Cowboys doghouse: Running game leaves much to be desired

When the Dallas Cowboys began their offseason process, one of the most glaring issues was the running back position. They had an opportunity to go after three-time All-Pro Derrick Henry. It made perfect sense because Henry trains in Dallas in the offseason, plus he has the same agent as Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. However, according to the team owner Jerry Jones, the team couldn’t afford Henry, although his deal was only for two years and $16 million with nine million in guaranteed dollars.

There was the option of bringing back Tony Pollard as well. In the end, he signed with Tennessee Titans two days after Henry went to Baltimore, leaving the Cowboys at square one. Then, there was the NFL draft in April. Most thought that the Cowboys would certainly take a running back at some point. Surprisingly, the Cowboys didn’t pick one up, and instead, they signed Nathaniel Peat as an undrafted free agent. So, when the season started, Dallas was firm on their committee approach to the running back spot with Ezekiel Elliott and Rico Dowdle as the two main horses.

Needless to say, the experiment at running back has failed in the first three weeks. Dallas is 30th in the league in rushing at 73.7 yards per game, and their 3.6 yards per rush average in ranked 29th. Dowdle, who leads the team in rushing, has 88 yards at the moment for the year. Elliott has amassed just 62 yards. The former has a season long run of 10 yards, and the latter’s biggest gain is nine yards. To make it worse, the longest run of the year by a Cowboys player is 12 yards, and that came from wide receiver CeeDee Lamb. That’s not ideal at all.

This is no knock to Dowdle or Elliott. Both have certain skills that can bring value to a team, like Elliott being an effective short yardage and goal line runner. However, neither of them, or any runner on the Cowboys, for that matter, is a game changer. There’s not one guy who strikes fear in the opposing defense. To make it worse, the Cowboys don’t have any creativity in their run scheme. There’s no pre-snap motion or anything else to confuse the defense. So, there isn’t way for them to take advantage of anything that these guys can do well consistently. It’s just hand the ball off in the A or B gap and hope for the best. It feels very generic.

What makes matters even more frustrating is the refusal by the organization to solve this problem. The aforementioned Jones stated that he likes where the Cowboys are at, and they he doesn’t see any roster upgrades being made. That’s simply football malpractice on the part of Dallas. In addition to running back, there’s defensive tackle and wide receiver issues that are glaring. It just doesn’t make sense to have that type of thinking.

The Cowboys are basically saying that they’re just going to roll whatever they have out there on the field at running back and hope for the best. It’s irritating and head-scratching that Dallas takes this route to team-building. It can’t just be the draft where you push all your chips to the table. Unfortunately, that’s the Cowboys way, and the players have to win in spite of it, which is extremely difficult.