Is it time to stop the running back by committee approach?

[RonnieT24]

hey the less we run the more we get out of our investment 60 million! 60 million to hand the ball off a lot nope

60 million to win games however the hell you have to should be the mantra. Hand it off, throw it, run it, punt it, whatever it takes.

 

[HungryLion]

Running back “by committee” isn’t a problem but you still need talented running backs.

Doing “running back by committee” doesn’t mean let’s just play a bunch of running backs who aren’t good. That’s not a plan to succeed.

 

[HungryLion]

I think this is the main issue. McCarthy has only slightly more patience with the run than Kellen Moore does. I never believed him when he stated " we are going to run the ball.." because he's never shown that to be his desire at any point in his career. There has been times when he's had to because he was protecting a backup QB but whenever he's had his starter he's aired it out as much as anyone in the league. Oddly enough I do think it's going to get better as the line comes together. I think people greatly underplayed the whole "two rookie starters" thing. The line looks completely discombobulated on most plays and just are not opening up much in the way of holes. To say nothing of the amount of times we've got unblocked defenders in our backfield. Teams have drawn a bead on our run formations and calls so they are run blitzing the hell out of us. I did see signs of life against the Giants though because both Zeke and Dowdle had a couple of nice holes early. But McCarthy's strange rotation seemed to rob them of any chance at establishing a rhythm and getting in sync with the blocking. As I have said many times, if the hole opens a half tick before or after the back looks at the point of attack then it may as well have not opened at all because any decent back is going to go somewhere else if the hole isn't where it was supposed to be when he looks at the point of attack. IMHO that may be the biggest problem we're seeing.. The line and the backs are out of sync.. and the only thing that can fix that is time on task to steal a Garrett-ism.

The running game has to be efficient to stick with it.

Our running game is incredibly inefficient. It hurts the offense. It makes converting first downs harder. It makes holding the ball harder. It makes scoring points harder.

So yeah. Committing to the run can be good, but the running game has to have some effectiveness for that to be an option.

 

[SiCk_DiAbLo]

Is it asking too much to just name one starter, and give them 15+ carries in a game?? For right now, it would be Rico, sprinkle in Hunter to give him a break. This using 3+ different running backs isn't working. Please give your thoughts

Of course you're right, how does any running back get into that mode when your getting lil here, some there...You need that #1 back...

 

[HungryLion]

Corey Dillon in 2004 was the only 1000+ yard rusher for New England under BB and Brady when they won the Bowl. RBBC works really well if you have lots of things... well you know that Dallas doesn't have......

Corey Dillon was a very very good running back. He used to hold the single game rushing record. He had over 11,000 career rushing yards. He was one of the best backs in the league during his career.

 

[Coogiguy03]

Of course you're right, how does any running back get into that mode when your getting lil here, some there...You need that #1 back...

somehow they had some great idea that this would work

 

[Coogiguy03]

60 million to win games however the hell you have to should be the mantra. Hand it off, throw it, run it, punt it, whatever it takes.

balance!!!

 

[HungryLion]

Because I knew better and I hate blatant falsehoods I went and looked this up. The following is the list of backs who ran for 1000+ yards during the Brady/Belichick Super Bowl runs.

Antowain Smith
Corey Dillon
Benjarvis Green-Ellis
Stevan Ridley
Legarette Blount

The narrative that Brady had no running game and no receivers and basically won all those games by himself is even more brain dead than the whole "Dak loses playoff games" narrative.

I personally believe Brady is the best QB ever. Mahomes may catch him.

But yeah. Brady had a lot of help throughout his career. A great defense during the first 3 Super Bowl.

Good running backs and receivers. A good OL. Etc

 

[jujoboys]

Running back by committee isn't an issue, most teams use multiple backs. The issue is that the backs we have really aren't that good. How many of these guys even make most other rosters coming out of camp?

Bingo. No matter which RB on this roster carries the ball the results will be similar. We have a bunch of below average RBs that are going to give us below average production. McCarthy keeps trying to establish a running game but that is hard to do when you have JAGs at RB and a rebuilt, inexperienced OLine that is struggling.

 

[RonnieT24]

The running game has to be efficient to stick with it.

Our running game is incredibly inefficient. It hurts the offense. It makes converting first downs harder. It makes holding the ball harder. It makes scoring points harder.

So yeah. Committing to the run can be good, but the running game has to have some effectiveness for that to be an option.

I'm sure I don't need to remind you of probably 30-40 games we watched Emmitt finish the first half of games with like 12 carries for 25 yards. Barely 2 ypc behind arguably the best line of all time. You know what the Cowboys did in those games? Hint, they didn't abandon the run and decide "Emmitt just don't have it today. So Troy we need you to throw it 50 times." Nope.. they handed it to him 15 more times in the second half. But that team was built to play smash mouth football AND they had a defense that would let them hang in there until the offense got untracked. This team is similarly built on offense at least up front with a bunch of massive dudes blocking but it absolutely does NOT have a defense that can hold up if the offense isn't scoring or moving the ball early. That aspect of how things play out for this team gets glossed over far too often IMHO. McCarthy seems to panic the instant he sees the defense dropping its pants to the opponent and the run game is discarded. This line is young, man. What is it like one starter over 25? They need time to get in sync and to get in sync with the backs. They aint there yet but I have hope that they can get there with reps.

 

[Cowboys5217]

Is it asking too much to just name one starter, and give them 15+ carries in a game?? For right now, it would be Rico, sprinkle in Hunter to give him a break. This using 3+ different running backs isn't working. Please give your thoughts

RB by committee is a GM admitting he failed in the off season. RB by committee is stupid football strategy and takes up unnecessary roster spots parting out roles to different bad RBs that one decent young RB could handle alone.

 

[HungryLion]

I'm sure I don't need to remind you of probably 30-40 games we watched Emmitt finish the first half of games with like 12 carries for 25 yards. Barely 2 ypc behind arguably the best line of all time. You know what the Cowboys did in those games? Hint, they didn't abandon the run and decide "Emmitt just don't have it today. So Troy we need you to throw it 50 times." Nope.. they handed it to him 15 more times in the second half. But that team was built to play smash mouth football AND they had a defense that would let them hang in there until the offense got untracked. This team is similarly built on offense at least up front with a bunch of massive dudes blocking but it absolutely does NOT have a defense that can hold up if the offense isn't scoring or moving the ball early. That aspect of how things play out for this team gets glossed over far too often IMHO. McCarthy seems to panic the instant he sees the defense dropping its pants to the opponent and the run game is discarded. This line is young, man. What is it like one starter over 25? They need time to get in sync and to get in sync with the backs. They aint there yet but I have hope that they can get there with reps.

You’re talking about a hall of fame running back, in his prime, with one of the best OL’s ever. Played in the early 90’s when the game was much different.


None of that is relevant to this current cowboys team which doesn’t have a great running back or a great offensive line and plays in a league where scoring lots of points is even more important.

I take issue with the fact that you call this OL similar. This OL is nowhere near as good. And none of our running backs are anywhere near as good as Emmitt.

McCarthy can’t just keep running the ball for 2-3 yards per carry over and over again, and why? Because if they keep running so inefficiently they won’t have the ball anymore to keep running it.

Handing the ball off on first down right now actively makes it harder for the offense to convert first downs and keep possession.

 

[exciter]

somehow we're not getting the same success

Hmmm… think this was a top 5 offense last season and it didn’t really start humming until week 5 or 6.
Even with the early and expected drop off from starting a season with two rookie offensive linemen and virtually no run game support Dak is on pace for around 4800 yards passing!
The Dline inability to stop the run has been a much bigger issue than the offense!

 

[Cowboys5217]

I think it's part of the problem. Dowdle should be the starter. You can bring in Luepke on 3rd downs since they seem to enjoy that, and use Elliott in short yardage situations. I don't see the need to randomly rotate in Vaughn and just randomly swap out the backs constantly. It makes no sense to me.

Don't need Zeke at all. Luepke does everything Zeke does only better. Don't need Vaughn at all either. Both should be released. Dowdle starts (even though he isn't starter material), Luepke starts at FB, and sign a PS RB somewhere to be the relief back for Dowdle. That's all we need, and we gain +1 roster spot.

 

[Coogiguy03]

RB by committee is a GM admitting he failed in the off season. RB by committee is stupid football strategy and takes up unnecessary roster spots parting out roles to different bad RBs that one decent young RB could handle alone.

He can't admit something he wanted to happen, or neglected on purpose

 

[Coogiguy03]

Hmmm… think this was a top 5 offense last season and it didn’t really start humming until week 5 or 6.
Even with the early and expected drop off from starting a season with two rookie offensive linemen and virtually no run game support Dak is on pace for around 4800 yards passing!
The Dline inability to stop the run has been a much bigger issue than the offense!

why do we have to wait

 

[exciter]

RB by committee is a GM admitting he failed in the off season. RB by committee is stupid football strategy and takes up unnecessary roster spots parting out roles to different bad RBs that one decent young RB could handle alone.

And yet practically the whole league has gone to it!
I’d guess the GM and Head coach in KC would be interested in hearing about how they failed!

 

[CowboysRule]

RB by committee is a GM admitting he failed in the off season. RB by committee is stupid football strategy and takes up unnecessary roster spots parting out roles to different bad RBs that one decent young RB could handle alone.

It's what a majority of the league does these days. There are very few "bell cow" running backs in the league today.

 

[RonnieT24]

You’re talking about a hall of fame running back, in his prime, with one of the best OL’s ever. Played in the early 90’s when the game was much different.


None of that is relevant to this current cowboys team which doesn’t have a great running back or a great offensive line and plays in a league where scoring lots of points is even more important.

I take issue with the fact that you call this OL similar. This OL is nowhere near as good. And none of our running backs are anywhere near as good as Emmitt.

I said this team is similarly built .. not similarly talented. I firmly believe and stand by my assertion that this group is built to play smash mouth football though. And no, no one on this current roster is as good as Emmitt. There have been maybe 20 backs in the history of football as good as Emmitt. But the point remains, this team is not playing to the strength of its offensive line and running backs and the results speak for themselves. The line is huge and both main backs are primarily power backs. I just hope we get a few games that don't get away from us so we can give the running game a chance to get going. This business of running the ball 4-5 times a quarter and spreading even that paltry load among four different guys is asinine and is never going to be effective.

 

[Jarv]

The running game has to be efficient to stick with it.

Our running game is incredibly inefficient. It hurts the offense. It makes converting first downs harder. It makes holding the ball harder. It makes scoring points harder.

So yeah. Committing to the run can be good, but the running game has to have some effectiveness for that to be an option.

90% of the time I can tell a run play is coming based upon our formation, down and distance and lack of motion (except motion of a TE or WR shuttles to a blocking position).

I'm an ex Al Bundy HS player, so what do you think the professionals see?

90% of our runs are also between the tackles, except for our plethora of jet sweeps.

No creativity in the run game, our running QB lost his ability after the injury.

That's our problem(s).