❚ Elliott drives Cowboys toward contention
PHILADELPHIA — You knew it would take something special for the beleaguered Dallas Cowboys to come into the Linc in Week 10 and hang one on the defending Super Bowl champs.
Something like Ezekiel Elliott hurdling a defender in the open field.
Elliott’s big night in the 27-20 victory included two fourthquarter touchdowns, 151 rushing yards and an open-field hurdle of Tre Sullivan on a 32yard run in the second quarter that left him streaking straight to the end zone ... until he tripped eight yards shy of the goal line.
“It’s natural,” Elliott said of his hurdle, which punctuated a 14-play, 8-minute drive that also included a conversion on a fake field goal attempt. “I just feel it. I just wish I didn’t get tackled by the turf monster at the end. I guess I didn’t want to be great.”
Elliott was more than great in shredding the NFL’s No. 2 run defense to the tune of 7.9 yards per carry. After declaring in the days leading up to the game that the Cowboys needed to get its rushing game in gear following a deflating home loss to the Titans, Elliott led by example.
In addition to his 19 rushes, he tied for the team high with six catches for 36 yards.
After the defense stopped Philadelphia (4-5) on two lastgasp drives, the Cowboys (4-5) had saved their season.
“Playing with an edge, preparing with an edge, making sure that you’re locked in, you’re dialed in,” coach Jason Garrett told reporters the next day. “Certainly, football is a physical game, and so you have to have a physical mentality and a physical demeanor to you.”
Other things we learned:
Garrett feels the heat: Before the game, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had a pointed question for his battered coach: “Is this enough pressure?” Jones said he was only half-kidding.
Garrett responded that with the flood of criticism and hot seat rumblings, he’s more resolved. Then he went out and coached with such urgency. In the second quarter, he called for a fake punt on 4th-and-2 from his 31-yard line, and the risky move worked with a snap to upback Jeff Heath. It kept alive a 14-play field goal drive that helped set an aggressive tone. Leighton Vander Esch performed
like a star in the making: The first-round linebacker from Boise State, pressed into the starting lineup because of the hamstring injury that sidelined Sean Lee, turned in a series of big plays that illustrated what the Cowboys hoped for when they invested such a high pick on a prospect that some considered a reach. His firstquarter interception and 28yard return set up the game’s first score.
And he helped close out the win by dropping Corey Clement for a 5-yard loss on a screen pass on 3rd-and-2 from the Dallas 30 — he snuffed out the play on a hunch, he insisted — just after the two-minute warning. In between, he made an outstanding goal-line stop of Nelson Agholor to thwart a jet sweep. Oh, and he finished with a game-high 13 tackles — all solo stops. It used to be that the Dallas defense was deflated when playing without the often-injured Lee in the lineup.
That isn’t the case now, given the boost from young linebackers such as Jaylon Smith and Vander Esch, whose confidence is steadily increasing.