Tre Sullivan lined him up, got low and went to deliver a punishing blow to Ezekiel Elliott, but instead he ended up on the wrong side of a poster.
Whiff.
Elliott looked like an Olympian as he hurdled Sullivan on his way to a 32-yard gain in the second quarter and on his way to a 151-yard night on the ground in the Cowboys' crushing 27-20 win over the Eagles on Sunday Night Football (see observations).
"He's a tremendous athlete," Sullivan said. "He jumped over me."
He sure did.
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It was Sullivan who was posterized by Elliott, but the entire Eagles defense was brutalized by the Cowboys' tailback on Sunday night.
Elliott finished with 151 yards on 19 carries and had 187 total yards from scrimmage to go along with two scores.
"I think we just didn't tackle well," linebacker Jordan Hicks said. "You look at a lot of those plays, we have people in position. We just didn't get the job done. It's more on us than anything he did. We know he's a physical runner, strong back. Good running back. We gotta execute."
The Eagles had some chances to get Zeke to the ground on Sunday night. And if you miss those chances against a talent like that, he's going to make you pay.
The Eagles came into the weekend with the NFL's second-best rushing defense, giving up just 83.8 yards per game on the ground. The Cowboys put up 171 on them, the most the Eagles had given up on the ground since the 2016 season.
Elliott's 151 yards on the ground are the most any running back has had against the Eagles since Jim Schwartz took over as defensive coordinator. The last time a running back put up over 150 against the Eagles was Rashad Jennings' 170-yard game in the 2015 season finale under Billy Davis.
This was ugly.
"I think we made a couple mistakes, but we just have to get a hand on [Elliott] sometimes," Fletcher Cox said. "On some of those, he just got free and that's not us. We just have to get it cleaned up and hold him up there until the gang can get there to get him to the ground."
During the Schwartz Era, the Eagles have given up 100 yards to a running back just four times, but now two of those games belong to Elliott. And two of those games (Elliott on Sunday and Saquon Barkley last month) have come within a month. They're going to have to face these two for a long time.
The Eagles gave up 130 rushing yards to Barkley on Oct. 11 and exactly a month later gave up 151 to Elliott. Aside from those two games against incredibly talented running backs, here's a look at the top individual rushers against the Eagles this season:
Cam Newton: 49
Marcus Mariota: 46
Blake Bortles: 43
Latavius Murray: 42
Devonta Freeman: 36
Jarius Wright: 34
Andrew Luck: 33
Christian McCaffrey: 29
That's what makes Sunday's performance hurt so bad. That's supposed to be the Eagles' strength. The run defense wasn't, of course, the only problem on Sunday. The battered secondary was porous too. And that's not even getting into the fact that the Eagles' offense got off to another incredibly slow start.
But giving up a buck-fifty to Elliott stings for a team that prides itself on stopping the run. After 54 yards in the first half, Elliott nearly went over 100 in the second.
On the Cowboys' two crucial second-half touchdown drives, Elliott accounted for 65 total yards (out of 150) and both scores. The Cowboys counted on Elliott with the game on the line and the Eagles had no answers.
"It was four or five big runs," Chris Long said. "We were doing a good job most of the game and a few of those runs got out."
Like the one in the second quarter, where Sullivan was relegated to a piece of track and field equipment. Sure, Sullivan's play stood out the most, but he wasn't alone.
The entire Eagles defense came up empty trying to stop Elliott on Sunday night.
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