FRISCO — Ezekiel Elliott said he was not a patient man.

The Cowboys running back spent much of his professional career as a starting running back. Until now.

After earning first-team snaps at training camp practice and starting the opening game of the season, Elliott, the third-leading rusher in franchise history, is limited.

It’s not because of an injury.

This season, Elliott has just 81 yards on 24 carries and one touchdown. Last week, Elliott rushed for 19 yards on five carries in a win over the Giants.

He played just 32% of the Cowboys’ offensive snaps. That’s 85 in total.

“It’s something we have to work through,” he said after practice on Thursday. “The last few games have been tough. I think we had 22 games before the two minute mark of the last game. It wasn’t very liquid. We fell behind, hopefully things will get better.”

During the offseason, the Cowboys signed Elliott to a one-year contract in order to acquire a more expensive free agent running back like Derrick Henry, who currently leads the league with 480 rushing yards.

Elliott has taken few snaps over the past three weeks, with Rico Dowdle and fullback Hunter Luepke getting most of them.

“I’m sure it’s frustrating,” quarterback Dak Prescott said of his close friend. “Frustrating as hell. He’s a team-first guy.”

It’s baffling why Elliott received first-team snaps in training camp with the goal of being fresh for the season, only to see limited opportunities at the start of the regular season.

When asked about this, Elliott did not respond.

Following his patience, he said, “Yeah, you just have to make the most of the opportunities that come my way and go from there.”

The Cowboys have the second-fewest rushing attempts (85) in the NFL this season and rank last in rushing offense with 75.3 yards per game.

“I think it comes down more to the details and I think like you always do, you work on the specifics of the runs, the decisions and how everything syncs up with your run blocking unit,” coach Mike McCarthy said of that Cowboys running game.

“I thought last week (80 yards) was our best day in that area. So it’s something that we not only have to build on, but we also have to be very consistent about it.”

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