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          Dallas Cowboys

          With Ezekiel Elliott eligible Sunday, Cowboys hope to ride hot hand

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          Elliott gives Cowboys better chance to beat Chiefs (0:45)

          Herm Edwards breaks down what Ezekiel Elliott's ability to play in Week 9 means for the Cowboys' preparations against the Chiefs. (0:45)

          • Todd Archer, ESPN Staff WriterNov 3, 2017, 03:05 PM
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              Todd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas Cowboys. Archer has covered the NFL since 1997 and Dallas since 2003. He joined ESPN in 2010. You can follow him on Twitter at @toddarcher.
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          FRISCO, Texas -- The start of the week was not good for the Dallas Cowboys when a judge denied Ezekiel Elliott's request for a preliminary injunction.

          The end of the week was better, as the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Elliott a temporary stay of his six-game suspension for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy.

          The Cowboys had prepared all week as if they would not have Elliott on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs. They were ready to go with Alfred Morris, Rod Smith and Darren McFadden in a committee approach against the Chiefs and the five games after that, if necessary.

          Now the Cowboys will have Elliott, at least on Sunday.

          The Cowboys can talk about their confidence in their ability to run the ball without Elliott and rave about the play of their offensive line, but as coach Jason Garrett likes to say, the runner matters.

          It took a few games, but Elliott has looked recently like he did in 2016, when he led the league with 1,631 rushing yards. Against the Green Bay Packers on Oct. 8, he ran for 116 yards on 29 carries, with 85 yards coming in the fourth quarter. Against the San Francisco 49ers on Oct. 22, he had 26 carries for 147 yards and two touchdowns. Against the Washington Redskins the following Sunday, he had 33 carries for 150 yards and two touchdowns.

          Add in his receptions and he has 505 yards from scrimmage on 91 touches, the best output for a three-game span in his first two seasons. He has accounted for 42 percent of the Cowboys' yards, the most of any player since Week 5, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.

          He has 21 rushing touchdowns in 22 career games. Only Hall of Famers Earl Campbell and Eric Dickerson reached that mark faster (20 games).

          Now you see why Elliott is so important to the Cowboys' offense.

          They want to play a certain way by controlling the tempo of the game, especially against a high-powered offense like Kansas City's. Elliott's recent success has the Cowboys playing the way that worked so well in 2016, when they finished 13-3.

          Elliott will have a chance to match a team record with his third straight game with at least 100 yards and two rushing touchdowns. In 1983, Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett turned that trick.

          More important for the Cowboys, they are just glad to have Elliott for at least one more week.