How badly did we mess up the RB situation?

[Jstopper]

Are people really sitting here arguing about our #9 ranked rushing attack??? Screw demarco Murray! He's already missed time this year like he always has. McFadden is outrushing him and he didn't even become a starter until week 7!!! Lol wow some of you want to beat your agenda so hard that you ignore the truth in your face.

 

[Fla Cowpoke]

To me it is less about the RB and more about the backup QB spot. Given the circumstance that we don't seem to have a receiver outside of Dez that can do anything on their own and as such teams don't dear the passing game, I think the running game has been fairly decent. Running into 8 man fronts isn't an easy task for any OL.

I do think we could have added a RB in the draft, there were guys in each round that could have been taken. I would have let Randle go after the shoplifting scandal..when you threw in the other crap that he got suspended for it was a horrible decision to keep him. Chris Johnson was begging us to take him and would have been a good pairing with McFadden.

We KNEW that Weeden was not the answer and we stood pat. That was an awful move. I am not sure what legit options were available to us and I really don't feel like researching it.

The big killer early on was injuries. No way to get over that. Romo, Dez, Gregory, Scandrick, etc. Romo was able to rescue us the first two weeks, but when Gregory went down, our pass rush became worse than it was a year ago. We literally had Mincey until we got Hardy from suspension. McClain being suspended and then being out of shape was a killer. And Lee's injuries have been tough. We can't count on him. Hitchens and Church have been fighting through injuries all year. Free and Leary were not 100%. Hanna has been fighting an ankle injury since training camp. Can't remember a year with as many key injuries. At times, I think it is a miracle that we have been close in as many games as we have been.

 

[risco]

we will find out how badly this was handled come draft time...if we draft one early, then we messed it up pretty badly. If we draft a difference maker on defense, which is what we need badly to bring this defense up more, and then take a RB later on, then we did not mess up that badly.

Oh- we will draft one early. I'm sure!!!!

 

[Cmac]

Very bad.

 

[cowboys2233]

I think it would've been fine had Romo stayed healthy.

It's top 10 without him and we seem set on consistently running at defenses trying to take the run away.



I think 1 problem though was Will McClay and Co. believe that JAson Garrett knew how to operate a committee. He's proven time and time again that he has no feel how to keep 2 guys involved.

Top ten, my ***. It's top ten in yardage because we're force feeding the running game...because our backup QBs are horrible. The OP is spot on, this team completely screwed this up - and if the actions of the team, desperately picking up all kinds of running backs, dropping others that they just picked up in trades, trying to mix and match any combination they can come up with, doesn't scream that at you, I really don't know what to say.

 

[CATCH17]

Top ten, my ***. It's top ten in yardage because we're force feeding the running game...because our backup QBs are horrible. The OP is spot on, this team completely screwed this up - and if the actions of the team, desperately picking up all kinds of running backs, dropping others that they just picked up in trades, trying to mix and match any combination they can come up with, doesn't scream that at you, I really don't know what to say.

It would be in the top 5 easy with Romo.

 

[Stash]

It would be in the top 5 easy with Romo.

I think that's optimistic speculation. The Cowboys' running game wasn't up to its' previous standards even when Romo was playing. In week 1 they had 80 yards rushing against the Giants. In week two, they had 109 against Philadelphia.

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

Why would you settle for serviceable when you were coming off a 12-4 year with the best rushing attack the team had in a decade? Romo had his best year and we finally got over the 8-8 hump. Murray's cap hit would be 4m or only 2.2m more than what he wasted on McFadden and Michael. The draft pick we wasted could have been enough to draft TRawls, a player we wanted but lost in UDFA.

Murray-Randle-Dunbar-Rawls is a strength and a huge upgrade over what we have now.

Murray's stats this season: 128 carries for 451 yards, 3.5/carry and 4 TDs....wow, I mean how did we let him get away. Comparing Murray this season vs last only reinforces the concept that a RB's productivity is just as much dependent on the scheme and execution as it is on his skill set. I could argue McFadden could have been just as productive here last season as Murray or Murray just as productive here this season as McFadden.

The premise of the original post is how badly we messed up the RB situation and my argument is our scheme is the problem, not the person as Murray is having a pedestrian year in Philly.

 

[Nightman]

Murray's stats this season: 128 carries for 451 yards, 3.5/carry and 4 TDs....wow, I mean how did we let him get away. Comparing Murray this season vs last only reinforces the concept that a RB's productivity is just as much dependent on the scheme and execution as it is on his skill set. I could argue McFadden could have been just as productive here last season as Murray or Murray just as productive here this season as McFadden.

The premise of the original post is how badly we messed up the RB situation and my argument is our scheme is the problem, not the person as Murray is having a pedestrian year in Philly.

Most of Philly's run have Murray at a standstill before he gets the ball. That does not play to his strengths.

We can't compare how Murray does with Philly to how he would have done here.

He was the perfect back for us and we were the perfect team for him. His health was the only question and has shown that isn't a factor.

 

[KJJ]

Are people really sitting here arguing about our #9 ranked rushing attack??? Screw demarco Murray! He's already missed time this year like he always has. McFadden is outrushing him and he didn't even become a starter until week 7!!! Lol wow some of you want to beat your agenda so hard that you ignore the truth in your face.

McFadden only became the starter because Randle got hurt and was facing a suspension due to more off the field issues. McFadden has averaged under 4.0 a carry in six games this season despite playing behind what was being touted as the best OL in football. He averaged only 1.9 a carry last week and is beginning to run out of gas due to all the carries he's received the past 3 weeks. Despite Murray not playing behind a good OL in Philly and not fitting their system barring injury he'll still end up with more yards and TD's than McFadden.

 

[Denim Chicken]

I think that's optimistic speculation. The Cowboys' running game wasn't up to its' previous standards even when Romo was playing. In week 1 they had 80 yards rushing against the Giants. In week two, they had 109 against Philadelphia.

You are ignoring the particular of the Giants game, i.e. gifting them three turnovers and having to comeback. 100+ yards against the Eagles is good, as they are notoriously difficult to run against.

 

[Jstopper]

McFadden only became the starter because Randle got hurt and was facing a suspension due to more off the field issues. McFadden has averaged under 4.0 a carry in six games this season despite playing behind what was being touted as the best OL in football. He averaged only 1.9 a carry last week and is beginning to run out of gas due to all the carries he's received the past 3 weeks. Despite Murray not playing behind a good OL in Philly and not fitting their system barring injury he'll still end up with more yards and TD's than McFadden.

McFadden has been the starter for 4 games and has went over 100 total yards 3 times in that span. Without his starting qb. In that short amount of time McFadden has outrushed Murray who has been the starter since week 1. The same Murray who was held to 12 yards against the cowboys. He will not finish with more yards than McFadden.

 

[Jenky]

McFadden has been the starter for 4 games and has went over 100 total yards 3 times in that span. Without his starting qb. In that short amount of time McFadden has outrushed Murray who has been the starter since week 1. The same Murray who was held to 12 yards against the cowboys. He will not finish with more yards than McFadden.

Sigh, Murray is a mismatch for that system and he splits with Ryan Mathews who's probably a better fit.

 

[Jstopper]

Sigh, Murray is a mismatch for that system and he splits with Ryan Mathews who's probably a better fit.

McFadden never saw more than 10 carries in a game before he became the starter. I like how the narrative has changed because all in the off-season Murray was the "perfect fit for Kelly's system, the reason he traded McCoy was because he didn't fit" and now that Murray isn't doing well suddenly he's a "mismatch for the system"

 

[ConstantReboot]

McFadden has been the starter for 4 games and has went over 100 total yards 3 times in that span. Without his starting qb. In that short amount of time McFadden has outrushed Murray who has been the starter since week 1. The same Murray who was held to 12 yards against the cowboys. He will not finish with more yards than McFadden.

Its misleading to base stats on MacFadden vs. Murray just to justify a season thats tanking.

First of all We could have still had MacFadden if we signed Murray and could have used MacFadden as our change of pace back. He may have ran for a a few hundred yards for than Murray has this juncture, but he is quickly running out of steam. Murray + MacFadden would have been a very lethal combo.

Secondly, I don't believe we would be in a losing predicament if we had signed Murray. Murray would have been in their to block on first down when Romo got injured. Thus our season would probably had been more successful if Romo didn't get hurt and we probably leading the division by now.

All this crap about McFadden is better than Murray or that its the injury to Romo thats caused our season to tank is nothing more than being in denial.

The fault lies in the FO in letting Murray go without a suitable replacement. Then thinking they can make do with and RBBC system that we've tried before and failed.

Randle gets injured and we go back to our one back system using McFadden and voila! our run game is back to where it was just like last year. Which goes to show you the FO messed up - letting Murray go without a replacement - and going with an RBBC that crippled our run game for almost half the season.

 

[ConstantReboot]

McFadden never saw more than 10 carries in a game before he became the starter. I like how the narrative has changed because all in the off-season Murray was the "perfect fit for Kelly's system, the reason he traded McCoy was because he didn't fit" and now that Murray isn't doing well suddenly he's a "mismatch for the system"

LOL Murray was never a "fit" for the Eagles system. I don't think anyone here said that.

The talk around here then was the koolaid talk about how anyone can run behind this oline.

Even the FO bought into that lie.

 

[Nightman]

What it should have been: DMurray- Randle/McFadden- Rawls- Dunbar

What it be like: McFadden- RSmith- RTurbin- TWilliams

Nah, we didn't mess anything up

 

[Bleu Star]

Most of Philly's run have Murray at a standstill before he gets the ball. That does not play to his strengths.

We can't compare how Murray does with Philly to how he would have done here.

He was the perfect back for us and we were the perfect team for him. His health was the only question and has shown that isn't a factor.

Dude. I commend you for continuing to talk to the brick wall.

 

[Bleu Star]

Sigh, Murray is a mismatch for that system and he splits with Ryan Mathews who's probably a better fit.

I commend you too for trying to talk through that brick wall. Modern science says you'll get nowhere but valiant effort nevertheless.

 

[ConstantReboot]

What it should have been: DMurray- Randle/McFadden- Rawls- Dunbar

What it be like: McFadden- RSmith- RTurbin- TWilliams

Nah, we didn't mess anything up

Well just read that McFadden is now injured.

Looks like Murray at 8 mil. per. year would have been the right move after all.