Cowboys Rated Best Offensive Line - Again

[Sydla]

McFadden only had one game, when he took the bulk of the carries, where he averaged over 5 YPC before week 14. His performance from week 14 to week 17 really upped his YPC.

His season was nowhere near the season Murray had. McFadden was incredibly hot and cold until that small stretch of strong performances at the end of this season.

http://www.nfl.com/player/darrenmcfadden/284/gamelogs

You can try to spin it anyway you want but by the end of the year he was basically almost as productive as Murray was AND he did that without Romo or Bryant being anywhere near 100%.

The hate for McFadden is mindnumbing around here at times.

 

[BAT]

RunDMC did pretty well behind this line.

He did. Except in short yardage situations. Cowboys were dead last in the league in converting 3rd and 1. Not all McFadden's fault. Lot's of blame to go around (Randle, Michael, lousy back up QBs, mundane play calling, etc.).

 

[BAT]

Romo was probably the better option at the time, because the OL had a ton of injuries in the preseason and didn't have any time playing together as a unit. That was when Bernardeau was getting a lot of snaps -- 61 of them in those first two games. After that, he only had 1 snap in the next 13 games.

We averaged 3.4 ypc in those first two games, and 4.8 the rest of the season.

Let's not underestimate the Randle factor. He reeked in the first quarter of the season being the lead back.

 

[Bay10]

I would love to see bruce arians with this offense.

 

[Vinnie2u]

You can try to spin it anyway you want but by the end of the year he was basically almost as productive as Murray was AND he did that without Romo or Bryant being anywhere near 100%.

The hate for McFadden is mindnumbing around here at times.

People don't like admitting when they are wrong.

 

[texbumthelife]

I know they want to keep everyone healthy and I get it, but they have to stop sitting the OL the entire pre-season. If this offensive line actually plays together in the pre-season and gets a chance to gel, it will set the tempo for the rest of the year. Injuries are going to happen, you go with what you got and do your best to get the best out of them.

 

[mattjames2010]

You can try to spin it anyway you want but by the end of the year he was basically almost as productive as Murray was AND he did that without Romo or Bryant being anywhere near 100%.

The hate for McFadden is mindnumbing around here at times.

Spin what? I just gave you the stats.

I don't "hate" McFadden, I am giving you the stats here. He had 5 games with below 4 YPC, 1 game below 3 YPC, and 2 games below 2 YPC. that's 8 games out of 16 he was mediocre to outright bad.

Again, his last four games of YPC was 12.3 on 9 carries, 6.3 on 16 carries, 5.2 on 19 carries, and 7.7 on 12 carries. A strong 4 game performance helped his YPC total. He was NOT consistent throughout the season, he wasn't impressive at the beginning of the year when he was limited with touches, and was hot and cold until week 14.

If you have another stat you'd like to give me to prove that wrong, be my guest. I'll wait.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Dud: He was far from disappointing, but rookie La’el Collins was the weakest link on this line, simply by not being as good as the other guys on it.

Doug Free disagrees.

 

[khiladi]

The fact that Dallas had the best OL and arguably the worst offense in the NFL is a pretty damning indication that the offensive system the team is running is horrible.

We were especially bad in the red-zone with the best OL in football, which further implicates how bad the play-calling was around there. We ran all over the field, until the field got extremely short.

 

[PJTHEDOORS]

You can try to spin it anyway you want but by the end of the year he was basically almost as productive as Murray was AND he did that without Romo or Bryant being anywhere near 100%.

The hate for McFadden is mindnumbing around here at times.

Teams weren't lining up to stop McFadden as they did with Murray.

 

[khiladi]

But, Callahan.

Callahan built the line.. So yes, Callahan.. Otherwise we'd still have guys like Phil Costa.. We weren't picking gems until that guy got here and implemented a zone-blocking scheme..

BTW, our red-zone scoring sucked.. So our OL couldn't simply impose their will down there.. You also need play-calling.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Murray averaged 4.7 yards behind this line last year and some said he was too good to let leave. And he did that with Romo having the best year of his life and Bryant having a great season.

McFadden averaged 4.6 yards behind this line last year. He did that with Romo being out a large chunk of the season and Bryant being a shell of himself due to a foot injury. And apparently, that's not good enough.

The reality isn't that McFadden isn't good enough. He is. He's likely as good as Murray, or just a tick below. The problem is he's a big injury risk still.

I'm not sure if people dont' want to give McFadden credit because he didn't lead the league in rushing yards last year or what.

Fact is, the Cowboys let Murray go and replaced him with McFadden. Murray stunk and McFadden flourished and had probably the best year of his career. I won't say "anyone" can run behind this line but the Cowboys invested in their offensive line and thus far have proven that what they said was initially right. Murray wouldn't last much longer in this league and they can find his replacement. McFadden had a GREAT year. Especially factoring in he didn't have a quarterback for much of it. But like you said, durability is a issue with him.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

If anyone doubts that Laremy Tunsil is going #1, check out the bottom of the list.

 

[khiladi]

Teams weren't lining up to stop McFadden as they did with Murray.

They pretty much were simply stacking the line. They weren't threatened by guys like Devon Street and T. Will as starting WRs and Cassell and Weeden throwing two yard outs.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Teams weren't lining up to stop McFadden as they did with Murray.

Well they surely weren't trying to stop Matt Cassell or Brandon Weeden either.

 

[mattjames2010]

Callahan built the line.. So yes, Callahan.. Otherwise we'd still have guys like Phil Costa.. We weren't picking gems until that guy got here and implemented a zone-blocking scheme..

BTW, our red-zone scoring sucked.. So our OL couldn't simply impose their will down there..

Tyron Smith wasn't a gem?

And I'd like a source that tells us Callahan was the man who forced the hand of Jerry to draft these guys.

 

[gmoney112]

Callahan built the line.. So yes, Callahan.. Otherwise we'd still have guys like Phil Costa.. We weren't picking gems until that guy got here

Nope.

 

[PJTHEDOORS]

Well they surely weren't trying to stop Matt Cassell or Brandon Weeden either.

Exactly. The offense stopped itself. McFadden wasn't facing stacked lines.

 

[khiladi]

Tyron Smith wasn't a gem?

And I'd like a source that tells us Callahan was the man who forced the hand of Jerry to draft these guys.

I knew somebody would bring up
silliness, while ignoring all the busts we picked and the actual scheme we were running while picking these busts.

Guess what?

Smith was pretty much the best OL to come out of college in years. He was arguably the JJ Watt of the OL that year.

It didn't take a genius to pick him, particularly since Flozell left and Jerry Jones was looking to protect Romo's blind-side. Jerry offered Flozell huge money the previous contract to stay here.

 

[gmoney112]

Exactly. The offense stopped itself. McFadden wasn't facing stacked lines.

Of course he was. Defenses kept more guys near the line of scrimmage and in the box more than Murray has ever seen. The passing game was absolutely no threat, so teams keyed on the run.