As the Dallas Cowboys prepare to face the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, they’re working to overcome several notable issues. Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb have yet to put together a full game of elite production. The defense is giving up too many yards on the ground, too many points on the scoreboard and not creating enough takeaways.
The team as a whole is somehow playing its worst at home while being undefeated on the road. There’s also the injury bug that has caused key contributors Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, DaRon Bland and Brandin Cooks to each miss multiple games.
But if the Cowboys could fix only one issue, No. 1 on the list would have to be their awful running game. Dallas entered Week 7 ranked last in the NFL with 77.2 rushing yards per game. They’re also last in average yards per carry at 3.5. They’re tied for last with only two rushing touchdowns. Every other team has had at least one rush of more than 15 yards. Dallas’ longest is 13.
This is a franchise that has at worst been middle of the pack in running the football in previous seasons. At best, the Cowboys were among the NFL’s top two teams in 2017, 2016 and 2014.
This shouldn’t come as a complete surprise. When Dallas decided to move on from Tony Pollard and not draft a running back in the first five rounds for a second consecutive year, signs pointed to this being an area of concern. The most notable additions were signing veterans Ezekiel Elliott and Dalvin Cook to one-year deals. Elliott is averaging 3 yards per carry. Cook hasn’t played in a game.
Rico Dowdle, their leading rusher, has fewer rushing yards than 27 running backs and three quarterbacks.
So what gives the Cowboys confidence that they can get the run game going?
“Continuity and touches,” head coach Mike McCarthy said.
He believed they were turning the corner two weeks ago at Pittsburgh when they rushed for a season-high 109 yards in a 20-17 win over the Steelers, one of the NFL’s top run defenses. However, some offensive line shuffling, which moved left guard Tyler Smith to left tackle and T.J. Bass to left guard, didn’t work as well as they planned in a 47-9 blowout loss to the Detroit Lions a week later.
Ezekiel Elliott is averaging just 3 yards per rush on 38 attempts this season. (Jeff Lange / Akron Beacon Journal via Imagn Images)
Smith moved out to tackle because rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton has been dealing with a knee injury.
“You make two moves for one player,” McCarthy added. “Sometimes that has a bigger effect than you think it would. I think that’s part of it. That’s what we have to take a hard look at. We’ve got to see where Tyler Guyton is as far as his health, also with T.J. And give Tyler Smith some clarity. I think the fact that (Smith) and Zack (Martin) were playing next to Cooper (Beebe) every single day throughout the spring and more importantly camp, felt like our consistency was getting better.
“I thought the Pittsburgh game was a really good illustration of that, particularly in the second half when you saw the run game adjustments that were made, particularly in the tight inside zones. Now you make those moves. That’s what we’ve got to take a hard look at. Maybe just go back to Tyler Guyton, to get more reps and make a decision there. I think we could definitely tighten that up.”
Those decisions were all part of the work that was going on at The Star during the team’s bye week last week.
“This time of year you’re not going to reinvent the wheel,” Cowboys running back coach and run game coordinator Jeff Blasko said. “You kind of know who you are from a schematic standpoint. But we got to do a better job of making sure that everybody is on the same page.”
“There’s nobody ducking for cover. We got to do a better job of just fine tuning the details and bringing the things to life.”
What gives him confidence it can get fixed?
“I have a lot of faith in the men in the locker room and a lot of faith in the coaching staff,” Blasko said. “We can’t fly off the reservation and think we’re going to change the whole offense. We got to dive into the concepts that we feel good about and we got to bring them to life. We got to do a better job with the attention to detail.”
Offensive line coach Mike Solari said the team’s bread-and-butter runs are a variation of their inside zone, their wide zone and then getting the ball on the perimeter.
“There is no doubt we will get the running game going,” Solari said. “It’s a young group. It’s going to be ascending. I really believe we’ll get better each week. It’s just a matter of us getting those efficient runs, plus 4-yard runs and then in certain situations moving the chains. That’s the most important thing. It’s the consistency of the technique and fundamentals.
“I really believe you’ll see an improvement in the offensive line as we keep gaining experience. We have some young men up there. No excuses, we got to get the job done. But it’ll take some time. The challenging thing is there’s variation, obviously each week defensive fronts change, there’s line movement. We’ll ascend as we get more experience.”
Dowdle has been the team’s most productive back. But a week after he had a season-high 87 yards on 20 carries against the Steelers, he touched the ball only twice for 6 yards in the first half against the Lions. Part of the issue at home is the Cowboys have fallen behind so quickly that the run-game touches have taken a back seat. It’s tough to keep handing the ball off for only 2 or 3 yards only to put your defense right back on the field following a long touchdown drive by an opponent.
Many have wondered why Cook has not been given an opportunity. Like Elliott, Cook is a former 1,000-yard back who is 29. Their most productive years are in the past. But it sounds like it’s a one or the other situation on game days because neither helps the team on special teams.
“He’s doing better,” Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said of Cook. “He’s getting more and more comfortable terminology-wise. He’s getting more reps. Now, it’s just trying to find a way to how it fits the puzzle. And that’s not just an offensive question, that’s defense, special teams. He is doing a really good job of the things we’re asking him to do. If the puzzle fits correctly, he’ll be ready when called upon.”
Establishing a consistent run game would do wonders for several other areas on the team, from improving the play-action and passing game to putting the defense in more advantageous positions.
But outside of the 21 carries for 86 yards in the second half in Pittsburgh, there hasn’t been much reason to believe this is something that’s about to turn the corner. Middle-of-the-pack teams average 115 to 120 rushing yards per game. The Cowboys averaged 113 last season, 135 in 2022 and 125 in 2021. To have a chance to make the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season, Dallas probably needs to average an additional 35 to 40 rushing yards per game. While it’s possible, what we’ve seen so far makes that seem unlikely.
“Obviously we found it against Pittsburgh,” Schottenheimer said. “We got into the flow late with what we were able to do. When we’re able to play that type of scheme and that type of game, we’re able to sustain drives. The two Pittsburgh drives late, one was (15 plays), one was 16. It was probably our best example all year of complementary football. When you’re behind the eight ball and you’re playing from behind, you’re having to throw it so much, it’s hard.
“We know we can run the football. We need the opportunities to do it. We need to be better. We’re studying the hell out of it right now, trying to figure out, what are our best run styles? What are our best concepts that we like? Is it inside, outside? What are the play types we like? That will give us some answers, which I think will help us feel good going into (this) week’s prep for San Fran.”