Mixed emotions may best describe the past week for the Dallas Cowboys. Everyone is on a high after back-to-back wins and pulling out Sunday's victory over Pittsburgh in comeback fashion, 20-17. But the loss of Micah Parsons and Demarcus Lawrence probably tempered some of the joy of that moment.
Coming out of that game Dallas has lost another player they’d planned on having in their two Pro Bowl edge rushers absence plus another defensive star might be returning soon. There’s also a new RB1 in town to get into as well. It just isn’t the Cowboys if there isn’t some type of drama involved from week to week.
DaRon Bland's season debut imminent
One of their studs in the secondary in Week 6 as the team is hopeful All-Pro cornerback, DaRon Bland will make his season debut against the Detroit Lions. Should Bland be able to go it couldn’t come at a better time than their face-off with the Lions who posted 44 points the last time they played. Bland suffered a stress fracture in his foot during training camp which has had him sidelined for the first month and a half of the season.
Bland was a first-team All-Pro selection last season in his second year with nine interceptions and five of those taken to the house for touchdowns. So far this season Dallas’ defense has not been creating the turnovers they did last year so with Bland’s potential return on the docket their fortunes could be changing soon. Nothing has been cemented yet but there’s a good chance Bland could suit up Sunday.
“I think DaRon Bland has a real chance … I don’t know if he’ll play the whole game but I think he’s ready to start mixing it up,” Stephen Jones said on Tuesday. “Short of a real setback, DaRon should be ready to dress and help us on the defensive side of the ball and the secondary.”
Rookie DE Marshawn Kneeland suffers torn meniscus
Second-round pick Marshawn Kneeland was carted off the field during the Cowboys Week 5 matchup against the Steelers. While Kneeland will miss considerable time, it turns out his knee injury is a torn meniscus as opposed to an ACL which would have ended his year. Kneeland will be out for a few weeks but should be able to return sometime this season since his ACL is still intact.
Kneeland hadn’t made a huge impact yet but with Micah Parsons and Demarcus Lawrence out, Dallas was looking to the Western Michigan product to fill in. Against the Steelers Kneeland recorded two solo tackles before leaving the game. The previous week against the New York Giants, Kneeland had three total tackles, one tackle for loss and a hit on the quarterback. Just as Kneeland was becoming a bigger part of the defense a chunk of his rookie year is deleted.
Ezekiel Elliott return feels like déjà vu
It’s become clearer with each game that Ezekiel Elliott is no longer the stud running back he once was in Dallas. To open the season in Week 1, Elliott started against the Cleveland Browns and had the most carries (10) on the team gaining 40 yards. The very next week in that blowout loss to the New Orleans Saints, Elliott’s rushing attempts dropped to 7 which was only one more than Rico Dowdle that week.
From Week 3 on Dowdle has been called on more often to carry the ball than Zeke to the point where he’s taken Elliott’s starting role. After Dowdle’s Week 6 performance of 87 yards (career-high) on 20 rushes, it’s painfully obvious that Elliott is reliving the Tony Pollard situation once again.
Only this time it happened in a matter of a few weeks instead of gradually over a couple of years. Elliott hasn’t carried the rock more than six times since Week 1 and had a season-low of three carries for six yards against the Baltimore Ravens during their Week 3 showdown.
Elliott’s ability and willingness to block in the backfield might be the only thing keeping him on the field at this point. Dowdle doesn’t even need to be great, he just has to be consistent and we’ll likely continue to see less and less of Elliott as the season progresses.