There aren’t many things in life that come easy. Life is about change, whether it’s your own personal situation or a certain circumstance that you find yourself in. It’s how we handle those particular instances that end up defining us as individuals.
Trust me, I know all about how in one instant we think we have our lives all figured out, only to be swept off our feet to see our world flipped upside down by some life altering situation.
I have personally gone from an independent individual that was ready to take life by the horns, to becoming someone who is confined to a wheelchair dependent on others for the simplest everyday task.
I’ve rolled with the punches and done the best I can given my situation, and frankly I expect nothing less from everybody else.
Now, I’m not going to sit here and say that going from an able-bodied individual to a person confined to a wheelchair was the easiest of transitions to make, because I would be lying. It was a huge learning process that will probably never end, but that’s just part of living. Right?
We’ve all had our different experiences with the learning process, and I think that is exactly what the Dallas Cowboys’ rookie running back has been experiencing these first two weeks of the 2016 NFL season.
Ezekiel Elliott has had enormous expectations placed on him to come in and take the Cowboys running game to new heights. Something Elliott has admittedly not shied away from.
Elliott has been mentioned as a favorite to win rookie of the year and quite possibly NFL MVP, but I think it’s time we curb our expectations just a little bit.
Dallas Cowboys fans, Ezekiel Elliott could turn out to be everything we had hoped for, but I think if we have learned anything over these first two regular-season games, it’s that Elliott may need time to adjust to the NFL.
I think we all expected Elliott to literally hit the ground running after witnessing what he was able to accomplish in college while playing at Ohio State.
Elliott was able to put together back to back 1,800+ rushing yard seasons in 2014 and 2015 and scored double digit rushing touchdowns both years. As a Buckeye, Elliott finished his collegiate career with 592 carries for 3,961 rushing yards and 43 rushing touchdowns.
The interesting thing though is that Ezekiel Elliott only had three fumbles in college. Okay, he had a fourth on a punt return, but I don’t think that counts.
That’s approximately only one fumble for every 200 rushing attempts. That’s pretty impressive when you think about it.
So, it was surprising to see Elliott have ball security issues not once, but twice Sunday afternoon against the Washington Redskins. Two fumbles is almost as much is he had in his entire collegiate career.
Fortunately, this doesn’t really seem to be a major concern going forward. Mostly because of Ezekiel Elliott’s history of being able to hang on to the ball.
I think it’s all part of the learning process.
Elliott will learn that defensive players in the NFL are going to do their best to pry the ball away on every single play. He will simply have to have better awareness going forward.
Elliott will also learn the intricacies of playing the running back position in the NFL. It may take a little longer than we may have liked, but it will happen.
So, I wouldn’t worry too much about the fact that Ezekiel Elliott only has 134 rushing yards in two games. I know we all would’ve hoped that is what he would be averaging per game, but let’s just let the process play out a little longer.
I mean, he has already shown improvement from Week 1 to Week 2. That’s just a one week time span. Let’s not forget he missed a lot of practice time and preseason due to injury.
I guess what I’m getting at, is Ezekiel Elliott has all the talent in the world to be a really good running back in the NFL, but he is still learning the intricacies of the position at this level.
Do you agree or disagree?
Please feel free to take advantage of the comment section below to voice your opinion. I would love to hear what you think.
