WATCH: Ezekiel Elliott completes Dallas comeback drive with fake kettle celebration
The Dallas Cowboys escaped with a home win over the Houston Texans, and Ezekiel Elliott capped the win with a fake kettle celebration. Elliott and the Dallas offense came through in the clutch with a 98-yard drive for a touchdown while trailing by three. Immediately after his touchdown, Elliott joked with the stadium by pretending to jump into the giant red Salvation Army kettle for his signature holiday move — only to slide right by instead.
Ezekiel Elliott uses the kettle for fake celebration
The Dallas fans in attendance for Sunday’s game might have been willing to help out with Elliott’s fine from the NFL if he had chosen to hop back in the kettle after his game-winning touchdown run. The Cowboys began the fourth quarter with a 53-yard field goal make to cut the Houston lead down to a field goal, but didn’t successfully score again until the final seconds.
Elliott’s two-yard touchdown run gave Dallas their tenth win of the season and tied them with Minnesota and Buffalo for the second-best record in the NFL at 10-3. With Seattle yet to play at the time of Dallas’ win, the Cowboys sit three wins ahead of the rest of the NFC in the wild card race while still two games behind the Philadelphia Eagles.
Elliott’s fake celebration comes as a result of the NFL continuing their own tradition of fining Dallas players for the kettle celebrations, handing down the latest punishments against Elliott and Dak Prescott last week. After celebrating a touchdown by Elliott against the Colts with Prescott’s help, they were fined $13,261 each for a total of over $26,000.
With the tight end corps for Dallas performing their own routine in the kettle before, Dallas players have now been fined a total of $53,616 for the signature celebration. The kettle has been a fixture in the Dallas end zone area for a long time, but has only been used as a touchdown prop a couple of times before this season.
Elliott led the modern push for the kettle being a prop after jumping into the kettle to celebrate a score in 2016. However, former star Terrell Owens used the red kettle in a special way back in November of 2006 as well. Instead of jumping into the kettle as the Cowboys players do now, Owens ran up to the kettle and “donated” the touchdown ball after catching a touchdown pass from Tony Romo.