantage of the opportunities we’re given,” Elliott said. “I think they’re working on getting me the ball but sometimes, it don’t happen. We had some opportunities that we missed on ourselves that kind of we done to ourselves in that red zone. I can think of a couple of touchdown drops we missed or a couple of assignments we missed and had been pressuring the quarterback and a guy was wide open that could have scored. We just got to make sure we’re locked in when we get down there and really understand how it important to come out of there with points.”

It has been a season-long problem. It was an issue in 23-0 loss to the Indianapolis Colts and one they hope to solve against the Buccaneers and fix heading into the postseason.

One solution is leaning more on Elliott.

Elliott has 37 attempts inside the 20 this season and just 21 inside the 10 and nine inside the 5.

He has five touchdowns inside the 20, three inside the 10 and two inside the 5.

Compare that to NFL red-zone rushing leader Todd Gurley of the Los Angeles Rams, who is second in rushing to Elliott.

Gurley has 64 attempts inside the 20, 36 inside the 10 and 18 inside the 5.

His touchdowns are 17, 14 and 9 in those situations respectively.

Does Elliott want more touches in the red zone?

“You know it,” Elliott said.

This story was originally published December 19, 2018 at 4:00 PM.