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The Cowboys’ run game has done next to nothing this season. But to fix it, the team believes it needs to just continue with exactly what they’ve been doing.
Through four games, Dallas has a league-low 301 rushing yards, and a bottom-three mark of 3.5 yards per carry. The team’s leading rusher, Rico Dowdle, is averaging under 34 yards a game. No ground play all year has gone for more than 12 yards.
But don’t expect the team to drastically revamp its approach heading into Sunday’s visit to Pittsburgh, where a top-three run defense awaits.
“We’re one block away here, one block away there,” fullback Hunter Luepke said this week. “It’s just 11 guys working together. We’re close. We’re close. It’s going to break through one of these games.”
Deuce Vaughn agrees, saying the team needs to “keep chopping wood.”
“Coming in here and just working our butts off,” he continued. “Understand that one’s going to pop, and once it does and we start clicking … we’re going to get that confidence inside our room, inside the O-line room, and we’re going to run from there, no problem.”
This week will present a significant problem, though, and he wears No. 90 for the Steelers. Linebacker T.J. Watt is one of the most feared defenders in the game whether he’s trying to stop the run or the pass, and the Cowboys offensive line will have its hands full trying to frustrate him.
But it’s not a one-man show in Pittsburgh. Only two squads have allowed fewer rushing yards in 2024 than the Steelers. And they’re second-best leaguewide in yards-per-carry given up.
In other words, don’t expect a repeat of the 2016 classic in which Ezekiel Elliott piled up 114 ground yards in the Steel City, averaged 5.4 yards per tote, and ran in two touchdowns, including a 32-yard scamper in the final seconds to win the game.
ON THIS DAY in 2016 — Cowboys beat the Steelers 35-30 thanks to a go-ahead 32 yard touchdown from Ezekiel Elliott
— Cowboys extended their winning streak to 8
— Zeke reached the 1,000 yards mark
— Cowboys had the best record in the NFL
Those were the days
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— 𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗬 𝗛𝗨𝗚𝗛𝗘𝗦 (@TommySledge) November 13, 2020
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This Sunday will present a tall challenge for the Dallas O-line. Like the committee of running backs they block for, the Cowboys front five maintains that sticking to their fundamentals will be the key.
“Just playing nasty,” offered rookie Tyler Guyton, “and hitting our landmarks the correct way.”
Cutting down on penalties will also help. The Cowboys are among the most-flagged teams in the NFL this season, and offensive holding is by far the biggest bugaboo (11 infractions against). Guyton himself accounts for five of those calls, leading the team.
He knows it has cost the team at inopportune moments, but he knows there’s still plenty of time to reverse course and get back on track.
“We’re four games in. I think we’re still building every single day, every play. I think we’re building toward something,” he told reporters. “I don’t think we’re at our best yet. We’re not, because I feel like I need to do better. And if I’m not at my best, then we’re not at our best. I think we all have improvements to make.”
So the Cowboys look to keep pounding away with what they’ve been doing on the ground. A healthy mix of Dowdle and Elliott. A few change-of-pace carries for Vaughn. Keeping Dalvin Cook under wraps on the practice squad. Maybe an occasional jet sweep-type backfield play for CeeDee Lamb or KaVontae Turpin. Even deploying backfield options like Luepke into the passing game. (He has twice as many receptions this season as Jalen Brooks.)
Whatever it takes for the team to succeed. Even if it’s not pretty. Even if the conventional rushing attack is stuck in neutral.
These Cowboys will keep at it.
“It’s all about the team winning on Sunday, so it doesn’t matter how many catches I have or whatever,” Luepke said. “If we don’t get it done, it doesn’t mean anything. A win’s more important than anything, in my opinion.”