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With Tony Romo sidelined, Brandon Weeden was in the starting lineup to showcase his limitations. Having Weeden in the lineup meant the Cowboys desperately needed to play with a lead. Randle was the player who gave them that lead.
The 23-year-old running back opened the game with a 28-yard run before capping off the team's first drive with a 37-yard touchdown run. His first carry of the second drive went for 20 yards before he ran the ball in from a yard out to give the Cowboys a 14-0 lead.
At that point, Randle had already done what the Cowboys needed him to do. He offered them the big-play outlet that has been missing without DeMarco Murray in the backfield.
Randle finished the game with 87 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries. He also added two receptions for 18 yards and didn't fumble the ball. Yet, despite his statistics that are impressive as a whole, he has come into some criticism this week with some murmurings about a potential move to Christine Michael, according to Clarence Hill of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram.
Michael is a flawed running back who possesses similar explosiveness to Randle. To this point in their respective careers, Randle has shown more technical prowess and consistency with his vision. Focusing on Randle's yardage output after his first three carries in the game would be unfair to the running back.
Two of those one-yard runs were touchdowns, while the issue with Randle producing wasn't about his inability to find space, but rather the Cowboys' inability to give him any.
Dan Quinn's defense dared the Cowboys to throw the ball downfield with Weeden. Even on Randle's long runs, the Falcons were being aggressive, stacking the box to try to force Weeden to throw the ball to his receivers.
This is Randle's 37-yard touchdown run. Not only do the Falcons have eight defenders in the box, but they are aggressive in their alignment of those players. They are essentially showing a 3-4 look where they have plugged in a fourth defensive lineman.
The Cowboys have a tight end and a fullback in the game, giving them seven blockers to counter the eight immediate defenders.
Randle takes the ball as he is directed off right tackle. His front-side blocking is executed well and he follows it correctly to attack the appropriate running lane. When he reaches the line of scrimmage, he is confronted by two Falcons defenders with seemingly nowhere to go.
The blocking worked on this play for the most part, but the sheer numbers the Falcons committed to stopping the run put Randle in this position.
Until this point, Randle has simply been working within the construct of the play, but now any yards he earns will have to be created by his individual talent. Behind the Cowboys offensive line, Randle isn't supposed to be creating his own yards, just finding those he is given.
After hesitating for a moment, Randle is able to hand-off the tackle attempt of one defender to force his way toward the right sideline. He is held up for a moment by another, but eventually finds space on the outside. Once in open space, the running back is able to show off his explosiveness and elusiveness.
This kind of approach is what allowed Weeden to be so efficient and productive. The quarterback completed 84.6 percent of his passes for 232 yards.
Weeden put up impressive numbers in a vacuum, but considering how the defense played him he should have been more effective. Eighteen of the quarterback's 22 completions went to running backs or tight ends while his only four completions to receivers went to the same player, Cole Beasley.
He didn't throw a touchdown but had one interception.
The Cowboys can't rely on Weeden to carry their offense. At the very worst they will need to have an above-average running game that he can complement. It's more likely that they will need their running game to be extremely efficient and explosive.
Swapping Randle out for Michael won't be the solution if defenses continue to play the Cowboys the way the Falcons did in Week 3.
On this play, the quarterback is at fault for not understanding the alignment of the defense before the snap. Weeden needs to flip this run to the right side of his offense, because the defense has eight players in the box with five aligned to the left.
With a fullback and a tight end on the field, the Cowboys would have had a better chance running right.
La'el Collins, an inexperienced player filling in for regular starter Ronald Leary at left guard, is at fault on this play. He doesn't hold the defensive tackle long enough before releasing to the second level for center Travis Frederick to get across and execute his block.
The defensive tackle is able to advance downfield faster than he should because Collins let him go too quickly. This allows him to push Frederick back into Randle as soon as he gets the ball.
Randle shows off good footwork to slip past the back of Frederick as the center does a good job of recovering from an unfavorable position. However, he can't advance downfield because his right tackle, Doug Free, didn't initially look to engage the backside defender.
Free attempted to recover but was unable to.
It's tough to criticize Frederick because he is an exceptionally talented player who is tasked with very difficult assignments by the Cowboys. Even while considering and acknowledging that, it's fair to say that he didn't play to his established standards in this game.
That is something that Football Outsiders writer Ben Muth noted during his review of the game. Muth also highlighted the lack of cohesion between the center and Collins:
Collins struggled at times, mainly when he was working with Frederick it seemed; there doesn't seem to be enough chemistry there and I think Dallas is anxious to get Ronald Leary back.
The only guy that really needs to step it up in my opinion is Frederick. In his defense, he's asked to do a lot by the coaching staff (he's get less help from guards than just about any center in league). But he handled it well last year and he was a big reason why the rest of the line looked so good last year.
Muth suggests that the Cowboys could alter Frederick's assignments to give him more help. That wasn't something they would ever have considered last season.
A major reason for the effectiveness of the Cowboys running game has been Frederick's ability to execute reach blocks so consistently. He has the quickness, strength and precision to get across the face of defensive linemen in space and seal their furthest-away shoulder.
On this play, Frederick couldn't get to the outside shoulder of the defensive lineman he was assigned to.
Paul Soliai is that defender. Soliai forces Frederick backward and pushes his way onto the center's outside shoulder. Randle is attempting to follow his fullback in that direction, but Soliai's push downfield and his positioning on Frederick's outside shoulder forces him to cut back infield.
When he cuts back infield he has multiple defenders waiting to tackle him and limit his gain. It's extremely difficult to craft a narrative that blames the running back on these types of runs.
If he is being tasked with beating multiple defenders before he can cross the line of scrimmage more often than not, it's not his fault that his production is inconsistent. Instead, it's rather admirable that he was able to create yards on occasion.
The Cowboys have a lot of issues to correct on the offensive side of the ball. Whether they can correct them or not is unclear.
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