What's Wrong With the Running Game

[Chuck 54]

Any ideas?

I think everyone would agree that the OL is better than last year and more consistent.

The passing game is better with better receivers and a better QB?

While none of us are overly happy with Eddie George, I think he runs with a better forward lean, better vision, and a better feel than Hambrick...the only thing Hambrick had over EG is straight line speed....and that only helped him when he didn't trip running through the line.

So......What's the problem with the running game? Is it playcalling? Scheme? Is our OL or RB situation even worse? Lack of commitment?

Or........

Did we make a mistake in cutting JMartin who regularly "blew up" defenders because he couldn't cut it on special teams? Is Barnes an inferior blocker, and BP didn't think it mattered?

Just Questions, because there must be a reason....any answers?

[CanadianCowboysFan]

Mmm, at times we have ran decently and were moving the ball early yesterday but our defence constantly allows points so we fall behind and have to try and catch up quickly.

George looks 25 on some plays and 52 on others.

I doubt it is the loss of Jamar Martin because he hardly played last year anyway.

[Q_the_man]

Get a defense that can make plays, yes last year we were ranked #1 but had no turnovers and always started our drive from our 20-30 yard line.

Yeah our defense gave up only 270 yards but no turnovers and hardly no 3 and outs. U cant give up 3 and 4 first downs and then have a team putting from the 45 and 50 all the time.

Look at the Pats, our Offense is easily better than theirs but their D gives them the ball in the redzone or needing 50 yards to score off the top.

Can someone tell me how many turnovers we cause this season so far?

[Jarv]

Its more of just sticking with it. We have led games in the 2nd half, one game, I think it was against the Giants. We were running the ball well, but BP said at halftime he wanted to involve the passing game more ? Why ? I don't know.

BP had an unreal record when leading in the 4th quarter....He has been losing games this year with leads in the 4th quarter...Field position and time of posession in the 4th quarter has been ignored for some reason...

I'm really just talking about the games we had a lead in the 2nd half or 4th quarter.

[Nors]

Get a defense that can make plays, yes last year we were ranked #1 but had no turnovers and always started our drive from our 20-30 yard line.

Yeah our defense gave up only 270 yards but no turnovers and hardly no 3 and outs. U cant give up 3 and 4 first downs and then have a team putting from the 45 and 50 all the time.

Look at the Pats, our Offense is easily better than theirs but their D gives them the ball in the redzone or needing 50 yards to score off the top.

Can someone tell me how many turnovers we cause this season so far?

Its a combination no committment to running and then falling behind. This S/B a similar offense to last years team. Control the clock, run it 35 times and make them pay by passing off run. At least we'd slow the other team down from scoring so often.

[dbair1967]

Can someone tell me how many turnovers we cause this season so far?

4...

4 in 6 games, and 3 of those were picks in the Cleveland game

David

[ABQCOWBOY]

Its more of just sticking with it. We have led games in the 2nd half, one game, I think it was against the Giants. We were running the ball well, but BP said at halftime he wanted to involve the passing game more ? Why ? I don't know.

BP had an unreal record when leading in the 4th quarter....He has been losing games this year with leads in the 4th quarter...Field position and time of posession in the 4th quarter has been ignored for some reason...

I'm really just talking about the games we had a lead in the 2nd half or 4th quarter.

Well, I have to say that I agree with this. As I've said in other threads, I don't see the commitment to the run game incorprated into our offense at any point in the season.

I have to admit, this baffles me. I'm never going to be mistaken for a genius but to me, it makes sense to run the football?

[Chuck 54]

Get a defense that can make plays, yes last year we were ranked #1 but had no turnovers and always started our drive from our 20-30 yard line.

Yeah our defense gave up only 270 yards but no turnovers and hardly no 3 and outs. U cant give up 3 and 4 first downs and then have a team putting from the 45 and 50 all the time.

Look at the Pats, our Offense is easily better than theirs but their D gives them the ball in the redzone or needing 50 yards to score off the top.

Can someone tell me how many turnovers we cause this season so far?
How will that make us better at Running the ball?

[dbair1967]

Currently we rank 25th in total defense, and could be 26th after tonight depending on what Cinci does..we're giving up 352.6 yds per game...

the run defense is tied with Chicago fro 29th in the league, giving up 139.3 yds per game...we rank dead last in yds per attempt allowed at 5.1 (by comparison, Washignton ranks 1st in run defense and 1st in rushing yds per attempt allowed at 86.7 and 3.1)

We do rank in the middle of the pack in passing yards allowed per game at 225.2, but we rank 31st in opponents passer rating at 101.6 and are 28th in ints with only 3...we are tied for 13th with 15 sacks, but a few of those have been the phantom run the QB out of bounds for no gain sacks (as like in the Minnesota game)

we rank 28th in 3rd down defense, giving up over 43% conversions

we have a total of 4 forced turnovers and in 4 of 6 games have zero turnovers

finally, we rank 30th in the league in scoring defense, allowing a whopping 26.0 pts a game...to put that in perspective, if we continue that for 16 games we'd give up 416 pts for the season...the 1988 and 1989 Cowboys are generall considered the worst in team history, and they didnt match the 416 pts allowed that this team would match...in 1989 (Jimmy Johnson's first yr) we won one game and gave up 393 pts, with arguable the least talented roster in franchise history. We had an awful season in 1997 under Barry Switzer, his last yr) and gave up a respectable 314 pts...the 2000 Cowboys, generally considered the worst post-Jimmy team gave up 361 pts...you'd have to go back to the early 60's (1962/63 I think) to find a Dallas defense as bad as this one

OK Zimmer apologists and sympathizers, you cry for lack of talent but can any of you HONESTLY say our defense has LESS talent than the 88/89 Cowboys? the 97 Cowboys? the 00 Cowboys? as Mr Aikman used to say, "Get real!"

David

[blindzebra]

George leaves yards on the field. We blow people up and he gets 6 yards. We have had 10-15 runs this year that should have been 20+ yard runs.

We run wide too much and try that go left counter right play that has never worked.

Stupid penalties and getting behind hurt us too.

[Mike 1967]

Any ideas?

I think everyone would agree that the OL is better than last year and more consistent.

The passing game is better with better receivers and a better QB?

While none of us are overly happy with Eddie George, I think he runs with a better forward lean, better vision, and a better feel than Hambrick...the only thing Hambrick had over EG is straight line speed....and that only helped him when he didn't trip running through the line.

So......What's the problem with the running game? Is it playcalling? Scheme? Is our OL or RB situation even worse? Lack of commitment?

Or........

Did we make a mistake in cutting JMartin who regularly "blew up" defenders because he couldn't cut it on special teams? Is Barnes an inferior blocker, and BP didn't think it mattered?

Just Questions, because there must be a reason....any answers?

Dallas is rated 15th overall in average per attempt. And this is primarily due to a lack of big play ability from that position. EG is a downhill runner who is not going to break any big runs.

Based on this rating....and based on what I have seen....I do not believe that the problem is with the running game.

The problem is that Parcells knows that we have to score points to win. Because our defense is horrible.

This is exactly why Parcells went for it on 4th down in his own territory.

Parcells is in unfamiliar territory with this team.....he cannot play for field position or time of possession. He is having to try to score some points.

The evidence indicates that PArcells has known about this weakness (on defense) for sometime now.

[Mike 1967]

I will add one more stat that will speak volumes to the issue with the running game

We are rated next to last in attempts per game. Only Cincinnati is rated worse.

This should speak volumes folks.

Parcells is a ball control run oriented old school coach. So why are we next to last in attempts when we are 15th in avg yards per carry ?

He either has a very large hard on for Vinny or he simply has seen what the rest of us are starting to catch on to. Our defense sucks.

[2much2soon]

Did we make a mistake in cutting JMartin who regularly "blew up" defenders because he couldn't cut it on special teams? Is Barnes an inferior blocker, and BP didn't think it mattered?



I got to thinking about Barnes and how he was blocking during yesterday's game and I did notice he got a solid block on EG's TD run.
Barnes went throught the 1 or 2 gap, located the LB, and had a textbook block on him.
Thats the only situation I noticed but at least in that particular case he looked good.
I do think he brings more of a running/receiving threat than Martin.

[boysfanindc]

Dallas is rated 15th overall in average per attempt. And this is primarily due to a lack of big play ability from that position. EG is a downhill runner who is not going to break any big runs.

Based on this rating....and based on what I have seen....I do not believe that the problem is with the running game.

The problem is that Parcells knows that we have to score points to win. Because our defense is horrible.

This is exactly why Parcells went for it on 4th down in his own territory.

Parcells is in unfamiliar territory with this team.....he cannot play for field position or time of possession. He is having to try to score some points.

The evidence indicates that PArcells has known about this weakness (on defense) for sometime now.

He knew about these problems in camp. I remember him saying several times we have issues on defense. We are trying to work though them but we have issues.

Said it several times, he has known for awhile. I took it to mean player issues. I believe the only one he singled out was Wiley at the time, but he said (plural) issues.

[mr.jameswoods]

Any ideas?

I think everyone would agree that the OL is better than last year and more consistent.

The passing game is better with better receivers and a better QB?

While none of us are overly happy with Eddie George, I think he runs with a better forward lean, better vision, and a better feel than Hambrick...the only thing Hambrick had over EG is straight line speed....and that only helped him when he didn't trip running through the line.

So......What's the problem with the running game? Is it playcalling? Scheme? Is our OL or RB situation even worse? Lack of commitment?

Or........

Did we make a mistake in cutting JMartin who regularly "blew up" defenders because he couldn't cut it on special teams? Is Barnes an inferior blocker, and BP didn't think it mattered?

Just Questions, because there must be a reason....any answers?


Eddie George has been a big dissapointment in my opinion. I hate to say it but I don't think he has been any significant upgrade over Hambrick. Seriously, they are both slow and they don't hit the holes very hard. I think Parcells signed and starts him because he is an intelligent player who is tough. But intelligence and toughness don't allow him to hit holes hard or run faster.

The problem with our running game is that we don't have a good running back. It's that simple. With the holes our OL creates, it would be scary to see what a decent running back could do

[boysfanindc]

Eddie George has been a big dissapointment in my opinion. I hate to say it but I don't think he has been any significant upgrade over Hambrick. Seriously, they are both slow and they don't hit the holes very hard. I think Parcells signed and starts him because he is an intelligent player who is tough. But intelligence and toughness don't allow him to hit holes hard or run faster.

The problem with our running game is that we don't have a good running back. It's that simple. With the holes our OL creates, it would be scary to see what a decent running back could do

There is a novel idea. Our running game sticks because we have no decent running backs.

I would have to second that notion. :)