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Dallas Cowboys star Tony Pollard out Thursday against the Tennessee Titans

At 11-4 on the season, the Dallas Cowboys have relied a whole lot on impending free agent running back Tony Pollard this season.

The first-time Pro Bowler has done some great things workng with Ezekiel Elliott in Dallas’ backfield through 16 weeks.

That will not continue Thursday night against the Tennessee Titans as Dallas looks to remain alive in the NFC East race.

Pollard, 25, suffered a thigh injury in Dallas’ big Christmas Eve win over the first-place Philadelphia Eagles. Playing on a short week in Nashville Thursday night, Pollard has been ruled out for the game.

We’d normally say that this might have a major impact on the outcome of a game. That’s until we realize the Titans have lost five consecutive games and are rolling with a quarterback in Josh Dobbs who has thrown all of 17 regular-season passes since entering the NFL back in 2017. Two-time rushing champion Derrick Henry is also unlikely to play in this one for Tennesseee.

Related: Tony Pollard and NFL’s best running backs of 2022-23

Even then, being without Pollard could have an impact on the Cowboys’ offense as they look to win their 12th game this season.

  • Tony Pollard stats (2022): 186 attempts, 988 rushing yards, 5.3 average, 39 receptions, 371 yards, 1,359 total yards, 12 TD

The expectation is that Dallas will rely heavily on Elliott to perform at a high level behind Dak Prescott in the backfield come Thursday night. The three-time Pro Bowler has been pretty good this season, too. He’s put up 921 total yards at a clip of 4.2 yards per rush while scoring 11 touchdowns on the ground.

Dallas finds itself two games behind the Philadelphia Eagles with as many games remaining. An Eagles win coupled with Dallas losing one more game would lead the the latter traveling to take on the winner of the NFC South in the wild card round.

For Dallas, the off-chance of catching Philadelphia isn’t worth further injury to Pollard. It’s in this that sitting the stud back makes a ton of sense.

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