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Sometimes if you repeat a lie enough times and if you speak the lie with complete conviction, you can convince others that what you're saying is, in fact, true. Take the Cowboys and one of their reasons for drafting Ezekiel Elliott.

According to both owner Jerry Jones and head coach Jason Garrett, Elliott will not only provide the offense with some much-needed fire power, he will also aid the team's defense. Their reasoning is simple: Elliott, a running back, will extend possessions and, as a result, the defense won't need to be on the field for as long as it was last season. It's worth noting the Cowboys are touting this belief as a result of their 2014 playoff season, which saw DeMarco Murray lead the league in carries, rushing yards, and touchdowns.

Now, Barry Church agrees with Jones and Garrett. The Cowboys safety believes the Cowboys' first-round pick will help the Cowboys' defense, which will allow the Cowboys to win more football games.

Seems like a good plan for the Cowboys, who are coming off a 4-12 season.

"He's one of those punishing backs," Church told SiriusXM NFL Radio. "He's a three-down back. He can do it all: Catch it out of the backfield, he can run between the tackles. He has enough speed to break the long ones. He's definitely a three-tool player that can just play on every single down. And it helps out the defense a lot. It takes up our play downs by a lot. That also happened in 2014 when we had DeMarco Murray. He was punishing defenses and we were three-and-out here, three-and-out there and we were fresh in the fourth quarter. That's how we won all of our games, by getting takeaways in the fourth quarter, but that was because we were fresh.

"Hopefully, we can get back to that same formula, where we're just grounding and pounding people and then we're just coming in there and cleaning things up. So we'll see what happens, but he has all the talent in the world."

Ezekiel Elliott was apparently brought to Dallas to fix the offense and the defense. USATSI

Except, even though their reasoning is simple, it isn't rooted in logic. As ESPN's Bill Barnwell pointed out on Twitter, the difference in the number of plays the Cowboys faced in 2014 and 2015 is negligible. The Cowboys faced 978 plays in 2014. In 2015, they faced 998 (per Sporting Charts). The difference is about one play per game, Barnwell explained, before pointing out the Cowboys actually "forced three-and-outs more frequently in 2015 than 2014."

Besides, there isn't even a correlation between time of possession and playing better defense, as The Wall Street Journal's Michael Salfino noted back in May, when the Cowboys first began touting their faulty logic.

As Barnwell then went onto to say, the Cowboys' defense's biggest issue last year was its failure to generate turnovers. Last year, Dallas finished last with 11 takeaways. In 2014, Dallas racked up 31, the second-highest total in the league.

Church pointed out the turnover issue in his response above, but he attributed their success in 2014 to being "fresh" for fourth quarters. Again, that's probably not true, because as previously mentioned, the Cowboys pretty much saw the exact same number of plays on a per game basis in 2014 as they did in 2015, when they finished dead last in the league in turnovers.

All of this isn't meant to serve as a critique of the Cowboys' decision to draft Elliott with the No. 4 pick in the draft, at which point defensive back Jalen Ramsey was still available. Elliott is an all-around back who should thrive alongside Tony Romo and behind a dominant offensive line. That's how the Cowboys should be explaining their selection. They shouldn't claim that Elliott will miraculously cure their defensive woes, because he probably won't -- especially considering multiple key members of the defense are facing lengthy suspensions.

The Cowboys drafted Elliott because he's projected to turn into a damn good NFL running back. That's enough justification for me.