RGIII Offers Old Solution to Cowboys' New Red Zone Problem

With only a 40-percent efficiency scoring touchdowns in the Red Zone, the Dallas Cowboys rank near the bottom of the NFL through three weeks.

Once upon a time (last week), everything was going perfect for the Dallas Cowboys. Then ... Trevon Diggs suffered a season-ending injury, the offensive line missed three starters in an upset loss to the Arizona Cardinals and Dak Prescott - gasp! - threw an interception.

In the wake of confirmation that the Cowboys won't go 17-0 this season, everyone pretends to know what's suddenly wrong and how to permanently fix it. Take former Washington quarterback and current ESPN NFL analyst Robert Griffin III, who believes their solution will arrive at AT&T Stadium this Sunday ... only wearing the wrong uniform.

"It felt like two or three years, everyone ... was talking about Zeke being washed," Griffin said on Tuesday's Get Up!. "But the bottom line is, the Dallas Cowboys miss Zeke right now."

"It felt like two or three years, everyone ... was talking about Zeke being washed. But the bottom line is, the Dallas Cowboys miss Zeke right now."

—@RGIII pic.twitter.com/azaAQMJlXw

— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) September 26, 2023

Coming off his best game with the New England Patriots, Elliott's return will no doubt remind Cowboys fans of his nose for the end zone. Even during the "worst" year of his career, he scored 12 touchdowns in 2022 and his 68 scores on the ground rank third behind only Hall of Famers Emmitt Smith (153) and Tony Dorsett (72) in franchise history.

Not sure if the solution is as simple as Zeke, but no doubt the Cowboys and new play-caller Mike McCarthy have a Red Zone problem. They scored on only 1 of 5 trips inside Arizona's 20-yard line last week, and rank near the bottom of the NFL through three games.

The Cowboys lead the league with 15 Red Zone possessions, but have scored touchdowns (6) only 40 percent of the time. Seven times they've settled for field goals. At 40 percent, they are tied for 27th in Red Zone efficiency, far from the league-leading Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs who are both around 75 percent.

The root of Dallas' lack of production is that the ball is being thrown to Jake Ferguson, KaVontae Turpin and Luke Schoonmaker, rather than CeeDee Lamb, Michael Gallup and Tony Pollard. Last week Prescott was pressured on a 4th-down throw, then he badly underthrew Brandin Cooks for the game-sealing pick. In Week 2 he had an overthrew out of the end zone.

The Cowboys were the NFL's No. 1 Red Zone offense the past two seasons. And last year all 12 of Elliott's touchdowns came inside the 20.

Maybe RGIII is on to something after all.

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