Lot of good news-bad news for Cowboys fans during the first half of the third preseason game on Thursday night. The bad news was absolutely terrifying, as quarterback Tony Romo suffered a back injury within in the first five minutes of the game. He's fine and tried to come back in, but the Cowboys wisely didn't let him.

The good news is Ezekiel Elliott appears to be the truth. Drafted No. 4 overall by Dallas in the 2016 NFL Draft, Elliott is the rare running back many believed to be worth a top-five pick. It's the preseason so all the caveats apply, but he looks worth the gamble.

Elliott ran for 48 yards on seven carries in the first quarter alone, finding huge holes behind the massive Cowboys offensive line and picking up chunk yardage on the ground (6.9 yards per carry is very nice).

The rookie got a "welcome to the NFL" moment from Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor, who popped him with a late hit following an errant Dak Prescott dump pass -- Chancellor was probably reacting to Elliott giving the vaunted Seattle defense a mouthful on a couple of big runs.

So Elliott came right back on the next play and fired into Chancellor with a huge hit.

He's not afraid. He's also versatile. If you didn't see the play where Romo got hurt -- or even if you did -- you probably missed the block Elliott laid down.

If not for that block Romo is hit way before he takes off running. There's not even a running lane if Zeke doesn't hit the guy either. Interestingly, you could almost make the case just stepping up and trusting Elliott to make the block would have given Romo a clean pocket.

Can't blame him for wanting to escape against this defensive line, though.

At any rate, it appears to be all good for the Cowboys. Romo isn't dead or seriously injured, Elliott looks worth the investment and even when Romo went down, Dak Prescott stepped in and threw a touchdown pass immediately. Of course he did.