ESPN NFCE: Dallas must commit to the run, not a runner

[WoodysGirl]

Jun 2
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By Dan Graziano

So Tony Romo got married last weekend, which means there's at least one person in this world who'd prefer to see him hand the ball off as much as possible. Whether coach Jason Garrett agrees with the new Mrs. Romo could determine a lot about the Dallas Cowboys' 2011 season (assuming there is one).

The Cowboys had decent success under Garrett once he became head coach at the midway point of the 2010 season. They went 5-3 to help Garrett keep the job full time. They did it all without Romo, who got hurt in Week 7, but their second-half success had less to do with the job Jon Kitna did in Romo's place than with a rather dramatic philosophical shift in the offensive game plan.

In the first eight games of the 2010 season, with Wade Phillips as their head coach, the Cowboys ran the ball 169 times and threw 326 passes. In Garrett's eight games as head coach, the Cowboys had 259 rush attempts and 250 pass attempts. Because Romo wasn't there? Sure, maybe. But it worked. They were 4-0 in games in which they had more run plays than pass plays (all four under Garrett). You don't need me to do the math to tell you that means they were 2-10 when they passed more than they ran.

Read the rest: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/27294/dallas-must-commit-to-the-run-not-a-runner

 

[28 Joker]

Marshall Faulk averaged 15.8 rushes during his first year with the Rams (a Super Bowl winning year), and he averaged 17.4 carries per game during the first three years of his Rams career.

The Dallas Cowboys were ranked dead last in rush offense (going into Jason Garrett's first game as head coach), dead last after 8 games. That is an indictment on the Cowboys significantly deteriorated offensive line. No wonder two of the first 4 picks went into the offensive line, including 9th pick overall, Tyron Smith.

During the first 8 games of 2010, Felix Jones received single digit carries in 6 of them. Jones only averaged 9 touches per game during those 6 games and averaged 40 total yards per game.

Jason Garrett took over the team and started feeding Felix Jones the football. Jones rushed the football 112 times (60% of his rushes) and tallied 498 rushing yards (62.2% of his rushing yards) and averaged 4.44 YPC. Garrett had Jones on a 1,000 yard rushing pace, and Mark Colombo was the worst starting RT in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus.

Furthermore, under Garrett, Jones caught 24 passes (51% of his receptions) and tallied 293 receiving yards (65% of his receiving yards) and scored a 71 yard TD, the longest pass play of the entire year (in the division).

Jason Garrett had Felix Jones on a 1500+ total yard pace, and again, Mark Colombo was the worst starting RT in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus. Jones averaged 99 total yards per game under Jason Garrett.

In 2009, (including two playoff games, 16 games) Felix Jones rushed the football 146 times and tallied 902 rushing yards and averaged 6.17 YPC. Jones only averaged 9.12 rushes per game during those 16 games. Jones missed 1,000 yards by only 98 yards and averaged 9.12 rushes per game.

In the 2009 playoffs, Felix Jones was the third leading rusher in the playoffs. 30-217-1 Jones averaged 7.23 yards per carry and hung 178 total yards on the Philadelphia Eagles in the wildcard game, including a Dallas playoff record, 73 yard rushing TD. In fact, Jones hung 272 total yards on the Eagles in two weeks. If Marion Barber isn't hurt and doesn't run, Jones probably never gets his record breaking wildcard performance.

There is absolutely no defense or excuse for allocating single digit carries to Felix Jones, zero!

 

[Fletch]

Nice post 41! I hope to see a nice mix between Felix and Murray. Not sure where Tash fits in all of this. Will Choice even be in Dallas by the start of the season?

 

[ShiningStar]

I wonder if Choice has a decent season and is good for the team how many fans will jump back on the wagon. Wasnt that long ago that people were claiming to be on the ground floor on being a fan of his, now since 1 game and media sway, they are flopping faster than fish out of water.

 

[jimmy40]

Will Garrett ignore the run with Romo back?

 

[Kevinicus]

I think the biggest change (and I could be wrong here, haven't actually looked at the numbers) wasn't philosophical, but simply that the Cowboys weren't trailing nearly as often during ballgames, and often times had the lead. That tends to cause more rushing attempts. Of course less Barber also equals more successful rushing attempts which also leads to more attempts overall.

 

[noshame]

It's no suprise that when Jason started a more physical practice regiment, we started running the ball more. I would bet that trend continues no matter who the QB is at the time.

 

[justbob]

Question ...Isn't Londale or what ever his name(back on the practice squad)
more of a Felix Jones type back...if so could Jason be looking at Felix, Murray and the practice squad guy,all quick fast runners and a full back for short yardage...That be the end of Choice and Barber

 

[joseephuss]

Dallas ranked 16th in rushing attempts in 2010. They tied with Philly in rushing attempts. Of course Michael Vick kind of skews the number of true rushing attempts for the Eagles. The Cowboys are right in the middle in rushing attempts. I think that number could easily fluctuate in either direction depending on the situation. The defense was so porous last year that Dallas had to do a lot of passing in order to try and overcome leads. A little better run blocking and I think Dallas will run the ball a little more and perhaps with a little more success.

 

[Stash]

I don't think the come from behind excuse really applied to Dallas' pass-happy ways last season.

I was highly critical of Garrett as I felt he ignored the running game and fell too much in love with the weapons in the passing game.

If I attribute the increase in rushing attempts to anything it would be first and foremost the loss of Romo, and secondly to Garrett emphasizing a more physical approach once he became head coach.

I hope Garrett continues with a more balance offensive attack and I feel that this team has enough weapons to do it all.

Where I look for the most improvement is in the boys up front.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

I'm sure it was mostly the loss of Romo.

Percyhoward has already posted many times about how our short-yardage and other power running game stats weren't any better even with the legendary Pads Wednesdays.

 

[Stash]

I'm sure it was mostly the loss of Romo.

Percyhoward has already posted many times about how our short-yardage and other power running game stats weren't any better even with the legendary Pads Wednesdays.

When they're asking a mauler like Leonard Davis to pull, I'm not surprised...

 

[xwalker]

It is hard to get anything from 2010 stats when the OL was so incredibly bad.

The general concensus seems to be that Free was good and that Kosier and Gurode were ok. This just leaves Davis and Columbo as the primary culprits.

It appears that Columbo will be replaced by T. Smith. That leaves a big question mark on Leonard Davis.

It appeared that on every (non-pulling) play, Davis would decide before the snap if he was going to block to the inside or to the outside. If the D-Lineman went the same direction as his block, then he would do ok because he could use his power to be effective; however, if the D-Lineman went the other direction, then he had no ability to redirect and the D-Lineman would easily go around him.

On the plays where he pulled, he often got there on time; however, he had no ability to slow down or redirect. If the Defensive player was directly in his path, he could blow him up; however, all the Defensive player had to do was just pause and Davis would just run past him.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Jun 2
1:00
PM ET

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By Dan Graziano

So Tony Romo got married last weekend, which means there's at least one person in this world who'd prefer to see him hand the ball off as much as possible. Whether coach Jason Garrett agrees with the new Mrs. Romo could determine a lot about the Dallas Cowboys' 2011 season (assuming there is one).

The Cowboys had decent success under Garrett once he became head coach at the midway point of the 2010 season. They went 5-3 to help Garrett keep the job full time. They did it all without Romo, who got hurt in Week 7, but their second-half success had less to do with the job Jon Kitna did in Romo's place than with a rather dramatic philosophical shift in the offensive game plan.

In the first eight games of the 2010 season, with Wade Phillips as their head coach, the Cowboys ran the ball 169 times and threw 326 passes. In Garrett's eight games as head coach, the Cowboys had 259 rush attempts and 250 pass attempts. Because Romo wasn't there? Sure, maybe. But it worked. They were 4-0 in games in which they had more run plays than pass plays (all four under Garrett). You don't need me to do the math to tell you that means they were 2-10 when they passed more than they ran.

Read the rest: http://espn.go.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/27294/dallas-must-commit-to-the-run-not-a-runner

highly mis-leading to say the least. partly because we played a bunch of top 10 defenses in the first half of the season as opposed to the second half.

also, we were behind by double digits in most of those games, specially late in the games, so the stats are a bit skewed. I had the same argument with somebody else a while back and in the firt 3 quarters of the games we had a 55-45 percent pass run ratio. except for the bears game, where we were averaging 1.8 ypc.

in a lot of the games, we were forced to throw late in the game and thus skew the stats.

also, we averaged 3.3 ypc in the first half of the season. once practices changed. attitudes changed. then we started averaging 4.3 ypc. that's a huge differenec that avoids being in a lot of 2nd and long and 3rd and long situations.

 

[percyhoward]

I think the biggest change (and I could be wrong here, haven't actually looked at the numbers) wasn't philosophical, but simply that the Cowboys weren't trailing nearly as often during ballgames, and often times had the lead. That tends to cause more rushing attempts.

The easy explanation is that we only ran more because we had comfortable leads late in both games. And our runs did indeed outnumber our passes in both games that we won by more than a TD after Garrett became HC.

But historically, it's been Garrett's pattern to pass more than run even in those types of games. When Garrett was OC only, we had 24 wins by more than a touchdown, and in those games our runs outnumbered our passes in just 6 of the 24.

 

[Outlaw Heroes]

The easy explanation is that we only ran more because we had comfortable leads late in both games. And our runs did indeed outnumber our passes in both games that we won by more than a TD after Garrett became HC.

But historically, it's been Garrett's pattern to pass more than run even in those types of games. When Garrett was OC only, we had 24 wins by more than a touchdown, and in those games our runs outnumbered our passes in just 6 of the 24.

What do you make of the suggestion, which I've recently read, that we ran more because we didn't have Romo and Kitna can't execute the entire passing offence?

 

[percyhoward]

We averaged 3.3 ypc in the first half of the season. once practices changed. attitudes changed. then we started averaging 4.3 ypc. that's a huge differenec that avoids being in a lot of 2nd and long and 3rd and long situations.

It is a huge difference, but the straight-ahead blocking didn't change. What changed were the types of runs that were called--relying more on speed and deception than on power.

 

[Stash]

It is a huge difference, but the straight-ahead blocking didn't change. What changed were the types of runs that were called--relying more on speed and deception than on power.

Which gives me even more reason to believe that Leonard Davis is miscast in this offense and will be replaced as soon as possible.

Add to that age, what looked to me to be less than total effort, and a heavily overpaying contract and I expect the team to replace him as soon as they can find a capable candidate, be it internally or externally.

I think the new CBA and its' rules factor very heavily into what the team can or cannot do at the right guard position.

But I believe that if they can replace him, they will.

 

[percyhoward]

What do you make of the suggestion, which I've recently read, that we ran more because we didn't have Romo and Kitna can't execute the entire passing offence?

I think that suggestion makes sense. Kitna certainly ran more than Romo did, and those went on the rushing stats. But one of the main reasons we were able to run more was because it was working. And it was working because we were running more creative plays that we had been. And maybe we were able to do that because we practiced those plays (especially screens, which I consider a part of the running game) until we got it right.

 

[Outlaw Heroes]

I think that suggestion makes sense. Kitna certainly ran more than Romo did, and those went on the rushing stats. But one of the main reasons we were able to run more was because it was working. And it was working because we were running more creative plays that we had been. And maybe we were able to do that because we practiced those plays (especially screens, which I consider a part of the running game) until we got it right.

If that's the case, I hope it doesn't change just because Romo is back. A balanced attack will only make Romo better, no matter how tempting it may be to let him sling it around. No doubt this has become a passing league, but in my mind the way to stay ahead of the game is to continue to attack defenses with the run (as well as the pass) in order to take advantage of the fact that they're becoming increasingly focussed on defending the pass.