FRISCO, Texas — On the 13th game of the Dallas Cowboys\u2019 season, Javonte Williams reached 1,000 yards with a one-yard touchdown run last week against the Detroit Lions.<\/p>\n
With four games to play, Williams has 1,022 yards and nine touchdowns on 215 carries, putting him on pace for 1,337 yards.<\/p>\n
In any era, that would be considered an excellent season, but it might have been better.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys\u2019 running game has lost its efficiency. In the past three games, they have 44 runs of 3 yards or less. In the last eight games, they have averaged better than 4 yards per carry only three times. Once was Thanksgiving against the Kansas City Chiefs, when they gained 137 yards on 26 carries (5.3 yards per carry), but 68 of those yards came on two runs.<\/p>\n
Against the Lions, the Cowboys had 91 yards on 24 carries, but- quarterback Dak Prescott had the longest run at 12 yards on a scramble.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually our targeting and our identification of the front and what we were trying to do was good,\u201d coach Brian Schottenheimer said ahead of Sunday\u2019s game versus the Minnesota Vikings (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC). \u201cWe didn\u2019t sustain blocks very well, and that\u2019s where we need to be better. We need to strain to finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to be challenged this week with a defense led by [coordinator Brian] Flores that\u2019s very multiple and they\u2019re going to do a lot of different things, but the biggest thing I would say is it\u2019s that last push and the strain and the finish of getting guys covered up a little bit longer to let the backs be able to pore the hole and puncture the defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Offensive coordinator Klayton Adams put the issue on the final 5% of blocks. The message was received by the linemen.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally, it\u2019s taking advantage of premier looks when we have a light box,\u201d center Cooper Beebe said. \u201cWe can\u2019t just get 2 or 3 [yards]. It\u2019s gotta be 5, 6, 7 and just keep us on track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Williams, \u201cIt really all comes back to execution, playing our game, not worrying about who we\u2019re playing against or their record or anything like that. Just play our game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Vikings have the 22nd-ranked run defense, giving up 126.8 yards per game.<\/p>\n
A meaningful streak<\/p>\n
For the fourth straight year, Solomon Thomas was named his team\u2019s nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award. From 2022 to 2024, he earned the honor with the New York Jets and now he has it with the Cowboys.<\/p>\n
Thomas started The Defensive Line in 2021 with his parents, Martha and Chris Thomas, to work to end youth suicide in honor of his sister, Ella, who died in 2018. Following the death of teammate Marshawn Kneeland, Thomas was one of the players to share his story.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot to me that the work I\u2019m doing is being recognized,\u201d he said. \u201cWould do it regardless, but it means something to know it\u2019s making a difference in the community. I guess for me to be a leader for my teammates, showing them that, yes, we have these busy lives, busy schedules, but we can still make time to give back to those around us. We have this beautiful platform in a short time to impact people\u2019s lives, and I\u2019m just trying to take advantage of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every day as he walks from the training table to the locker room, Thomas sees a board that shows the Cowboys\u2019 past winners of the award — Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman, Jason Witten and Prescott.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be a part of that board with those legends would mean the world to me,\u201d said Thomas, a Coppell, Texas, native. \u201cJust trying to bring it home, but no matter what, just trying to make people proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lights, camera, action<\/p>\n
For just about the past month, NFL Films cameras have shadowed the Cowboys for the NFC East edition of \u201cHard Knocks.\u201d<\/p>\n
There have been some colorful moments and language. But for a team that has done \u201cHard Knocks\u201d during training camp multiple times, took part in Amazon\u2019s \u201cAll or Nothing\u201d series a few years ago and is chronicled as much or more than any other team in the NFL, it\u2019s not been a big deal.<\/p>\n
Schottenheimer said he has not followed the series.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople send me things and stuff like that, but I will say this: They\u2019ve been great,\u201d the coach said. \u201cThe guys have a job to do. The production people have been amazing. They kind of fit right in with us. By this point, you\u2019re just kind of used to it and you don\u2019t think too much about it. Kudos to them and NFL Films and HBO and everybody that puts it on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, \u201cI\u2019ve been on \u2018Hard Knocks\u2019 [with the New York Jets], so it\u2019s normal to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he has not watched it either.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to focus on winning football games right now,\u201d he said, \u201cso that\u2019s the kind of mindset I\u2019m on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRISCO, Texas — On the 13th game of the Dallas Cowboys\u2019 season, Javonte Williams reached 1,000 yards with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,136557,514,82],"class_list":["post-344727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dallas-cowboys-sports-football-team-team-statscom-331","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}