Chuck Pagano doesn’t have to say much to his players about the value of stopping Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott.
“You just put the tape on,” he said. “That kind of speaks for itself.”
The Bears defensive coordinator then spoke almost 200 words about Elliott, whose 990 rushing yards are the sixth-most in the NFL. Among them: “He’s a great, great back. He’s big. He’s strong. He’s got great vision. He can run. He can take it inside, bounce outside, run through you; run around you; jump over you. He’s a threat out of the backfield as a receiver. He’s good in pass [protection].
“He’s as good as they get.”
Thursday should mark the Bears’ last game without star defensive lineman Akiem Hicks, who is eligible to return from injured reserve in Week 15. Their rush defense settled in after his departure. Starting with the Raiders game in which Hicks dislocated his left elbow, the Bears allowed 146 rushing yards or more in three of four games. In the four since, though, they’ve allowed 105.5 per game and no more than 110.
Their 97.5 rushing yards allowed per game are eighth-fewest in the league. Thursday, though, will mark their toughest test since the Vikings in Week 4.
Led by Elliott, quarterback Dak Prescott and receiver Amari Cooper, the Cowboys lead the NFL with 432.8 yards per game.
Their 25.8 points per game and 127.6 rushing yards per game both ranked eighth entering Monday night. The Bears have played only one team this season that rank higher than the Cowboys in either category: the Vikings.
Their dominance starts with Elliott.
“Pretty much can do everything out of the backfield,” inside linebacker Roquan Smith said. “We’re extremely excited for the matchup, and I think it’ll be good for us.”
Smith is coming off perhaps the best game of his career. He had a career-high 15 and two sacks against the Lions. Only two players in NFL history had ever accomplished that feat.
“I look at everything as a personal challenge for myself,” Smith said. “But it’s also a challenge for the defense. He’s a challenge for the league.”
Nose tackle Eddie Goldman put Elliott in the same category as the Giants’ Saquon Barkley and the Vikings’ Dalvin Cook, the two other great running backs the Bears have faced this season.
“He’s a strong back — he’s nimble, too,” Goldman said. “You got big guys like that, they can’t usually, they’re not fleet of foot. But he is.”
In his only game against the Bears — in 2016 — Elliott ran 30 times for 140 yards and caught two passes for 20 more.
“Obviously, you think of more of a guy with great vision that can run between the tackles,” coach Matt Nagy said. “He has great contact balance. But the other thing they do well with him too is they are able to dump the ball out to him in the flat and he can make guys miss. He’s a hard tackle one-on-one for a DB, linebacker at times. He’s versatile.”
The Cowboys, Pagano said, understand the value of a four-yard run. As a result, their third-down distances stay manageable. No team is more successful on third down — the Cowboys get a first down 48.98 percent of the time.
“There’s a lot of third-and-twos; a lot of third-and-threes; a lot of third-and-fours,” Pagano said. “Because they’re really, really efficient on first and second down. So we’ve got to do a great job. It’s going to be by committee.
“It’s going take a village to get this guy on the ground, down after down. So everybody doing their job, being in the right spots. Don’t try to do anything extra — and wrap up and hang on.”
