ARLINGTON -- Rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott said his 60-yard touchdown run on the Cowboys' first offensive play of the second half Sunday "looked beautiful" from field level.

Judging by Jerry Jones' fist-pumps from the owner's suite, the view was good from above, too.

Elliott continues to make the Cowboys look smart for bypassing the top defensive players in the draft in April to select him fourth overall.

Ezekiel Elliott has rushed for 546 yards and 5 TD in his first 5 career games. It stacks up pretty well against other @dallascowboys greats pic.twitter.com/U2LQkz6t34 — ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 9, 2016

Ezekiel Elliott has the 4th-most Rush yds in NFL history by a rookie in his team's first 5 games. 💪 (via @EliasSports) pic.twitter.com/ljysOfDaeX — SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 10, 2016

Before Sunday, the only thing he hadn't shown the Cowboys was the home run threat. That ended in a flash on his 60-yard sprint to the end zone that gave the Cowboys a 28-0 lead.

"Running backs love runs where they don't get touched," Elliott said, "so all I had to do was turn the jets on."

Elliott and the Cowboys' offensive line made the Bengals' vaunted front seven look mediocre. And that's putting it kindly.

Cincinnati's Geno Atkins, one of the league's top defensive tackles, didn't even have a tackle. His sidekick -- starting nose tackle Domata Peko -- had just one.

For the first time all season, the Cowboys started the same offensive line that paved the way in 2014 for DeMarco Murray's season rushing record of 1,845 yards.

The Bengals' 15-game streak of not allowing a 100-yard rusher ended less than four minutes into the third quarter.

Elliott's 60-yard run made him the first rookie running back in club history with three consecutive 100-yard games. Elliott finished with 134 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. He became just the third rookie in NFL history to rush for more than 130 yards in three consecutive games, joining Eric Dickerson (Rams) and Mike Anderson (Broncos).

Elliott has been trending upward all season, with his average yards per carry mark increasing each week: 2.6, 4.0, 4.7, 6.0 and a whopping 8.9 vs. the Bengals.

"Zeke is a monster, like a real-life monster," Cowboys receiver Terrance Williams said. "Somebody to be that young and to come in here and run the ball like that, it makes me want to block because I know what he's going to do. He's going to finish or just like [Sunday], he can pop it.

"So whenever you have a guy like that, that makes blocking fun. You're not just going out there to block to just catch wind. Now you're going out there to block because you have a guy who can take over a game."

On the 60-yard touchdown run, Elliott hit a hole that was opened by blocks from tight end Geoff Swaim and right guard Zack Martin. Once Elliott reached the second level, right tackle Doug Free was there to flatten Bengals linebacker Rey Maualuga. Then it was up to Elliott to outrun the secondary, which he did by splitting converging safeties Shawn Williams and George Iloka en route to the end zone.

"I didn't know he was that fast," Cowboys left guard Ron Leary said. "When he took off and I looked up on the screen, he was gone. I was pretty impressed by that."

This is impressive, too: Elliott leads the league with 546 rushing yards, the fourth-most by a rookie running back in NFL history through five games.

Cowboys Hall of Famers Tony Dorsett (337 yards) and Emmitt Smith (225 yards) weren't anywhere close to those numbers in their first five games.

Over the last three games, Elliott has 412 yards and three touchdowns on 68 carries. He's on pace for a rookie season with 1,747 yards and 16 touchdowns on 349 carries.

And to think, some criticized Elliott two games into his rookie season for a slow start. Elliott had only 51 yards on 20 carries in his debut against the Giants.

"If you watched that film from Week 1 and you watched it now, it looks like two different backs," Elliott said, "and honestly that's how it's supposed to be. You're supposed to get better as the season goes on."

About the only way he can get better next week is to average more than 10 yards per carry at Green Bay.

That seems far-fetched, but no one is doubting Elliott any more.

Jones said he's seen everything from his rookie.

"He can deal it out anyway they want to take it," Jones said. "He can show them power. He can show them toughness. He also can make them miss. It's good to have that kind of back -- that big, that multifaceted -- who can run that fast."

Elliott watch

After rushing 15 times for 134 yards against the Bengals, rookie Ezekiel Elliott leads the NFL in rushing yards through five games. He also ranks third all time for rushing yards by a rookie in his first five games: