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Week 10 is nearly two months too early for any kind of coronation, but there is little question the Cowboys are the best team in the NFC, and there is a very viable case for multiple MVP candidates on the roster.

This is the week for the "Ezekiel Elliott for MVP" talk, so let's throw it out there: The Cowboys rookie running back is a legitimate candidate for the award.

Elliott's Week 10 performance was arguably the best we've seen of him yet, and with his big day -- 114 rushing yards and 95 receiving yards plus three total touchdowns -- Elliott became just the third running back in NFL history with 1,000 yards rushing in his first nine games. Eric Dickerson and Adrian Peterson serve as fairly decent company.

It appears that Elliott only gets stronger the more he runs. In the fourth quarter, he pulled off his two best rushing attempts of the game, including a touchdown with just under two minutes left to give Dallas the lead.

Ben Roethlisberger would march the Steelers down the field and bust out the old Dan Marino-inspired fake spike for a go-ahead touchdown, but that lead didn't last long.

Again, courtesy of Zeke:

Elliott has vision, speed, power and balance. He has a third (fourth?) gear many running backs don't possess, but can also plow defenders over. He's an underrated receiver and already one of the best blocking backs out there.

The former Ohio State star is averaging 111.7 yards per game rushing and another 27.8 receiving yards through nine games. Elliott leads the league with 1,255 yards from scrimmage.

If he keeps up his current pace, he'll finish with 1,787 rushing yards.

There are 27 players who have topped 1,750 yards in a season before. The only one who did it as a rookie was Dickerson, who set the NFL record with 1,808 yards in 1983.

But it's easy to forget Elliott didn't have a hot start. Over his past seven games, Elliott is averaging 124.4 yards per game. If he keeps that pace up for the remainder of the season, Elliott would finish with 1,875 rushing yards.

Yes, Elliott has a shot at breaking the record. Yes, it is mostly an outside shot. But it wouldn't be that far-fetched to see him take down Dickerson's record. His biggest impediment might be the Cowboys clinching home-field advantages too early.

But the difference between Elliott and every other running back is the other MVP candidate on the Cowboys. No, not Dak Prescott, who is playing exceptional football right now, even getting Tony Romo to essentially admit that Dallas is Dak's team while he's the hot hand. (More on that in a second.)

It's the offensive line, which doesn't technically qualify as an MVP candidate because it is a group of five humans working together and occasionally rotating personnel. Love the idea of "Cowboys O-line for MVP," but it's not practical and it's insidious to suggest.

What's critical is these guys get their just due. Because they are destroying defensive worlds right now. On Elliott's final score of the game, the Steelers didn't have a prayer of stopping him, because there were only five dudes standing when Elliott was about to hit the hole.

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via NFL Broadcast

Two T. Rex's could link tiny arms and sashay right through that hole. The five guys standing aren't exactly in good position either -- No. 1 is watching Dez Bryant, No. 2 is a cornerback swooping in and already removed from the play, Nos. 3 and 5 are being blocked and No. 4 isn't going to get Elliott in the open field. The play is over before it began.

The same thing happened on the previous Elliott touchdown, which many people believed was a "give up and let 'em score" move by the Steelers. It was not. They just got smushed.

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via NFL Broadcast

When you hear Merrill Hoge shouting about ca-NAH-lees on NFL Matchup, this is what he's talking about. Welcome to Steeler Country, indeed.

I don't personally subscribe to the theory that anyone can run behind this line and do what Elliott is doing. We saw Darren McFadden look good, but this is a different level. The rookie is turning huge holes into huge gains, and the Cowboys offense is just clicking right now.

The reason I would lean Elliott as MVP if I was picking someone from Dallas: He's the reason things are easier for Prescott, and the big dudes up front aren't getting a collective vote for five people. The concept -- much like voting for Peyton Manning when he's injured -- is interesting, but it's five guys. That's nearly half the unit.

And the thing about making life easier for Prescott can't be overstated. Life was immediately easier for Prescott because of playbook similarities between Mississippi State and Dallas, but Elliott being there as a fellow rookie to take away the offensive burden and contribute as a weapon and a form of protection is massive.

Prescott is in the running for Offensive Rookie of the Year, but he isn't in the conversation for MVP right now. That being said, there's no chance Tony Romo is taking his job back in the immediate future.

The leash probably isn't that long, however, as Romo is expected to play the roll of healthy backup for the first time in Week 11. An egg laid by Prescott against Pittsburgh would've given Jones and Jason Garrett a reason to potentially go to Romo. But at this point you don't mess with happy, given how comfortable Prescott looks, how he's starting to develop a rapport with his weapons and because the Cowboys have their first eight-game winning streak since 1977.

Romo still gives this team a higher ceiling, but you can't take out Prescott the way he's playing and the way the team is winning. Home games against the Ravens and Redskins over the next two weeks should offer fairly easy matchups. But Dak stumbling in both -- or just one -- of those games would open up the topic for plenty of discussion.

Given how well Dak has played so far this season, there's hardly any reason to think it happens.

Here's what else you need to know from Sunday's Week 10 action.

1. Another week, another officiating issue

Look, being an NFL official is a really hard job in 2016. Not coal-miner hard or anything, but there's a ton of attention paid to what you do, and with the proliferation of super-HD television and the advent of DVR, every obnoxious football writer and fan on the planet can quickly point out how you screwed up at work.

But you know what? It looks like the refs screwed up again Sunday, this time in a couple of ways on the extra-point attempt by the Saints that would have put them up a point and given them a win.

First off, there are issues with how the Broncos blocked it. You can see there are Denver players who are pushing down New Orleans players on the kicking team.

The rule against pushing someone down only technically -- I think -- applies to the person actually blocking the kick:

(p) Jumping or standing on a teammate or opponent to block or attempt to block an opponent's kick.

(q) Placing a hand or hands on a teammate or opponent to gain additional height to block or attempt to block an opponent's kick.

You could certainly apply it here, but it's possible the Broncos circumvented the rule by having someone else push down the players on the offensive line for the kicking team.

The bigger concern comes with the lack of judgment on the return, which ultimately gave Denver a two-point win after a failed onside kick by the Saints.

It sure looked pretty obvious that Will Parks, the Broncos safety who took the ball back to the end zone, stepped out of bounds on the return.

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Different-colored shoes might tell a different story. The Saints weren't that miffed about it, but maybe they should be.

The biggest issue here is the lack of process to fix the problem.

There could be sideline cameras, end zone cameras, there could be overhead cameras. Those are things available for purchase by a multibillion-dollar business.

There could be an additional referee. Or the NFL could do the most obvious thing and make the control room in New York a replay hub. Quit putting it on the referee at the game to decide if there's enough evidence to overturn a call. Have the league on the horn, looking at the replay and making a call to ensure the right decision is made.

Stream it on Periscope or charge everyone $12 a month to get the feed of Dean Blandino making these calls. Take all the money and spend it on more cameras. It is perpetually frustrating to see a league that prints money not have the resources to ensure all calls are correctly made.

2. The playoff effect

The Saints game created a pretty huge swing in terms of the playoffs on both sides of the field. The Saints were all set to kick the extra point, play a little defense and move to 5-4. They wouldn't be in the playoffs with the win, but they would be a half-game behind Washington (5-3-1) for the No. 6 seed going into Week 11 and hot on the Giants' (5-3, MNF pending) heels as well, with a head-to-head loss. They would have been a half-game back of the Falcons (6-4) for the NFC South lead.

Everything changed with the return, and now New Orleans is 4-5 and 11th in the NFC, behind the Buccaneers and third in the NFC South. They're not toast yet, but that game could very well be the difference in making the playoffs or not.

I highly recommend bookmarking our NFL playoff picture page:

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via CBSSports.com

The same holds true for the Carolina Panthers. Carolina led the Chiefs 17-3 after the third quarter and looked like a lock to move to a fairly respectable and fairly dangerous 4-5 on the season.

Carolina's defense was rolling and Cam Newton was looking sharp. Then everything fell apart: a field goal by Cairo Santos with 12 minutes left cut the lead to 11 points. Eric Berry made the best pick-six you'll see all season on Newton just two minutes later to slice the lead to three after a Travis Kelce two-point conversion.

The pass by Cam shouldn't be obscured by Berry's play. That's an unacceptable throw.

Six minutes later, Santos lined up for a field goal to tie the game, buried it and after a disastrous offensive possession -- Marcus Peters took the ball out of Kelvin Benjamin's hands like it was his lunch money -- led to a short field for Kansas City, Santos got to bang through a winner and send the Panthers to 3-6.

Again, there's football left to be played and 9-7 isn't off the table for Carolina, but it's obviously much more difficult at this point for Carolina to make a run.

The interesting factor with these two games and their playoff interest is that the winning teams come from the AFC West.

Both the Broncos and Chiefs are seven-win teams 10 weeks into the season. Say what you want about them, but Denver (lucky?) and Kansas City (boring?) find their ways to wins.

The Raiders, on a bye this week, should be steaming right now, because the NFC South just gave away wins to two division opponents.

3. Don't forget about the Titans

The Exotic Smashmouth is in full effect for Mike Mularkey's squad right now, and DeMarco Murray, cast aside last year as a loser in Chip Kelly's system with the Eagles, deserves all the credit for helping this team get going. Murray is running the ball exceptionally well, and he's even throwing the ball nicely these days too.


Murray isn't the only reason for Tennessee's success. We've seen in the past few weeks a different Marcus Mariota. He still doesn't have a red-zone interception in his career, and even though Mularkey did his best to try and break the young quarterback, Mariota has been blazing over his past six starts:

Comp/Att (%) Yards/Game Yards/Att TD/INT
Mariota (Weeks 5-10) 123/181 (69.5) 259.5 8.5 17/3

Mariota, after completing 73.1 percent of his passes Sunday along with four scores and no picks, is now the first quarterback in NFL history to have three games with a 70 completion percentage, four touchdown passes and zero interceptions.

The playoffs are obviously a different scenario and we're not there yet, but the Titans are the most consistent team in the AFC South right now. They've won four of six games and could've won six straight overall.

There is a real foundation here.

4. The North doesn't remember

Or maybe the North forgets, if we're talking about knowing how to win. It appears the Packers and Vikings, subjects of this very column last week, didn't pick up any new tricks over the break. In fact, things went so poorly for those two teams this week that the Detroit Lions slid into first place in the division during their bye week.

Easily the biggest winner of the week, Detroit -- a 5-4 roller coaster of a team that could be 0-9 at this point -- sat at home and watched Green Bay and Minnesota melt down again.

The Packers were easily the biggest embarrassment of the day, getting flatly spanked by the Titans on the road (see: above). Maybe it was hyperbole to insinuate the Titans were terrible in my picks column this week, but please don't come screaming at me for not believing in your team when I picked your team to win, Titans fans.

The Packers? They might be terrible.

We expect that Green Bay will be good, but this is a 4-5 team we're talking about now. The defense is a statistical paper tiger, and it just got annihilated by Tennessee.

What happened to the dink-and-dunk game that was working so well two weeks ago? Green Bay was adamant about taking shots down the field Sunday -- probably because the Packers were trailing -- and it wasn't successful.

Aaron Rodgers averaged 5.6 yards per pass Sunday. Davante Adams is breaking out and Jordy Nelson finished with a huge game, but it all feels pointless when there wasn't a chance for the Packers to ever be in this game.

They were lying on the ground with a broken knee, down 21-0 before they could blink. Kudos to the Titans for not letting up.

The Vikings might not be great too. (Breaking!) The defense hasn't been the same since the bye -- after letting Jordan Howard run all over them they almost allowed Rob Kelley, an undrafted free agent for Washington, to put up 100 yards on the ground.

After starting 5-0, Minnesota has lost four straight games. Jerick McKinnon led the team in rushing, and even though Sam Bradford had some nice touchdown passes -- one to Kyle Rudolph and one to a heavily-targeted Stefon Diggs -- he also had to deal with offensive line issues again.

On the Vikings' final offensive play of the game, they weren't even capable of getting off a Hail Mary attempt. The Redskins brought heat on a blitz (something people don't do enough of on plays like that), but Bradford was still about to be swallowed up before he even got to the top of his drop.

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via NFL Broadcast

Again, this is a six-man blitz, but there's still three one-on-one battles being lost as Bradford starts to assume the fetal position.

This is not atypical of the Vikings right now and it's not going to become less of a problem. They can't generate any sustainable offense.

So the lesson here? The Lions might be weird and fun and not great, but they might also be the team to back in this division. For at least a week anyway.