Ezekiel Elliott Says Cowboys Losing Early Is Why He's Not Getting More Carries

Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott is the team's best offensive weapon, but he understands falling into an early hole lowers the team's chances of consistently running the ball. 

"I mean you can do all of that but at the end of the day if you go back and watch the film, it's poor execution on offense," Elliott said when explaining he won't ask for more carries, per Todd Archer of ESPN. "You can't run the ball if you're down by 17 points. That's what it is. We get behind, we've got to be able to throw the ball and not be able to do what we want to do."

Archer noted Elliott failed to tally 20 carries in any of the Cowboys' first three games, marking the first time in his career he went more than one contest in a row without 20 rushing opportunities.

"So what we have to do so we can be able to run the ball more is just ... be better early in the game," Elliott continued. "If we're better early in the game, if we're not taking those three and outs, if we're not playing long down and distances, you can run the football. If you execute early, we can run the football as much as we want."

Elliott is tied with San Francisco 49ers running back Matt Breida for the league lead with 274 rushing yards, and his 5.7 yards per carry would mark a career high even though he tallied a head-turning 1,631 rushing yards as a rookie in 2016.

While utilizing someone posting those numbers more often would make sense for the Cowboys, they fell behind 16-0 to the Carolina Panthers in Week 1 and 24-6 to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 3. The Ohio State product finished with 15 and 16 carries in those two contests, respectively, although he made the most of his chances against Seattle with 127 rushing yards.

One reason the Cowboys are falling into a hole is a passing game lacking explosiveness and consistency with Dez Bryant no longer on the roster and Jason Witten retired. Dallas is 31st in the league in passing yards per game, and quarterback Dak Prescott is yet to throw for more than 170 yards in a single contest.

What's more, the offensive line is just the 28th best unit in the league in pass protection through three weeks, per Football Outsiders.

The Cowboys do have an opportunity in Week 4 against the 1-2 Detroit Lions to build a lead at home and ride Elliott to their second victory. Detroit allowed a combined 78 points in the first two weeks of the year to the New York Jets and 49ers and gave up more than 100 rushing yards to Breida and Isaiah Crowell.