Getty Ezekiel Elliott is ready for the Cowboys to finish off opponents sooner.
Ezekiel Elliott is pleased with the way the Dallas Cowboys have started the season, but the running back believes there is still a lot to clean up. Elliott insists the next step for the Cowboys is, “choking the team out” by not allowing teams back in games. This is bad news for the Cowboys’ upcoming opponents as Dallas attempts to develop a killer instinct.
“I think we came out we played really well this first month of this season, but I mean the biggest thing I want to see us do is play a complete game,” Elliott explained in his Week 4 postgame press conference on October 8. “I think we’re good enough where we can kind [of let up], I mean we shouldn’t but you know we get up and I think we kind of let our foot off the gas pedal. I think our next step as a football team is going out there and choking the team out. I think last weekend, this week, we had opportunities to kind of end the game really early, but we kind of let them hang around. And I understand this is the NFL, but I want to see us as a team make that next step.”
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Zeke: Cowboys Came out With Their ‘Piss Hot’ vs. Panthers
Elliott is coming off his best performance so far this season notching 20 carries for 143 yards and a touchdown against the Panthers. The Cowboys running back described the team’s second-half performance in interesting terms noting Dallas came out with their “piss hot.”
“We just knew we had to go take care of business,” Elliott noted. ‘So, we came out hot came out with our piss hot. Came out ready to go in that football game.”
McCarthy: ‘Zeke Doesn’t Have to Go Out & Carry It 30 Times’
Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has continuously praised Elliott for being in improved shape compared to 2020. McCarthy noted that Tony Pollard’s involvement in the run game is a way to keep Elliott fresh for the end of the season.
“Obviously had huge, huge seasons his first couple years,” McCarthy explained in his Week 4 postgame press conference. “Once again, we do have a path that we feel like you need to take. It’s a long year, there’s 17 games you know that. You think about those things and I think the best thing that we do have going is Zeke doesn’t have to go out and carry it 30 times you know every week or 25 times a week. So, the most important thing is you get to win games that’s a priority but you know we want to make sure those guys are healthy for the long term, too.”
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott continues to emphasize that this is the best he has seen Elliott during his NFL career.
“I’ve seen a lot of good Zeke and there’s a lot left to be, so I would say yes just for him being older, him being experienced, him knowing the whole offense,” Prescott told reporters on October 7. “And he could get back there and do the things that I need to do mentally just from the way that he focused and how intelligent of a football player he is, but then you add that into the shape that he’s in everything that he’s put into this offseason. Yeah definitely, and there’s going to be more of those performances to come.”