RB Tony Pollard has shown that he can carry load but can he hold up for Dallas Cowboys
If there were any concerns about Tony Pollard ability to carry the full load as the Dallas Cowboys featured back — and there were, by many — a few were answered in Sunday’s 30-10 victory against the New York .Jets.
The numbers weren’t pretty.
But it was the grind that told the story.
Pollard rushed 25 times for 72 yards, an average of 2.9 yards per carry. He also had seven receptions for 37 yards.
It was a career-high in touches for Pollard, not just in his five-year career in the NFL but going back to college at Memphis as well as high school.
Pollard had a breakout Pro Bowl season in 2022, prompting the Cowboys to part ways with two-time NFL rushing champion Ezekiel Elliott.
But he has never been asked to tote the ball so much.
“Yeah, I mean I’ve been saying this for a long time now. Whatever they give me, whatever they call, I got it,” Pollard said. “So I feel like that was a great example of it.”
One box checked.
Now, the question is how will he rebound on Sunday’ against the Arizona Cardinals? Can his body hold up to that type of load week to week?
It’s a real concern for owner Jerry Jones, who couldn’t stop talking about it and second-guessing coach Mike McCarthy’s use of Pollard in the fourth quarter of what looked to be comfortable victory against the Jets.
“Of course, it was kind of interesting how many times we ran that [No.] 20 [Pollard] right at the end of the ball game, right at the end,” Jones said. “But I guess he needed to get his carries in. But I like how the team is managed.”
When asked about Pollard’s career-high in carries, Jones said “I thought there at the end we might not have had him in there as much, but coach knows what he’s doing and I defer to that.”
Pollard had 10 touches in the fourth quarter, including two that were called back by penalty.
And when Jones asked about the red zone struggles, he had one final zinger for McCarthy.
“Maybe if Pollard had gotten a couple [touchdowns] early we wouldn’t have had him in there in the last three minutes wearing his ass out,” Jones said. “We’ve got to have something to criticize.”
McCarthy said the Cowboys went into the game understanding it would be a heavy workload day for Pollard and he came through, as expected.
He was most impressed with Pollard’s work in pass protection. But he said the carries in the fourth quarter were an attempt to get him on the edge and potentially pop one to the end zone.
“I’ve worked with Tony, now this is year four. He’s always showed incredible endurance,” McCarthy said. “I mean, he’s fought through injury. I feel he’s definitely built for it. I think some of the most impressive things he did were in protection. He had a couple of chips that were excellent. He’s doing all of the little things that were asking of him.”
“But as far as touching the football, he’s a dynamic player. We were trying to get him on that perimeter a couple of times there in the fourth quarter, the execution wasn’t quite there. But when he gets to the second level he’s so dangerous.”
But McCarthy admits the team is going to be smart with Pollard this week in practice to avoid an overuse injury. He had limited reps on practice on Wednesday.
“You have to be in touch too,” McCarthy said. “Because I had game like this in Week 2, 2017 [in Green Bay] and Randall Cobb was a guy that played an astronomical number of plays. It was a hot day. The game went into overtime so it was the same type of numbers. We had a situation where in practice, he took probably more than he should’ve take then had the fatigue injury the following week.
“So I’m very conscientious of how much these guys are working on Sundays. So that will factor into the prep for Arizona.”
Pollard said his body feels good. He was a little banged up from the hits Sunday night but is no worse for the wear.
He is also doing more during the week to take of his body, more massages and more ice tub treatment.
Those are the things he learned from the other veterans, including Elliott.
“Helps get your blood back circulating,” Pollard said of the ice tub. “I like to do contrast, hot and cold, so just that shock to the body helps get the blood going, flowing back through your body.”
McCarthy made a point to supplement Pollard with touches backups Rico Dowdle and Deuce Vaughn and will continue to give them bigger parts of the load going forward.
The only negative the game, according to Pollard, was his 2.9 yards per carry.
“I’m really made about that average, I got to get that average up,” he said.
This story was originally published September 20, 2023 at 1:29 PM.
