Well, this was a bit expected. The Cowboys had almost three months to prepare for Elliott’s suspension and guess what they did? Judging by the Sunday’s 27-7 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, very little! The clear absence of their No1 offensive guy swam out, and the showed just how much Cowboys lean on him.
Besides Elliott’s absence Cowboys had another problem. The defense was terrible, and it allowed Adrian Clayborn to tackle Dak Prescott as much as six times. Yes, you read it right – six times which made it a franchise-record. To be honest, the team was playing without the All-Pro left tackle Tyron Smith which left Prescott wide open and that was gladly used by Falcons players that sacked him a total of eight times yesterday. To put it in perspective that figure is a season’s worth for some defenses. Yes, they were that bad!
As far rushes are considered Alfred Morris managed 53 yards, but that is something Elliott does with his eyes closed. The second in line was Prescott with 42 yards. Very poor result indeed but these aren’t the worst news yet. It seems that Ezekiel Elliott won’t be back on the field anytime soon and Cowboys have a game against the Philadelphia Eagles, the NFL’s hottest team, next. Jerry Jones and his team are in a lot of problems from now on, but only if they do not manage to find a suitable replacement or even a temporary “patch” for Elliott.
Zeke’s absence is not something new here, and all of you pretty much know the chronology of the things happening to him. For those who have been living under the rock these past months here is the sum up. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Elliott in August for domestic violence allegations that have been dragging around for almost a year. Elliott, of course, denied harassing his ex-girlfriend and after that prosecutors in Columbus, Ohio, decided that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him. At the time of course.
After the photos, text messages and the opinion of that Ohio prosecutor were presented to the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, he decided that the suspension for Elliott is actually warranted. Ezekiel fought this decision for past three months, and his latest hope was an injunction, but it fell apart on Thursday afternoon in federal appeals court in New York, which means that his suspension began with Sunday’s game against Atlanta. Cowboys will be in a lot of problems from now on, but there is one last hope for them and Elliott, who has one last chance on December 1st appeal hearing, but it’s too difficult to predict what the outcome will be or even when the ruling will be handed down. The Cowboys will have to make peace and assume that they will be playing without Ezekiel for some time.
We do not know what the Cowboys will do, and how will they fill the gaps left behind Elliott and Smith but they will have to do it fast or else the Atlanta game might repeat itself pretty soon, and Prescott might end up with a permanent “tackle me now” sign on his back.
