Last year Dallas Cowboys Hats , the Detroit Lions started 3-1 and didn't make the playoffs —the season.The Lions better hope that's the case, because a loss at Dallas last weekend has them in a hole."There's a lot of work in front of us," first-year coach Matt Patricia said Monday. "I think we're learning a lot about our team. I think we see a lot of different things on the field. I would say these guys are tough, these guys work extremely hard. They will fight all the way to the end for 60 minutes."The Lions appeared to be rallying a bit when they beat New England two weekends ago, but Sunday's 26-24 loss to the Cowboys left them at 1-3.Detroit certainly looks more competitive now than it did in a 31-point loss to the Jets in the opener, but the reality is that the regular season is now 25 percent over, and the Lions are in last place in the NFC North.A huge home game with Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay looms this coming weekend — the first divisional matchup of the season for the Lions."He is an elite player, I think that goes without saying," defensive lineman Da'Shawn Hand said. "Everybody knows him, and they've got a great team."It's still fairly early, but dropping to 1-4 would put Detroit in a tough spot heading into its open date.The Lions have been outscored 59-17 in the third quarter this season. In all three of their defeats, they faced double-digit deficits entering the fourth.Detroit was down 20-10 after three periods Sunday, but eventually took a 24-23 lead on Matthew Stafford's 38-yard touchdown pass to Golden Tate with 2:17 remaining.Detroit's defense couldn't hold. Dallas drove into field goal range and made the winning kick on the game's final play."I think when you play in those types of games where you're kind of relying on last possession or it's coming down to the end when there's really no control in the game, I would say you're kind of holding your breath," Patricia said."These are extremely good teams on both sides of the ball and good offenses that you have to face for us as an opponent. We obviously have an offense that can do a good job there at the end of the game of coming back but you don't want to be in that position."The Lions struggled to contain Ezekiel Elliott, who ran for 152 yards on 25 carries and had four catches for 88 yards and a touchdown.Meanwhile, Detroit couldn't build on its encouraging rushing performance against the Patriots . Rookie Kerryon Johnson ran for 55 yards and a touchdown against Dallas Dallas Cowboys Hoodie , but he had only nine carries."I think we have a lot of really good running backs and I think we try to use them appropriately. I think Kerryon played a significant amount of the game," Patricia said."We had two other running backs, plus we had a couple two-minute drives in there with some other personnel packages and things like that. So, there were quite a few reps in there for Kerryon."The Lions have allowed 157.8 yards rushing per game, the worst mark in the NFL through Sunday's games."We just have to get better. Get back in the meeting rooms, lock in, be on one accord, all 11 even the backups," linebacker Eli Harold said. "We just have to find out what is killing us in the running game obviously, and just go from there." There is absolutely no secret what the Cowboys strive to do on offense. It’s faster than walking and rhymes with fun. That’s right, they are built to run the football, and everything they have done personnel wise over the last few years reflects just that.The problem is, over the last month, that identity has failed them and it has cost them multiple games. At the start of the season, the consensus was that the Cowboys had one of the best, if not the best, running backs in the NFL Youth Customized Dallas Cowboys Jerseys , and one of the best, if not the best, offensive lines in the NFL. Heading into week 10, both of those things can’t be said anymore. This post is in no way meant to take shots at Ezekiel Elliott, he still is one of the best backs in the league, but to highlight that if the identity of this football team is going to be completely built around him, he needs to do more, much more.Ezekiel Elliott’s rushing stats so far this season are still pretty good. He currently ranks fourth in rushing yards, fourth in attempts, fourth in yards per game, and fourth in first-down runs. Where his numbers take a dive is his yards per attempt where he is tied at 18th in the league at 4.6 YPA, and touchdowns where he is tied with many at 21st in the NFL with three. Where the concern starts to creep in is over the last month of the season. In the Cowboys last four games, Elliott has combined for 254 yards on 76 carries for an average of 3.2 yards per carry, and just one touchdown. Those numbers are unacceptable for a team that lives and dies by the production they get from their running game. It is often said that the Cowboys struggle to run the football when defenses put focus on the running game and stack the box, but so far this season the stacked box percentages probably aren’t as high as you may have thought. According to Next Gen Stats, Ezekiel Elliott has faced a loaded box (8+ defenders) on just 26.35% of his rushing attempts, that ranks 17th in the NFL. Another stat that leaves one scratching their head is that the Cowboys running game leads the NFL in rushing yards before contact www.cowboysauthorizedshops.com , which should correlate to a lot of big gains on the ground.There are multiple reasons the Cowboys running game has struggled to match what it did in 2016, and the blame can be placed at multiple different people/positions. Let’s take a look at the film to see what needs to change in order to get the running game back on track.Troy Taormina-USA TODAY SportsEzekiel ElliottEzekiel Elliott is a special talent, and one of the best players at his position in the NFL. He runs with excellent burst, patience, vision, and balance and all of the traits together make him one of the best running backs in the NFL. But there are some things he needs to do better if he wants to put this team on his back, like the Cowboys coaching staff is expecting him to do.Here on the second rush attempt for Elliott on Monday Night, he had an opportunity for a big run instead of a loss of one yard. If Elliott sticks his foot in the ground at the 41-yard line and cuts this run back at the numbers he had a chance for a huge gain. Even if he isn’t able to hit the homerun, it would have resulted in a positive play instead of a loss. Here is another play where Elliott makes the wrong read. Here, Zeke decided to cut this one back and runs right into the Tennessee edge. If Elliott would have continued to take the football to the edge, it looks like it would have been a one-on-one matchup between 228-lb Ezekiel Elliott and 180-lb Malcolm Butler. I’m taking Zeke in that matchup to gain four yards every single time, instead they lose two, and Dak Prescott throws an interception on the very next play.Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY SportsPoor ExecutionThe blocking has been the #1 issue when it comes to lack of production from the running game. Whether it’s the offensive lineman, tight ends, or scheme, the blocking has not been good enough. The Cowboys are very stubborn with their confidence in their tight ends when it comes to run blocking. None of them are very good at it, but they continue to ask them to do it far too often. It’s very hard to place blame on this play. Joe Looney is supposed to get to #55 here Dallas Cowboys Womens T-Shirt , while Dalton Schultz blocks the right man. Due to the way that #94 rushes on this play, Looney gets caught up and unable to reach the Titan linebacker who blows up the play before it can even get started.As the Cowboys players learn here, leaving Harold Landry unblocked is never a good idea. This play was changed at the line of scrimmage and it’s hard to imagine that Dallas wanted to leave the backside defender unblocked this close to the goalline.This is just a pitiful rep from rookie Dalton Schultz. Off the snap, Schultz gets some help from TE Rico Gathers before he heads to the second level, as soon as Gathers moves off of Kilgo, Schultz gets tossed lack a sack of potatoes. If the coaching staff is going to ask Schultz, Jarwin, and Gathers to block defensive lineman on a regular basis, the running game will continue to struggle to get going. One of the biggest issues in the running game is also the predictability in what down and distances the Cowboys are going to run on. It is no secret that the Cowboys use the run to set up play-action, while the most of the NFL is using play-action to set up the run. This simple change in philosophy would open up the offense quite a bit and really allow Ezekiel Elliott to reach his full potential, and keeping defenses guessing on what will be a pass and what will be a run. The Cowboys need to figure this out fast, because the season is slipping away.
