Run game may be different this year

[bayeslife]

I thought the running game was OK. Not great, not terrible, but OK.

Those that are riffing on it need to consider that the Cowboys were in a hole for quite a while and the Giants were loading up to stop the run.

In addition those short passes to the backs are almost like running plays. Very "West Coast Offense-ish".

I can live with that.

I don't care how they win games. If that's what it takes to squash guys loading the box up then I'll take it. People are so enamored with having a run first identity when really you just take whatever wins.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Looking around the league stats it seems running was down for most players yesterday.
Many quality players with not very impressive running totals.

Our running game will come under extra pressure moving forward without Dez. Teams will stack the box and dare us to throw on them deep without Dez. I don't know how many 8 man fronts the Giants ran against us yesterday. I saw us dink and dunk all the way down the field. I would have imagined Romo would have throw deep earlier if that's what the defense gave him.

Randle didn't look awful...he just looked to be an easy tackle vs Murray. He had some agility and fought for yards. Just doesn't seem like a horse that can grind you down like Murrray was.

Agreed on the running game league wide was awful yesterday. Forte had a good day but that was about it. I had Miller, Anderson ad Yeldon on my fantasy teams and they all had bad days.

Now far as what's going to happen without Dez... Well since about game 12 last season, "8-men-in-a-box" has been standard defense against the Cowboy offense.

I was impressed with all the short passes to backs... the Cowboys adjusted.

I doubt that will change much without Bryant in there.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I don't care how they win games. If that's what it takes to squash guys loading the box up then I'll take it. People are so enamored with having a run first identity when really you just take whatever wins.

Agreed.

I think some of these guys would be just as happy if the league took away the forward pass.

 

[Cowboys22]

Afraid?

I apologize, but I didn't see that.

Whatever word you want to assign it, it's not good. How about reluctant, leary, skiddish? Take your pick. They didn't run the ball at all in the redzone or on 3rd and short. If that is the gameplan going forward, we are back to 2011-2013 depending on Romo to just not screw up too much and pull it out in the end. Eventually, as we all saw, that gameplan crashed and burned remarkably time and time again when the last season pressure began to mount. I was hoping we were past all that and I will hold out hope that Micheal can step in and keep us from going back to that.

 

[Brooksey]

What we saw last night looked more like Patriot football then 2014 Cowboy football. I don't think we'll see that all season.

 

[Cowboys22]

I don't care how they win games. If that's what it takes to squash guys loading the box up then I'll take it. People are so enamored with having a run first identity when really you just take whatever wins.

Winning games in the fashion they did last night is not sustainable. That was not a good football team and Dallas needed a huge mistake to even get a chance to win. Against a good football team, they lose that game by 14-20 points. I don't really care about having a run first mentality but I do care about being balanced and being able to run the ball when you need to or when you want to. I don't want to go back to putting it all on Romo because that is proven not to work.

 

[Eddie]

Randle had a 4.1 ypc average. That's respectable. DMC had a few nice runs, but only averaged 2.7.

If we didn't commit those crazy turnovers, I'm pretty sure our RB's would have seen a lot more carries and a lot more running yards. We didn't run once on the last two drives.

We almost shot ourselves in the foot. We're lucky to come out with a W. Coughlin and Eli are just stupid. Thank them for the win.

 

[VACowboy]

You do realize at one point they had 1st and goal at the 1, and they still put it on Romo's shoulders to throw the TD. To me, that's a lack of confidence in the run game. I doubt it's the OL they don't have confidence in. They also didn't hand the ball off a single time on 3rd and short that I can remember. How many times last year did we see a handoff on 3rd and 4 or less? A lot! I think one game is all you need to see to realize the OL doesn't make RBs plug and play. Their defense played differently and our OC called a different game. The only thing different is Murray no longer in the backfield. I'm holding out hope that Michael can take the reigns and somewhat come close to giving them what Murray gave them because it's obvious to me that the Randle/McFadden committee won't.

I never said the OL makes RBs plug and play. In fact, I'm on the record here posting just the opposite. What I said was that I don't think we can tell ANY trends from one game, especially the first game of the season. You may be right. Garrett and company may not have confidence in Randle, DMC or Dunbar in short-yardage situations, but I don't think that conclusion can be drawn from last night's game.

I would guess that we passed a heck of a lot more in 3rd and 3 or 4 last year than we ran the ball. 3rd and 3-4 is a passing down in the NFL. I'd bet that a vast majority of the times we ran the ball on 3rd and 3-4 in 2014, it was a handoff from the shotgun or it was a draw.

Their defense played differently how? We spent most of the first half running the ball into eight and nine man boxes.

I doubt the team is expecting anyone to give them what Murray did last year. Hell, Murray himself wouldn't be giving the team what he did a year ago.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Winning games in the fashion they did last night is not sustainable. That was not a good football team and Dallas needed a huge mistake to even get a chance to win. Against a good football team, they lose that game by 14-20 points. I don't really care about having a run first mentality but I do care about being balanced and being able to run the ball when you need to or when you want to. I don't want to go back to putting it all on Romo because that is proven not to work.

You're right.

It's not sustainable.

You're not suppose to win games when having a -3 turnover differential.

Without the turnovers the Cowboys win by 14-20 points.

 

[JoeBoBBY]

I never said the OL makes RBs plug and play. In fact, I'm on the record here posting just the opposite. What I said was that I don't think we can tell ANY trends from one game, especially the first game of the season. You may be right. Garrett and company may not have confidence in Randle, DMC or Dunbar in short-yardage situations, but I don't think that conclusion can be drawn from last night's game.

I would guess that we passed a heck of a lot more in 3rd and 3 or 4 last year than we ran the ball. 3rd and 3-4 is a passing down in the NFL. I'd bet that a vast majority of the times we ran the ball on 3rd and 3-4 in 2014, it was a handoff from the shotgun or it was a draw.

Their defense played differently how? We spent most of the first half running the ball into eight and nine man boxes.

I doubt the team is expecting anyone to give them what Murray did last year. Hell, Murray himself wouldn't be giving the team what he did a year ago.

1st and goal from the 2 yard line? , Murray would get the ball, and everybody would know it; ................He wouldve given us that this year;

We build what some are calling "the great wall", and we dont run the ball on first and goal from the 2 yard line?

Spin it hwoever you all want. That looked like the 2013 Dallas Cowboys;

Anybody putting money on the Cowboys beating Philly next week?

 

[Cowboys22]

You're right.

It's not sustainable.

You're not suppose to win games when having a -3 turnover differential.

Without the turnovers the Cowboys win by 14-20 points.

The problem is that we have years of evidence that shows if Romo has to throw 40-50 times a games, those turnovers are highly likely to occur on a regular basis. That is my whole point. They went back to the pre Murray breakout model and got exactly the same results. They got lucky that the Giants made a huge mistake and Romo pulled out another great ending. He is great at that but he isn't great at throwing 50 times a game without making a few big mistakes.

 

[JoeBoBBY]

The problem is that we have years of evidence that shows if Romo has to throw 40-50 times a games, those turnovers are highly likely to occur on a regular basis. That is my whole point. They went back to the pre Murray breakout model and got exactly the same results. They got lucky that the Giants made a huge mistake and Romo pulled out another great ending. He is great at that but he isn't great at throwing 50 times a game without making a few big mistakes.

The Giants game-plan on defense was to force this. Make them dink and dunk, let them have a few here and there, and eventually they will either make a mistake, or we will catch them on that quick slant, and hit the WR so hard, maybe it will cause a fumble? -- Guess what, it worked.

I expect to see this again and again moving forward;

 

[ghst187]

If last night was a good gauge, I'd have to guess that Christine will be getting the bulk of carries before too long

 

[MichaelWinicki]

The problem is that we have years of evidence that shows if Romo has to throw 40-50 times a games, those turnovers are highly likely to occur on a regular basis. That is my whole point. They went back to the pre Murray breakout model and got exactly the same results. They got lucky that the Giants made a huge mistake and Romo pulled out another great ending. He is great at that but he isn't great at throwing 50 times a game without making a few big mistakes.

I would wait for a larger sample size concerning this year's team before I got too worked up over anything.

 

[Idgit]

The problem is that we have years of evidence that shows if Romo has to throw 40-50 times a games, those turnovers are highly likely to occur on a regular basis. That is my whole point. They went back to the pre Murray breakout model and got exactly the same results. They got lucky that the Giants made a huge mistake and Romo pulled out another great ending. He is great at that but he isn't great at throwing 50 times a game without making a few big mistakes.

Other than the season with the broken hand, Romo didn't really throw a lot of interceptions in those past seasons. The issues had been poor defense putting us in low-probability win situations.

We did the same thing last night with the WR turnovers (and with the bad Romo pass to Witten). That's why it looked familiar.

Really, what we saw from the RBs is what Linehan had telegraphed all preseason. Get used to it, because it's here to stay. And since, turnovers aside, we were effective offensively all night, I'm ok with it. There will be games where we run it more than we did last night, I'm sure, but it will depend on how the game unfolds.

 

[DenCWBY]

The running game looked fine. We were playing from behind a lot of the game so didn't get to exploit it as much.

Dang are you sure? Because I was just getting my pitchfork out of the closet to crucify Randle like all the other town folk. Randle looked fine given what he had in the way of support with our pass game and such. He played as well or better than any other back in that position we have had. Sorry but Murray had a lot of 1 and 2 yard runs last year and that was with a full receiving cast to offset the defense.

 

[JD_KaPow]

You do realize at one point they had 1st and goal at the 1, and they still put it on Romo's shoulders to throw the TD.

He threw it to a single-covered Dez. They did that ALL THE TIME last year in those situations.

 

[ufcrules1]

Let's hope Christine Michael can become the hammer that Murray was. We need her to get up to speed as fast as possible. She could really help us when those big nasty Eagles tackles are waiting for us.

Dez was an eagle killer. It will be very interesting to see who steps up.

Yes, we do need her to get up to speed quick. Someone better step up.. next in line!

 

[JD_KaPow]

1st and goal from the 2 yard line? , Murray would get the ball, and everybody would know it

People seem to have some fantasy version of the '14 Cowboys in their heads where Murray ran every down and every run was incredible.

For the record, we had two 1st-and-goals from the 2-yard line last year. We ran once. The other time we threw it to Dez for the TD.

 

[VACowboy]

1st and goal from the 2 yard line? , Murray would get the ball, and everybody would know it;

Maybe, maybe not. Murray ran for nine TD's of 3 or fewer yards in 2014. Romo threw for six. If you include TD's of 5 yards and under, the numbers are nine and nine

................He wouldve given us that this year;

Again, possibly. Murray offers abilities that Randle, DMC and Dunbar don't. I said that. I'm not sure what you're arguing.

We build what some are calling "the great wall", and we dont run the ball on first and goal from the 2 yard line?

Sometimes, yes.

Spin it hwoever you all want.

Spin what? I just disagreed that we can tell anything about the future of play-calling in Dallas based on one game.

That looked like the 2013 Dallas Cowboys;

Nah. 2013 team would be 0-1.

Anybody putting money on the Cowboys beating Philly next week?

I'm not putting money on anybody, but I'm not standing on the ledge, either. We haven't even seen Philly play, for crapsake.

You can't tell what a team really is until at least week three. We won last night, despite playing like garbage. Enjoy it, and have a little faith.