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Ezekiel Elliott's status change did not affect Cowboys' game plan

FRISCO, Texas -- When the Dallas Cowboys put together their game plan on Monday and Tuesday for Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers, they thought Ezekiel Elliott would be suspended.

On Tuesday night, Elliott earned a reprieve when a New York judge granted him a temporary restraining order preventing the NFL from enforcing its six-game suspension.

On Wednesday, Elliott took his normal turns in practice.

“It didn’t change our game plan, but obviously we were planning on potentially playing some of the other guys,” offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said. “It didn’t really change because everything was done by the time we started practicing.”

Eventually the Cowboys might have to put together a game plan without Elliott, depending on how the legal maneuverings play out in the next week to 10 days. Linehan said one of the reasons why the Cowboys maintained veteran depth at running back in Alfred Morris and Darren McFadden was because they weren’t sure Elliott would be around for a full season.

“I think our other guys are going to do a great job when they play for us,” Linehan said. “Just thinking of Alfred’s years before he even got here and just his moments of playing when he’s played, thinking of all the good football we got out of D-Mac in (2015). So we know what we’re getting from these guys and Rod (Smith) is coming along. We have really a good feel for the guys (but) the level of play that 21 (Elliott) presents, playing on every down primarily, it’s hard to replace. But we feel our guys are capable if they are in that position.”