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Ezekiel Elliott has been great for the vast majority of the 2016 season, but Sunday marked the moment his MVP campaign kicked into full swing.Elliott scored three touchdowns in the Cowboys dramatic 35-30 win over the Steelers on Sunday, including two in the final two minutes of action. In addition to two rushing scores, he added in an 88-yard touchdown on a screen and finished the day with 209 yards from scrimmage. As many have pointed out, hes one of just three rookie backs to rush for 1,000 yards in his first nine professional games, joining Adrian Peterson and Eric Dickerson.And yet, as great as Elliott undoubtedly is, I keep going back to a number from ESPN Stats & Information. Do you know how many times Elliott was even touched by a Steelers player on his three touchdowns?Zero.Elliott traveled 129 yards from scrimmage on those three plays and never even had to beat an unblocked defender one-on-one. Zeke showed great patience in hitting his hole and accelerating past the flat-footed Robert Golden on his final score, and the Steelers might have been trying to allow Elliott to score on his second touchdown, but one would think Elliott would run into a Steelers defender just based on sheer electric football chance.Theres a third actor in this discussion, and its the reason Elliott went untouched on those plays. The Dallas Cowboys offensive line is as dominant as any unit or any individual player in football on a week-to-week basis. Despite losing Lael Collins to a foot injury, Dallas five-man gang of Tyron Smith, Ronald Leary, Travis Frederick, Zack Martin?and Doug Free has been the backbone of an offensive renaissance in Dallas. The Cowboys are averaging 28.7 points per game, the fourth-best rate in the league, while starting a rookie fourth-rounder at quarterback and missing their star wideout for a large portion of the season. The offensive line is making everybody on this offense look great. They, collectively, deserve serious consideration as league MVP.The question youre probably asking at the end of that paragraph is fair: Can an offensive line actually win the leagues most valuable player award as a crew? The answer isnt entirely clear. The idea was broached several years ago when the Giants had an offensive line which was worthy of similar consideration.Several entities actually hand out MVP awards, but the most familiar one is The Associated Press award, which is revealed as part of the NFL Honors ceremony in February. I asked several members of the electorate whether they would be allowed to vote for positional groups, and while none had in the past, theres apparently nothing in the rules against voting for an entity like the Cowboys offensive line over an individual player. Thats enough for us to consider the possibility.I hesitate to say that a group of offensive linemen will never win the MVP award -- after all, a kicker won the trophy in 1981 -- but the odds are stacked against any offensive lineman getting the credit he deserves, if only because the NFL is terrible at honoring linemen. This isnt a media issue, either. When NFL players voted for this years Top 100 Players list, they ended up including more running backs (10) than offensive linemen (seven) in a game in which teams routinely line up one back behind five linemen. The league pays lip service to the importance of the game in the trenches, but everything else has to go right for a lineman (or linemen) to even garner passing attention for a major award.This is that year. Theres no obvious MVP candidate: My favorites?heading into last week were?Tom Brady and Matt Ryan, both of whom had off nights during their respective teams Week 10 losses to Seattle and Philadelphia, respectively. J.J. Watt, the perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate, is out for the year, and theres no other transcendent defender sticking out from the pack. Julio Jones deserves consideration, but Elliott is now 75 rushing yards ahead of second-place back DeMarco Murray and 42 yards ahead of David Johnson in the yards from scrimmage race. Hes the most productive player on the leagues winningest team, with the Patriots loss ensuring that Dallas makes it to Week 11 as footballs sole club with eight wins.Elliott is playing his part in the symphony. Among backs with 100 yards or more, Elliott is ninth in the league in average yards before first contact (2.91) and then fourth in the league in yards after first contact (2.16). He has exhibited excellent patience in waiting for his holes to open and elite acceleration when they do clear; many young backs possess the latter, but precious few have the former, especially during their debut season.Hes also being provided with the sorts of running lanes backs dream about getting on a weekly basis, which is why the word untouched comes up a lot after he scores touchdowns. Still images can be misleading, but these are as in-context and fair as I could make them. Lets look at the holes Elliott hit for his two rushing touchdowns against Pittsburgh on Sunday. Heres the first one, which again may have been with the Steelers allowing Elliott to score in an attempt to get the ball back:Theres no safety lurking behind the pile of linemen there, just free room for Elliott to roam. Dak?Prescott checked into this play at the line of scrimmage, killing the pass play called and going instead with a run, and his linemen maul the Steelers. Frederick sustains his block on the nose tackle and pushes him yards to the right, creating the hole for Elliott. Both guards -- Leary and Martin -- get to the second level, with Leary disappearing for a moment before emerging from the void to pancake Ryan Shazier. Theres no hope for the Steelers on this play. There wasnt much of one on the next touchdown, either:Elliotts about to cut behind Smith and burst upfield, where the closest Steelers to him who arent on the ground are 2 yards away and either not moving or moving in the wrong direction. Lawrence Timmons tries to penetrate through the A-gap at the snap, only for Frederick to come out of his stance quickly and push him aside. Smith and Leary cave in the right side of the Steelers front, with Leary driving down nose tackle Javon Hargrave and Smith pancaking Shazier, eliminating the guys with any hope of tackling Elliott at the second level. Tight end Gavin Escobar seals off Jarvis Jones from the edge, and while the Steelers send cornerback Sean Davis on a run blitz out of the slot, he tries to run into the backfield and only turns upfield as Elliott is running by him. Elliotts acceleration comes in handy here -- a lesser back might have been caught from behind -- but the Cowboys basically give him a direct path to the end zone.Ive seen every Elliott run this season, but I went back and specifically watched his touchdowns to see whether this was a frequent pattern. It is. Untouched isnt the right word, and he has had a couple of short-yardage plunges, but the vast majority of the resistance against Elliott on his scores have come within steps of the end zone. Elliott has really had to make only two defenders miss otherwise on his scores, and they were both defensive backs in the Browns game, when Elliott chose to cut outside on running plays.Lets look at some more offensive line magic. Elliott had a 1-yard plunge for a score in the Niners game, but it was set up on the previous play, in which?he ran for 17 yards with a hole big enough to literally fit three Ezekiel Elliotts with room to spare:He scored twice in the Bengals game. Here, on Elliotts first touchdown of the day, the Cowboys fold him a nice little crease for a 13-yard score:The bigger one came later, when Elliott ran untouched for a 60-yard touchdown up the middle. This one is a little more difficult than the still image indicates, as Geno Atkins snuck past the guards and penetrated into the backfield, but Martin does enough to shield Atkins from Elliott, who makes a quick cut immediately after getting the ball to eliminate Atkins from the play. From there, Zeke has a Texas-sized expanse to enjoy:Elliott also shows off his wheels here by accelerating right past George Iloka, who sprints to the spot where he thinks Elliott will be, only to find that Elliott was there a half-second earlier. A replacement-level back -- or even a league-average back -- cant do that. And there are Elliott runs in which he does make people miss, of course. Here he is breaking a tackle in the hole?against the Packers for 29 yards.?For every run like that, though, theres seemingly one like his 23-yarder against the 49ers, in which Elliott patiently waits for Martin to clear out a parking spot before he sprints forward. Elliott deserves credit for setting up the block and selling that he wants to go outside before cutting upfield, of course, but theres a path being plowed for him along the way.Its not just what theyre doing with Elliott, either. The offensive line has done an incredible job in creating a comfortable space for its rookie fourth-round pick, Prescott, to operate. The track record of midround picks as rookies is abysmal, often because theyre forced to make decisions under pressure and usually choose poorly. Prescott hasnt had those problems. The Cowboys have allowed him to spend an average of 2.47 seconds in the pocket before making his throws, which is second in the league behind Tyrod Taylor in Buffalo. Prescotts average throw has come after 2.73 seconds, which is the fourth-longest rate. And while passers around him in those rankings such as Taylor, Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck?and Cody Kessler all have sack rates at or well above the league average of 5.6 percent, Prescott is going down on just 4.3 percent of his dropbacks.Dallas previously unheralded rookie signal-caller has been great without having Dez Bryant, his best wide receiver, for a good chunk of the season. Again, as is the case with Elliott, Prescott deserves some of the credit. The Cowboys had mostly the same offensive line last year and werent able to throw the ball with Matt Cassel and Brandon Weeden under center for most of the year, even given how well they pass-protected. At the same time, though, this unit made Darren McFadden look like a great back in 2015, as the former Raider averaged 4.6 yards per carry after mustering just 3.3 yards per attempt in his three previous seasons in Oakland. And they were the focal point of Murrays breakout season in 2014, helping pave the way for him and Tony Romo to enjoy a 12-4 campaign.Murray has been resurgent this year, which actually adds to the aura of what Dallas did in 2014. Murray looked like a monster in Texas and promptly fell to replacement level last year in Philadelphia, as a change in scheme and a far inferior offensive line took their toll during his lone season with the Eagles. Traded to Tennessee, Murray has refound his form behind another great offensive line built around first-round picks. Chance Warmack hasnt really panned out and is on injured reserve, but the Titans found a pair of stars at tackle with top-11 picks Taylor Lewan and Jack Conklin before making an underrated addition in free agency with Houston center Ben Jones. Lewan was ejected from Sundays blowout win over the Packers, but this unit has done an incredible job all year of creating holes for Murray and protecting Marcus Mariota, who is looking like a franchise quarterback again.And theyre not the only ones being defined by the guys up front. Look at the most surprising team in the NFL outside of these Cowboys: The 7-2 Raiders focused their rebuild around the offensive line, choosing to spend gobs of money in free agency in lieu of draft picks. Detroit, now in first place in the NFC North, has three first-rounders and four third-rounders, all on rookie deals, in their offensive line rotation.There are also clear examples of how line play has had a negative impact: The Vikings have gone from 5-0 to 5-4 once their defense stopped forcing takeaways and their offensive line collapsed under injuries and subpar play. Minnesota has been unable to run the ball all year, and over the past four games, Sam Bradford?has been sacked on a league-high 9.2 percent of his dropbacks, including two of the final three offensive snaps in Sundays loss to Washington. If there was ever one, this would be the Year of the Offensive Line.Its tough to talk about this topic in relation to Elliott (and to a lesser extent, Prescott) because its perceived as a slight. Its too easy to make this a binary argument, in which Elliott is either a fraud who is entirely a product of his offensive line or a running genius who would excel behind a blocking sled. Neither argument is fair to any of the parties involved.Its more nuanced. Elliott is not Walt Weiss or Nick Hundley during their days with the Colorado Rockies, taking advantage of the thin air to look like a professional hitter. Hes Larry Walker or Nolan Arenado, a genuine talent placed in the best possible situation for a player to look great.Elliott would be good -- and potentially great -- in other places, although the Murray example in Philadelphia gives us reason to wonder whether any back at all is situation- or line-proof. That alone is an argument against picking a running back to win league MVP. As good as a back like Murray or Elliott can look, we know that theyre too dependent upon scheme and surrounding talent to be the most valuable player in the league. In Dallas, were quickly seeing that the offensive line can do wonders regardless of who takes the football behind it.Frederick and the Dallas O-line arent scheme-dependent. They are the scheme. Devin Funchess Jersey . 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EVIAN, France -- Seven years ago Joanna Klatten wasnt playing in professional golf tournaments -- she was working at them.A lot can happen in seven years.In that time the Evian Masters has become the Evian Championship, the fifth major of the LPGA season, and Klatten has become the longest hitter in the womens game.Having completed a first round tied for 53rd at a 1-over 72 in the 2016 Evian Championship Thursday, Klatten can reflect that her work environment has improved (just a bit) in the past few years: Where once she fidgeted behind a desk, this week shes standing on tee boxes, casting an eye over Lake Geneva and the snow-capped mountains of the Alps beyond.But Klatten is no stranger to golf courses with a quintessentially French view.She grew up playing the game at Saint-Cloud Golf Club in Paris, where the eighth and ninth holes present a funnel of trees with a view of the Eiffel Tower in the far distance.Klatten is perfectly at home in Paris. She loves the culture -- attending concerts, the opera and the ballet when possible. After graduating from Georgia State University in Atlanta, where she was a 2007 first-team All-CAA selection, she returned to the City of Light.I never had the goal to turn professional, she told espnW before her first round. I was going to follow everyone else in my family, to work in marketing and events. I even worked for a radio company for a bit.Klatten may love the attractions of the city, but it started to dawn on her that being stuck in an office wasnt her style.I need to be doing something all the time, I cant keep still, she laughed. I like being outside and activities like skiing and sky-diving. When I was working I didnt hit any golf balls for a year and a half.As the clubs gathered dust in the garage, she kept an eye on her peers from the European amateur scene.Some of my friends had started playing on tour, they were enjoying it and I started to wonder. Maybe I was missing out on something, it didnt feel right.She had an itch, and it was an unlikely voice who told her to scratch it -- Sergio Garcia.I was working at the European Tours BMW International Open in Munich and at a meal there I was chatting to Sergio and a few other players. I told them I had the course record at Saint-Cloud of 63. They were saying that if I could go that low, I had potential and I should see how far it could take me.There was another consideration.I was working for the tournament director and he also said it was probably a good idea I tried golf, she said with a sheepish smile. Yeah, Im not very good at organizing.Working in an office wasnt for me, so I quit my job in 2010 and it was a long road.Her laugh at this remark suggests she had her doubts at times.Yeah, it might have taken me about six months to break 80, she said.In late 2010 she headed to the Ladies European Tours Q school and gained a card via a top-10 finish. The journey, however, was far from complete: Five tournaments into 2011, she had yet to play a weekend.The turning point came in midsummer: a first cut made in the Netherlands, an 18-hole lead in her very next start in Switzerland and then qualification for a first maajor championship, the Ricoh Womens British Open on the toughest track on the rotation, Carnoustie.ddddddddddddhe missed the cut, but an encounter with her there suggested she had taken another step forward. She had been taken by the atmosphere on the range, by the focus of the worlds best players, by their striving for success.Kicking on from that experience the following year, she claimed a first professional victory on the ALPG Tour before racking up 19 top-25 finishes on the Ladies European Tour as she finished 2012 at 25th in the rankings and 2013 at 13th.She was ready for the challenge of the LPGA.There is a huge difference level-wise, people are way more serious, she said. It pushes you. I like that.Although excited about the golf, there were aspects of the new lifestyle that took some getting used to.To begin with, it was the same hotel room every week; you know getting stuck with the same chains and its all so similar, I wasnt sure for a bit. But then I decided to do private housing, which is this great idea the LPGA has. Some players dont like staying with strangers, but I like being with the locals and Ive been so lucky.Ive stayed in such nice places with lovely people, getting to know all about the area and the culture. It makes it a little less like a job and a drudge. There is one family I always stay with in Michigan; they are almost like family. They make it so much easier for me. I love going back to them.A big league win remains elusive, but an LPGA career-best sixth place came in this years Lotte Championship in Hawaii. She also claimed an alternative victory in last seasons end-of-year KIA Performance Awards, when presented with the power drive prize for longest driver (average of 274-yards, longest hit 355-yards).Sounding a little emotional, she said at the prize: Six years ago, if youd said I would be here at this awards, it is too amazing. It is a good reward for so much effort. Its a dream come true for me playing here; way better than an office.Statistics also point the way forward.Oh yeah, she said with wide-eyed Gallic emphasis. This year, I am leading the driving distance again, and I am seventh for greens in regulation. Its just the putting. If I fix it, then there is potential. Im playing well this year, Im optimistic.A two-time top-five finisher in the Ladies Open de France (including a hole-in-one last year), she was ready to bring her A-game to Evian.I love the set up of the course; it suits me very well. I used to have a miss from the tee on the left, which is bad at Evian, but I dont have that miss now. Then once youre on the fairway at Evian, there is a lot of elevation and carry required with the approach, and that suits my ball flight as I have a lot of height and length. Theres plenty of reason to be confident, I just need to get it in the hole.No one likes an early alarm call, but Klatten didnt mind Thursday.First out from the 10th tee at 7:45 a.m. local time; there was no commute, and her office had no desk -- and she likes it that way. Cheap Jerseys China NFL Jerseys China NFL Jerseys Wholesale Discount Basketball Jerseys Cheap NHL Jerseys Authentic Cheap Baseball Jerseys Free Shipping Cheapest College Jerseys Sale Cheap Football Jerseys China Nike NFL Jerseys Canada Wholesale NHL Jerseys From China MLB Jerseys Outlet Canada Wholesale NBA Jerseys Canada Store Cheap Soccer Jerseys China Cheap Authentic Jerseys Canada ' ' '