Lots of empty seats at 2 games in LA

Ezekiel Elliott can DENVER — easily recall the last time he was held to less than 10 yards rushing in a game.

“Never,” the Dallas Cowboys running back said.

Elliott couldn’t find any daylight against a swarming Den- ver Broncos defense as the Cowboys fell 42-17 on Sunday in a game that was delayed 62 minutes by lightning.

His final numbers weren’t pretty: Nine carries, 8 yards. It was by far the worst game of Elliott’s pro career, with his longest scamper just a 5-yard mini-burst. He entered averaging around 5 yards per attempt since joining the Cowboys (1-1) last season.

“We just were gett i ng dominated up front,” Elliott explained. “We couldn’t get any movement off the ball. We couldn’t establish the run game.

“We definitely didn’t play

So by the looks of things, maybe — just maybe — the NFL overestimated the appetite for professional football in the Los Angeles area.

All of those empty seats in the Coliseum during the TV broadcast of the Rams’ 27-20 loss to the visiting Washington Redskins on Sunday? Not a great look.

Nor was the Chargers’ inability to sell out their first regular-season game in L.A. since moving from San Diego to their temporary stadium, which holds only 27,000, making it by far the smallest facility in the league. They drew only 25,381 for what turned out to be a 19-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins.

Even if you add that number to the official attendance figure of 56,612 tickets distributed for the Rams’ game, you get a total of less than 82,000.

For fun, let’s offer this apples-to-oranges comparison: The Southern California vs. Texas college game on Saturday night attracted nearly 85,000 to the Coliseum.

To be clear, that is not an entirely fair comparison, given USC’s rich local history and support and how new (and bad) the Rams and Char- gers are at the moment. Still, any St. Louis or San Diego football fans who already were disenchanted by their NFL teams’ departures might up to our abilities. We have to go back, watch the film and rebuild, make sure we’re getting better.”

Elliott continues to play while his appeal of a six-game suspension for domestic violence works its way through the legal system. Asked if that weighed on him, Elliott didn’t take long in his response. “No,” he said. Instead, Elliott cited the lack of running lanes for his frustrating afternoon. That, and Denver (2-0) stacking the line of scrimmage to bottle up Elliott, who rushed for 104 yards in the season opener against the New York Giants.

“Once you cut off a priority like that, you make them change the game plan,” said Broncos pass-rush special- ist Von Miller, who had two sacks.

That’s precisely what Dallas did with QB Dak Prescott throwing it a career-high 50 times. Prescott had 238 yards passing with two TDs and two interceptions, including one in which Aqib Talib returned for a 103-yard score.

“They were loading up the box and playing man-to-man be interested to see whether the Rams and Chargers wind up being popular in their new digs.

In case you missed it, here are the other top topics after the NFL season’s second Sunday:

Raise a toast to the mentors, who went 3-0 against their pupils. Jay Gruden’s Redskins beat his former offensive coordinator Sean McVay’s Rams; Ron Rivera’s Carolina Panthers edged his former defensive coordinator Sean McDermott’s Buf- falo Bills 9-3 ; Andy Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs got past his former offensive coor- dinator Doug Pederson’s Philadelphia Eagles 27-20. Maybe some of the famil- outside,” Prescott said. “You really have to have some success throwing the ball to get them out of that defense and we were not able to do that on a consistent basis.”

Before Sunday, Elliott’s worst NFL rushing game was on Sept. 11, 2016, in his rookie debut when he was held to 51 yards by the Giants. In that contest, though, he scored a TD.

This time, his biggest contribution was a 9-yard reception with around 6 minutes left in the blowout.

“We definitely won’t be discouraged,” Elliott said. “We can get so much better. If you’re peaking right now, you’re going to have a prob- lem. You really don’t want to be peaking right now. You want to peak at the end of the season and get rolling. We just can’t come out and play like this.”

Dallas owner Jerry Jones was surprised to see his team’s run game so thoroughly stuffed. The Cowboys finished with 40 yards rushing — Prescott led the way with 24 — while the Broncos accumulated 178. iarity helped the elders this time. “We got a feel for what they were doing,” Chiefs safety Daniel Sorensen said, “and our front seven got after them.”

Not that anyone possibly could have thought one bad game signaled the end of Tom Brady’s dominance, but the New England Patri- ots’ 40-year-old QB went out and did something even HE never had: threw three TD passes in the first quarter. Brady finished 30 of 39 for 447 yards to help the reign- ing Super Bowl champions beat the New Orleans Saints 36-20. In a Week 1 loss to the Chiefs, Brady was just 16 for 36 with zero TDs. Making his performance against the

“We would’ve thought, with them doing a good job fundamentally, a good job, we would’ve thought the strength of our offensive line and what we had in the running game could make up for that,” Jones said. “Boy, they were sound on their defense. I’m not even going to attempt to get into it technically, but they were where they were supposed to be.”

What lies ahead for Elliott and the Cowboys is this: More legal maneuvering. The NFL recently asked a federal appeals court to move quickly on its request to over- rule a judge’s injunction that blocked the suspension for Elliott.

The league filed an emer- gency motion with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans last week, even though a federal judge in Texas hasn’t ruled on a request to put the injunc- tion on hold while an appeal is pursued.

Jones believes Elliott will be available Monday at Arizona. As for the rest of the season, “I don’t know about that,” Jones said. Saints all the more impres- sive: He had only three active wide receivers and tight end Rob Gronkowski left with a groin injury. Making it less impressive: It came against the Saints’ defense, which is as bad as it gets.

Marshawn Lynch had a blast in his hometown debut for his new team, running for a TD in the first half of the Oakland Raiders’ 45-20 victory over the New York Jets and getting the crowd going by dancing on the sideline after Michael Crabtree’s third touchdown catch. “It was exceptional. I was actually very inspired,” Raiders coach Jack Del Rio joked about his running back’s moves. “I was going to go join him.”

Cleveland Browns left tackle Joe Thomas stretched his consecutive snaps streak past 10,000 during a 24-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Thomas has never missed a snap in his decade-long career, which is truly remark- able given just how many injuries happen each and every week in the NFL. On Sunday alone, such key players as Ravens G Marshal Yanda (broken ankle), Panthers TE Greg Olsen (broken foot) and Packers WR Jordy Nelson (leg) left games.

In other games Sunday, it was Falcons 34, Packers 23; Broncos 42, Cowboys 17; Seahawks 12, 49ers 9; Steelers 26, Vikings 9; Buccaneers 29, Bears 7; Titans 37, Jaguars 16; Cardinals 16, Colts 13 in OT.

Fewer than 48 OXFORD — hou rs had passed since Miami suffered what football coach Chuck Martin described on Monday morning as an “excruciating defeat” the RedHawks’

— heartbreaking 21-17 loss to archrival Cincinnati in the 122nd “Battle for the Victory Bell” on Saturday at Yager Stadium.

The question facing Martin and Miami is how to handle the sick feeling they have in their stomachs — strong enough, the fourth-year coach said, to almost make them vomit.

From his point of view, they have four choices. The first three are undesirable — not caring, blaming others or playing “woe is me.”

“None of those three get anything done,” Martin said. “You can’t just move on. This is too important.”

The fourth coping mechanism? Every single person involved asking themselves, “What can I do that I could’ve done better?

“This isn’t going to leave us for a long time,” Martin said. “You’ve got to care. It’s got to hurt. It’s got to hurt bad. This is where it comes down to who you are and what you believe in.”

The RedHawks don’t have much time to determine their approach. They will open their Mid-American Confer- ence season at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Central Michigan, and Martin knows the 2-1 Chippewas aren’t going to be feeling sorry for Miami— especially after losing, 37-17, to the RedHawks in Oxford last season.

“Central Michigan could give two you-know-whats about how we feel,” Martin said Monday. “They’re going to be wanting payback for maybe taking us lightly last year.”

Be s ides the stomach issues, Martin also was having trouble shaking the incredible letdown produced by the last three minutes on Saturday, when the Bearcats capitalized on an improb- able series of Miami mistakes by almost every part of the team — from coaches to special teams, from seniors to freshmen — to score two touchdowns and pull out their 12th consecutive win in the series before a large, festive crowd of 21,811.

“It was a big day, from noon on,” he said. “That (Army) is very disciplined. You have to be in the right spots all the time. You have to have everyone covered in every situation. I think we did a pretty good job.”

Starting linebacker Chris Worley sprained his ankle in the first half. Borland stepped into his place and helped the defense pitch a shutout the rest of the way. His team- mates weren’t surprised to see him excel.

“Anyone who knows Tuf knows he does his job on the field, off the field,” line- backer Jerome Baker said. “He takes care of his body. It’s good seeing him get some playing time.”

Worley remains question- able for the game against UNLV at noon Saturday at Ohio Stadium, coach Urban Meyer said Monday. Meyer, who named Borland the defensive player of the game, said he doesn’t know how Borland will fit into future plans, assuming Worley returns soon, but said he has been an important player as the middle shield on punt and kickoff return units. was an incredible crowd — not like anything Yager has seen in quite some time. We had a hundred recruits, and for them to see that environment was incredible. From 9 a.m. on, it was an incredible day until about 10:56 (p.m.). We played really bad for the last four minutes, unlike the first 56 minutes. We made some huge mistakes down the stretch to let it get away.

planned on the game bei n g low-scoring. UC’s defense has been playing pretty well, and we knew it was going to be hard to carve out a running game.”

M iami’s offense was hampered by the absence of fourth-year junior running back Alonzo Smith, the team’s leading rusher, and the limited availability of junior wide receiver James Gardner, fourth-year junior quarterback Gus Ragland’s favorite target.

The ground and k ickoff return games also were stymied by the loss during the game of junior Maurice Thomas. Replacements such as third-year sophomore wide receiver Luke Mayock, who caught four passes for 74 yards and a touchdown, and other second-tier players forced on to the field by various nicks and dings played well enough to win, Martin said.

“They should’ve been able to enjoy being involved in a win with half the football team down,” Martin said.

Smith, Gardner and Thomas all occupy their usual places on Miami’s depth chart for this week’s game, but actually playing still was undecided, Martin said.

“He’s very valuable and a great kid,” Meyer said. “His personality matches his name. He’s a tough guy.”

Borland was a four-star recruit who ranked No. 18 in the country at linebacker in the class of 2016, according to Scout.com. His dad Kyle Borland played linebacker at Wisconsin from 1980-82.

Tuf expected to get more playing time against Army. Worley’s injury thrust him into a larger role, one he had prepared for since arriving on campus in January 2016. He

“I’m just trying to enjoy the moment,” he said. “I’ll be ready if my number’s called. I’m going to keep preparing to help this team win.”

Notes:

J.K. Dobbins, who rushed for 172 yards on 13 carries with two touchdowns, was named the Big Ten Co-Freshman of the week. It’s his second award in the first three weeks . ... Ohio State announced its Sept. 30 game at Rutgers will start at 7:30 p.m . ... Meyer praised Miamisburg grad Josh Myers, a freshman offensive lineman, and others for their performance on the scout team last week.