The Dallas Cowboys offensive line can no longer be considered elite

Cowboys offensive line vs. the Vikings

This week, the Cowboys were once again playing one of the better teams of the NFC, the Minnesota Vikings, who have a very good defensive line. It was a good test. The line didn’t exactly fail, but they weren’t great. The tackles, Smith and Collins were pretty good. Dak Prescott mostly had time to drop back and make passes.

But the interior line was a different story. Back in the day, Dallas could push around opposing defensive lines. That didn’t happen Sunday. Time and again, when Prescott handed off the ball to running back Ezekiel Elliott, the holes just weren’t there.

More than once, fans watched the interior line try to jump off the ball, but just couldn’t move the defensive line. They just couldn’t push those guys out of the way.

Ezekiel Elliott felt it. Elliott, the NFL rushing leader two out of the last three years, carried the ball 20 times Sunday for 47 yards. That’s 2.4 yards per carry. It’s terrible.

And as fans know all too well, when the game was on the line with less than a minute left on the clock, Elliott was given the ball twice in a row and stopped both times, the second one in the backfield for a three-yard loss.

Was that Elliott’s fault? Not entirely. It looked to me that the Minnesota defense finally wore out the Dallas offensive line. It’s ironic. It used to go the other way. I remember when by the fourth quarter, Frederick, Martin, and company would be throwing their opponents to the ground.

But this week, they were worn out. Before Elliot was stopped, interior linemen Connor Williams, Travis Frederick and Zack Martin were stopped first. It was sad to see.

Is it a crisis like in 2017? No. The Dallas offensive line wasn’t a disaster Sunday night. Prescott wasn’t running for his life. However, according to Over the Cap, Dallas’s five starting offensive linemen are making a combined $45,992,583 this year. At least that’s their combined cap hit.

Seems like America’s Team should be getting better production for such a large investment. Of course, this is only one of the Cowboys’ problems.

The run defense is a huge problem. So is the decision making. Will owner Jerry Jones finally get fed up with Jason Garrett’s mediocrity and fire him over the offseason? All of these are huge questions.

But so is the offensive line. If Dallas is ever going to get back to elite play, their offensive line is going to have to play better.