As the Dallas Cowboys' 2024 campaign has rolled along, Ezekiel Elliott has been taking fewer and fewer snaps and getting fewer and fewer touches as Rico Dowdle has emerged as the clear RB1 on the roster.
If any doubt remained, Dowdle put it to bed with a career night in the Cowboys' Week 5 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, rushing for a career-high 87 yards on 20 carries and adding another 27 yards on two receptions, one of which went for a touchdown. It gave him a receiving score for the second straight game.
Elliott, meanwhile, recorded just 17 yards on six carries against Pittsburgh, marking the fourth consecutive game in which he's rushed the ball six times or less and also the fourth consecutive game in which he failed to reach 20 yards on the ground.
So, again, it's quite clear who the top running back is in Dallas. Or so we thought.
In the Cowboys' dismal first half against the Detroit Lions, Mike McCarthy chose not to attempt to capitalize on the momentum Dowdle created for himself a week ago, oddly opting to give Elliott more touches.
Cowboys' Ezekiel Elliott gets more carries than Rico Dowdle after complaining about workload
Not much went right for the Cowboys in the first half against Detroit, resulting in a 27-6 deficit heading into the locker room.
Coming into Week 6, the Detroit defense had allowed the fourth-fewest rushing yards in the entire NFL, allowing just 90.8 per game. On the flip side, they'd given up the sixth-most passing yards, so it stood to reason that the Cowboys were going to rely a bit more on the passing game. That obviously became more of a necessity when they got down by multiple scores, but that's not the point here.
To keep the defense honest, you still have to run the football. But when Dallas chose to do so, it was Elliott, not Dowdle, who received the bulk of the touches. While Zeke rushed the ball five times, Dowdle got just two carries in the first 30 minutes. Both only rushed for six yards, by the way. Midway through the third quarter, Elliott had six carries to Dowdle's three.
To make matters worse, the Cowboys followed the Lions double-sweep reverse flea-flicker that went for a touchdown with a shotgun run to Elliott.
Dowdle did get three additional touches as a receiver, recording three receptions for 21 yards, but the decision to give Elliott even five carries in the first half when he's only averaged six per game through the first five weeks is baffling, especially seeing the damage Dowdle did to a strong Steelers defense a week ago.
