Ezekiel Elliott has rushed for 402 more yards than any other running back in the NFL since he arrived in 2016.

It’s no secret that if the Dallas Cowboys are going to succeed, they will need their franchise running back to lead the way.

Dallas will lean heavily on Elliott once again when it hosts the Houston Texans on Sunday Night Football (TSN1, TSN3, TSN4, TSN5, CTV Two, 7 pm ET; 4 pm PT).

In last week’s 26-24 win over the Detroit Lions, Elliott registered a career-high 240 yards from scrimmage. His 152 rushing yards were a season-high. He added four catches for 88 yards and a touchdown, including the 34-yard catch that set up Brett Maher’s game-winning field goal with no time left on the clock in the fourth quarter. Elliott, who has dealt with nagging knee and ankle injuries but was a full participant in practice this week, is expected to receive a substantial workload again in Week 5.

The fourth-overall pick from the 2016 NFL Draft will have a chance to move up the record books when he takes the field on Sunday. Elliott has rushed for 3,040 yards through the first 29 games of his career. He needs just 62 yards on Sunday to move past Adrian Peterson for the fourth-most rushing yards through a player’s first 30 games in NFL history.

No one piece is more critical to the success of the Cowboys right now than their franchise running back. Elliott will need a strong encore performance both on the ground and through the air against the Texans’ 22nd-ranked defence in order for Dallas to have a chance to climb above .500 for the first time this season.

While Elliott is the most important piece for the Cowboys, it would ease some of the burden off his shoulders if Dallas opened things up in the passing game a little more versus Houston.

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has completed 61.7 per cent of his pass attempts through four games. However, he’s averaged just 6.55 yards per completion and has thrown the third-fewest pass completions that have gained 15 yards or more. That’s taking place is in a year when passing and scoring numbers are higher than they have ever been through the first four weeks of a season. The Cowboys have averaged just 16.8 points per game this season – only the Buffalo Bills and Arizona Cardinals have fared worse.

Elliott leads the league with 313 rushing yards on first down this season. While that takes some of the pressure off of Prescott to push the football downfield, it’s somewhat surprising that he hasn’t taken more vertical shots.

Management made getting faster at wide receiver a priority when they cut Dez Bryant and brought in Tavon Austin, Allen Hurns and rookie third-round pick Michael Gallup in the off-season. However, those three wideouts have combined for just 245 yards through the first four games of the season. Prescott is just 3-of-9 on pass attempts 20 yards or more downfield this season. Until Dallas develops a consistent vertical passing game that can stretch opposing defences, the Cowboys will continue to rely on Elliott to carry this offence.

Meanwhile for the Texans, a 37-34 overtime win against the Indianapolis Colts last Sunday did little to inspire confidence. After all, Houston allowed the Colts to march 85 yards in just two minutes and 13 seconds in order to force the extra frame with a game-tying touchdown and two-point conversion with less than a minute left on the clock in regulation. Then in overtime, Indianapolis went for it on fourth-and-four from its own 43-yard line and failed to convert, setting up a short field for the Texans. After one 24-yard completion from DeShaun Watson to DeAndre Hopkins, Ka’imi Fairbairn kicked the game-winning field goal for Houston to escape with its first win of the season. It was the Texans’ first victory since Nov. 19 of last season.

The good news for Houston is that Watson and the passing game finally seemed to click against the Colts. The second-year quarterback completed 29-of-42 pass attempts for a season-high 375 yards and two touchdowns while rushing 41 yards and another score. Hopkins had 10 catches for 169 yards and a touchdown. Will Fuller had four catches for 49 yards and a touchdown. Meanwhile, rookie fourth-round pick Keke Coutee exploded with 11 receptions for 109 yards in his NFL debut. Fuller and Coutee were limited in practice this week but both expect to play on Sunday. It could take a similar performance from the Texans offence this week in order to make it two wins in a row.

For Houston, Week 5 represents another must-win game as they attempt to claw their way back to .500 and avoid falling to 1-4 on the season.

For Dallas, the urgency is still very much there at 2-2 with a difficult remaining schedule that includes the Jacksonville Jaguars and Washington Redskins the next two weeks before their bye.

Both teams will approach this Texas showdown with a sense of desperation. That will only add to the drama when the Cowboys and Texans meet on Sunday Night Football.