three-touchdown effort in last Sunday’s 49-29 victory against the Chicago Bears as the starter in place of an injured Elliott.
While many point to Pollard’s exceptional performance as proof to why he should be elevated to RB1 for the Cowboys over Elliott,
it was his final carry, a scintillating 54-yard touchdown run that proved the Cowboys are using him in exactly the right role.
Running backs coach Skip Peete compared Pollard’s performance to that of a high-performance race car.
“[Pollard] played a total of 30 plays, and I think that’s his max — as far as total play count—
because then the juice doesn’t become the same and he’s not as quick, not as fast,” Peete said.
“When he got that long run on third-and-1, soon as he got to the sideline he said, ‘Coach,
That 54-yard run, which came on his career-high tying 14th carry in a game. He crossed the goal line with 10 minutes,
“Tony’s obviously a very talented runner and good all-around back,
but some guys are race cars. Some guys are high-quality,
expensive sedans and those sedans can go for a long distance at a very high rate, whereas race cars go very fast and quick and run out of gas.”