Ezekiel Elliott on Cowboys' Loss to Steelers: 'There Are No Moral Victories'

Moral victories do not exist in the NFL, at least not in Ezekiel Elliott's eyes.

"There are no moral victories here," the Dallas Cowboys running back said after Sunday's 24-19 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, per Jon Machota of The Athletic. "We're here to win football games."

Despite Elliott's assertion, everything was lined up against the Cowboys coming into Sunday's contest.

The Steelers, who improved to 8-0 for the first time in franchise history, are the NFL's only undefeated team, while Dallas started Garrett Gilbert under center in his first career start. This was surely billed as a showdown between Ben Roethlisberger and Dak Prescott when the schedule was released, but Dallas didn't even have backup Andy Dalton available.

To the Cowboys' credit, they were the better team for much of the game.

Gilbert was solid at 21-of-38 for 243 yards, one touchdown and one interception, although Elliott averaged just 2.8 yards per carry and didn't provide the support the home team needed from the star running back.

The much-maligned defense was also solid for much longer than expected, and Dallas took a 19-9 lead into the fourth quarter.

However, the Steelers scored touchdowns on passes from Roethlisberger to JuJu Smith-Schuster and Eric Ebron and added a field goal in a dominant fourth quarter. Even with all of that, the Cowboys had one final play from Pittsburgh's 23-yard line, but Gilbert's pass fell incomplete.

Without the victory, moral or otherwise, the Cowboys are 2-7 and tied with the New York Giants in last place in the NFC East.