Start with Zeke Elliott, the Ravens’ expose a terrible Dallas Cowboys’ offseason

An entire offseason of questionable decisions by the Dallas Cowboys’ front office hit them in the face on Sunday with a performance that should be substandard but with this group it’s quickly becoming the gold standard.

The final score of the Cowboys game against the Baltimore Ravens was close. The game was not.

Midway through the fourth quarter, the Cowboys trailed 28-6.

“Look at the whole picture, we got out played,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said after the game. “We were ragged in a lot of parts. We can improve that. We’ve got the talent to make that happen.

“I am very disappointed. You can’t sugar coat it in any way.”

And yet that’s exactly what his head coach and players did. They don’t have any choice.

Their running game was awful. Their passing game wasn’t much better. Their run defense was awful-er. Their pass defense wasn’t much better.

The only difference between this loss against the Ravens and their defeat in Week 2 at home against the New Orleans Saints was the offense woke up late to make things interesting.

With a little more than eight minutes remaining in the game, the Cowboys started their rally against a defense that was focused on killing the clock. The Cowboys ripped off 19 straight points, and put themselves in a position to potentially tie the game, or take the lead.

They had to get one defensive stop. Naturally, they couldn’t. The Ravens won 28-25.

A close final score. Not a close game.

“The frustration is real,” Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence said.

As it should be.

“I really believe we’re being tested. I’m being tested,” defensive end Micah Parsons said. “Right now, we’re low as (bleep).”

As they should be.

As much as Jerry has repeatedly tried to minimize the concerns about his team’s running game and defensive front seven, the Ravens gave him no choice but to acknowledge these are major issues. Issues that started in the offseason.

Don’t worry, after the loss to the Ravens he didn’t admit to any of the above.

These all started when the Cowboys addressed their need at running back in the offseason by signing veteran free agent Ezekiel Elliott.

Derrick Henry of the Tennessee Titans was available as a free agent, but the Cowboys knew Zeke from his time here before. And, he’s much cheaper.

Henry signed with Baltimore. The Cowboys could have done it, but they did not want to go down the expensive, veteran running back road.

On Sunday, Henry ran for 151 yards with two touchdowns. On the other side, Zeke ran three times for six yards.

As expected, Zeke’s return to the Cowboys has netted almost nothing. Other than a few nice runs in the Week 1 win at Cleveland, he’s been mostly invisible. He looks like he did last season when he was in New England, an older guy squeezing a little more money out of the NFL.

The combination of running backs Deuce Vaughn and Rico Dowdle hasn’t been much better than Zeke, but judging by the playing time the coaches prefer those guys. The Cowboys running game averaged 3.2 yards per carry on Sunday, and it’s still no threat.

The defensive front seven for the second time in as many weeks embarrassed itself. This is a talent issue. The Ravens employed the Navy offense by running the ball as much as possible, because they could.

The Ravens ran for 274 yards on 45 carries. Those are college numbers. This is one week after the Saints ran for 190 yards on the Cowboys.

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson attempted a total of just 15 passes. Last week, Saints quarterback Derek Carr attempted 16 passes. Between the two they threw eight incompletions.

Meanwhile, the NFL’s highest paid player has been running for his life, unable to find open receivers, because there aren’t any, and he’s not played well. Quarterback Dak Prescott is tasked to carry this offense, and he can’t do it alone.

Dak is throwing the ball far too often for this team to be successful. Against the Saints, he threw it 39 times. Against Baltimore, he attempted 51 passes. That’s a great way to lose a game.

The Ravens entered Sunday’s game with one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL, and Dak and receiver CeeDee Lamb could not exploit it.

Lamb had a crucial first half fumble inside the 10-yard line, pouted for the day, and had words on the sidelines. He didn’t talk to the media after the game, but Dak defended his 88 because he must.

The Cowboys as a team focused on the final eight minutes; they didn’t quit and made a blowout a close game. These eight minutes matter. They are the only minutes they have played in the past two weeks combined where they resembled a decent NFL team.

That should be substandard, but currently with the Cowboys those eight minutes have become the gold standard.