Scary Thought? Cowboys Rookie Duo “The 214” Still Improving
By Reid Hanson
The Dallas Cowboys rookie duo of Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott are taking the league by storm. The scary thing is they’ve only scratched the surface.
What’s great news for the Dallas Cowboys is scary for the rest of the NFL — Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott are just getting better. The Cowboys rookie duo known affectionately by yours truly as “The 214” (Zeke #21, Dak #4 and the Dallas area code:214) has been dominating this season.
Whether the “214” moniker sticks or not remains to be seen, what is clearly sticking around are the players themselves. Not only have they shown enough right now, but they’ve shown the ability to get better each week of the season.
Ezekiel Elliott
Running back and #4 overall pick, Ezekiel Elliott, currently leads the NFL in rushing. His 546 yards are 85 yards ahead of his closest challenger who happens to be guy named DeMarco Murray.
In fact, his 546 yards are more than the totals of 23 NFL teams this season. Much of his success needs to be attributed to the dominance of the offensive line, but you can’t understate how well the former Buckeye is looking in recent weeks.
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Forget the totals and just look at the game film. Zeke has been every bit the big play threat the Cowboys expected when drafting him this spring. But he’s also a powerful short yardage machine (5 for 5 on 3rd and 1), a reliable pass protector, a viable receiving threat, and an elusive runner.
His increased patience has been incessantly spoken of, and while it’s been overblown, it’s clearly something that improved significantly in the past few weeks.
For a team like the Cowboys who aren’t afraid to mix up the blocking scheme between a man scheme and a zone scheme, Zeke is a back versatile enough to fit any scheme or assignment asked.
Dak Prescott
Dak Prescott is someone who’s been the Cowboys radar since his days playing for Mississippi State. Draftniks linked Prescott to Dallas before the 2015 season was even complete. As such, we all knew what we were getting when the Cowboys selected him late in the consolation portion of the draft’s fourth round.
Boy were we wrong.
Luckily, so were 31 other teams. Dak Prescott currently owns the 8th highest QB rating in the NFL. His 69% competition percentage is tied for #3 in the league. And his 7.99 yards per passing attempt average, prove he’s not just dinking and dunking his way to statistical success either.
Most importantly, Dak Prescott is winning games. Prescott has won four games in a row as a Cowboy, and is frankly, only one boneheaded Terrance Williams play away from being a perfect 5-0. He’s played so well, he’s beginning to cause a little controversy in Cowboys Nation as to whether Tony Romo will get his job back once he returns.
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“The 214” owns the city of Dallas and all of Cowboys Nation these days. They aren’t just finding ways to win but they’re finding ways to dominate. And as mentioned earlier, these guys have only scratched the surface of their astronomical potential.
Consider that Zeke Elliott only now is developing his timing with the offensive line. His performance today is light years ahead of where he started the season. Against the New York Giants in week 1, Zeke only totaled 51 yards for a 2.6 yards per carry average. Since then his average has climbed every game (4.0, 4.7, 6.0, and 8.9 respectively). Obviously, he’s not going to beat his 8.9 YPC average this week in Lambeau, but you get the drift.
Dak Prescott is also light years away from his debut performance against the Giants. Not only has his passing and rushing stats increased but so has his understanding of the playbook. Dak isn’t just learning faster than anyone expected but he’s helping Scott Linehan to re-write the playbook in many regards.
And don’t get it twisted, the playbook doesn’t HAVE to change for Prescott. It GETS to change for Prescott. The skills he possesses open up so many options for this Dallas Cowboys offense.
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NFL, you’ve been warned. “The 214” has arrived in Big D and they are only getting better. Sure there will bumps along the way and Tony Romo may even re-claim the QB job at some point. But it’s scary how bright the future looks for the Cowboys and these two rookies.