Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott not worried by dismal showing, says he’ll ‘use it as fuel’
Running back Ezekiel Elliott is coming off one of the worst games of his career with the added ignominy of the Dallas Cowboys vaunted run game being shut down and labeled as a liability in crunch time in Sunday’s 28-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
Elliott rushed for 47 yards on 20 and had a no gain and a loss of three from the Vikings 11-yard line on what could have been the game-winning drive in the fourth quarter.
However, he says there is no concern about the running game and he remains confident the Cowboys would be successful if his number was called again in the same situation against the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
”You never expect to have a performance like that but just got to take it,” Elliott said. “Take it with that chip on your shoulder and use it as fuel when you go back to work the next week and try to not let it happen again. I just think that we have to play better. I don’t really look at it as they did something. I look at it as us not going out there and doing what we need to do. At the end we were still in that game and we just got to find a way to gut that one out.”
“I’m confident. Yeah, I’m confident. Yep.”
Elliot was more melancholy than upbeat on the final answer in what was a seemingly despondent Cowboys locker room after practice Wednesday.
There has been a lot of criticism of the play selection on the final two failed runs by Elliott against the Vikings, especially the second one. But it appears that the Vikings outschemed and outplayed the Cowboys.
Center Travis Frederick confirmed the Cowboys faced an unfamiliar front on the final third-and-2, one they had not seen or prepared for, causing miscommunication with him and guard Connor Williams that resulted in the 3-yard loss.
“We need to work on our communication as a whole,” Frederick said. “We didn’t know what happened there. That was something we hadn’t talked about before. It’s a look we hadn’t practice before. It’s an adjustment we needed to make on the run as well as we could have. That comes down to everything, being able to execute in a crunch time situation you have never seen before.”
Frederick, however, remains confident that the up-and-down Cowboys, who are still in a first-place tie with the Philadelphia Eagles atop the NFC East, can’t get their issues fixed.
And so does Elliott, though he said he wasn’t necessarily surprised with being a middling 5-4 at this point in the season.
“I mean, this is NFL football so I mean every team is good,” Elliott said. “Every team has great players and if you don’t go out there handling your business, you’re going to lose ballgames. I think it’s all on us in this locker room. It’s all about us to turn it around. It’s on us to turn it around and play better.”
Not surprised though, considering the team’s Super Bowl expectations entering the season?
”I mean, I’m not surprised. I mean, should I be surprised? I don’t know,” Elliott said with a laugh. “It’s the NFL. You’re not going to go 12-4 every year. You’re not going to be 13-3. You’re not going to be 10-6 every year. But what matters is you give yourselves a chance at the end of the year, in the playoffs. So we’re not 9-0. We’re not 8-1. But we still are in the race for being in the playoffs. That’s what I meant.”
Elliott also didn’t appear overly disappointed, as the fans and the media expect him to be, saying it is what it is and that the Cowboys still control their own destiny.
”This is where we are,” Elliott said. “All we can control is this Sunday and just got to go out there and win a ballgame. Go win Sunday and you guys won’t be too disappointed next Wednesday. If we win, we’re the best team in the world. If we lose, it’s ‘oh, no’, so we’ve just got to go out there and win.”
