Run game may be different this year

[KJJ]

This place would be apoplectic if Murray fumbled on the first drive. Randle was lucky someone got between his legs and got that ball back.

I have to say Randle went down way too easy, he is not a lead back. He struggles with blitz pick-up, but did really well catching passes.

He doesn't have the frame or power to wear down a defense. He was good in the role he had coming off the bench but he'll wear down as the season goes on with this increased role. Murray would lower his head and stiff arm his way pushing defenders backwards neither Randle or McFadden can run with that kind of power. I expect to see Michael next Sunday and let's see what he can provide.

 

[Idgit]

Thank you. All of you who though this running game wouldn't miss a beat without Murray should be serving yourselves a big **** sandwich this morning. And it's not the stats, it's what I so obviously see with my own eyes. We are not even close to being the dangerous, unstoppable, take on the road offense we had last year. We are right back to playing 2013 Cowboys offensive football. And it depresses me. Sorry, but it does.

We held the ball on the opening drive for 17 plays and 10 minutes and 30 seconds. I have no idea what you ball-control time-of-possession guys were looking for or expecting, but it sounds to me like it was unreasonable.

This game was close because of the turnovers and the defensive scores. End of story. It had nothing to do with who was running the ball or the play calling. If what you see with your own eyes is telling you something else, I'm sorry but you need to get your eyes checked.

 

[Nightman]

He doesn't have the frame or power to wear down a defense. He was good in the role he had coming off the bench but he'll wear down as the season goes on with this increased role. Murray would lower his head and stiff arm his way pushing defenders backwards neither Randle or McFadden can run with that kind of power. I expect to see Michael next Sunday and let's see what he can provide.

That was why I was so adamant about adding another NFL veteran RB for the RBBC.

Just Randle and DMC is not enough to make it thru the season.

Randle-DMC-CMike and Dunbar should be plenty, but I think we need them all active every week.

 

[cowboys2233]

We held the ball on the opening drive for 17 plays and 10 minutes and 30 seconds. I have no idea what you ball-control time-of-possession guys were looking for or expecting, but it sounds to me like it was unreasonable.

This game was close because of the turnovers and the defensive scores. End of story. It had nothing to do with who was running the ball or the play calling. If what you see with your own eyes is telling you something else, I'm sorry but you need to get your eyes checked.

I saw exactly what I expected to see. A running game that had some decent moments against a very bad, depleted defense. But that was not anywhere close to the physical, shove it down your throat brand of football we were playing last year. If we took that style of offense into Seattle last year (and not execution, style), we would have lost by 14+ points. That **** we saw last night isn't going to translate in November and December.

 

[KJJ]

That was why I was so adamant about adding another NFL veteran RB for the RBBC.

Just Randle and DMC is not enough to make it thru the season.

Randle-DMC-CMike and Dunbar should be plenty, but I think we need them all active every week.

McFadden only having 6 carries was probably due to how fearful the Cowboys are about his hamstring issues. Michael definitely needs to be added to the mix next Sunday.

 

[Idgit]

I saw exactly what I expected to see. A running game that had some decent moments against a very bad, depleted defense. But that was not anywhere close to the physical, shove it down your throat brand of football we were playing last year. If we took that style of offense into Seattle last year (and not execution, style), we would have lost by 14+ points. That **** we saw last night isn't going to translate in November and December.

Well, I'll believe the part where you saw what you expected to see, anyway.

About half of all NFL games are won by 7 points or less. About half of those are won by 3 points or less. Seeing a close win against a bad rival team should not cause you to freak out and abandon all hope for the season. Especially since we had been dominating the clock and maintaining a decent run v. pass split up until the two turnovers (one for a defensive score) put us into passing mode.

Meanwhile, RBs going 12 for 12 catching the ball is not a bad thing. Having a 3:1 ToP advantage at the half despite the turnovers is not a harbinger of doom. Having a defense give up a total of 9 points to a decent Giants passing game is a good sign. It'll hold up in November and December as long as we keep getting the wins in Sept.

 

[cowboys2233]

You don't think the defense had the same thought?

Maybe that's why both plays resulted in touchdowns.

Sorry if you aren't happy with the WAY we scored our touchdowns, but that kind of misses the whole point of the game.

I really didn't like the way Romo got nearly destroyed waiting for Escobar to come free along the back of the end zone. I didn't like the way those plays looked very much like the plays we ran in the first game last year..both of which resulted in interceptions. I don't like the way we are obviously trying to outscheme defenses with these little dump-off passes, rather than just run the *****' ball right down the throat of this sad defense. And if you are happy with the way we scored those touchdowns, you've kind of missed the whole point of last season.

 

[JoeBoBBY]

You don't think the defense had the same thought?

Maybe that's why both plays resulted in touchdowns.

Sorry if you aren't happy with the WAY we scored our touchdowns, but that kind of misses the whole point of the game.

Doesnt matter if I am happy about it or not;

I would think we would want to limit the risk of mistakes, or a goofy bounce of the ball, and most importantly, Romos health, as much as possible. And just go ahead and power our way into the endzone, behind all those 1st round draft picks...

But hey, thats just me.

 

[Zman5]

But that's not what happened. Randle had no negative runs and no big long runs. DMC had the only negative run of the night.

He also wasn't getting 4-6 yards consistently either. He looked like he was getting more 2-3 yards than anything.

Even thought that's only few yards difference but it makes a huge difference in play calling being second and 7 or being second and 5.

 

[DandyDon52]

So the idea is to take a formula that led us to 12 and 4 with a playoff win and one bad call away from going to the NFC Championship Game and change it? That's plain stupid.

In addition, this flies in the face of what folks have been saying about the multi-year time frame needed to rebuild the offensive line so we could run. Instead, we rebuild the line with 1st rounders to get away from the run. This game looked like pre-2014 all over again all the way down to giving Romo the ball and praying he bails us out on the last drive.

This team was ill prepared, played stupid in not knowing when to get out of bounds in critical situations and was the beneficiary of a horrendous play call by the Giants at the goal line. Romo saved this team's (and the coaching staff's) butt once again.

good post, They let murray go so have to change the formula, unless CM changes things.
22 runs 45 passes is very much like the 8-8 years, and they looked like a 8-8 team last nite.
Eli and coughlin know they gave the game away with really poor time mgmt.
Giants should have won this game.

I have to say Romo was great on that last drive also.

The giants defense was weak, and then they lost their best corner, so what worked last nite ,passing to RB might not work
against other teams with better defenses, and they now will prepare for passes to RB's

Also no Rush on Romo, at all, and they just have a weak line, again other teams will get to tony.
Also giants were ineffective blitzing.

 

[Zman5]

good post, They let murray go so have to change the formula, unless CM changes things.
22 runs 45 passes is very much like the 8-8 years, and they looked like a 8-8 team last nite.
Eli and coughlin know they gave the game away with really poor time mgmt.
Giants should have won this game.

I have to say Romo was great on that last drive also.

The giants defense was weak, and then they lost their best corner, so what worked last nite ,passing to RB might not work
against other teams with better defenses, and they now will prepare for passes to RB's

Also no Rush on Romo, at all, and they just have a weak line, again other teams will get to tony.
Also giants were ineffective blitzing.

They were also playing a rookie UDFA at MLB.

 

[Nightman]

They were also playing a rookie UDFA at MLB.

Never saw Brinkley. Did he even play?

 

[Zman5]

Never saw Brinkley. Did he even play?

I was talking about Unga.

I

 

[Nightman]

I was talking about Unga.

I

I know. Unga was in there and not Brinkley.

I thought he might help against Romo.

 

[AdamJT13]

I really didn't like the way Romo got nearly destroyed waiting for Escobar to come free along the back of the end zone. I didn't like the way those plays looked very much like the plays we ran in the first game last year..both of which resulted in interceptions. I don't like the way we are obviously trying to outscheme defenses with these little dump-off passes, rather than just run the ***** ball right down the throat of this sad defense. And if you are happy with the way we scored those touchdowns, you've kind of missed the whole point of last season.

So you're mad because we threw touchdown passes, and you think last year had anything to do with rushing for touchdowns? Uh, OK. Have fun with that.

 

[AdamJT13]

Doesnt matter if I am happy about it or not;

I would think we would want to limit the risk of mistakes, or a goofy bounce of the ball, and most importantly, Romos health, as much as possible. And just go ahead and power our way into the endzone, behind all those 1st round draft picks...

But hey, thats just me.

So if you were coaching in the NFL, you'd play scared and never pass instead of focusing on trying to score touchdowns?

 

[cowboys2233]

So you're mad because we threw touchdown passes, and you think last year had anything to do with rushing for touchdowns? Uh, OK. Have fun with that.

I will, thanks! Have fun with this notion that the way we score has no bearing on how effective we'll be as a team over a full season. I can't believe you actually suggested that style of play is irrelevant.

 

[JD_KaPow]

He also wasn't getting 4-6 yards consistently either. He looked like he was getting more 2-3 yards than anything.

Even thought that's only few yards difference but it makes a huge difference in play calling being second and 7 or being second and 5.

That's not how rushing works. Murray got 4+ yards on fewer than 50% of his runs last year. The long runs skew the averages upward, but 1-3 yard runs are more common than 4-6 yard runs for pretty much everyone.

Yesterday, Randle had:
15
7
5, 5, 5, 5
4
3, 3, 3, 3
2, 2, 2
1
0

 

[DallasCowboys2080]

You have to take what the game gives you sometimes. Every game has a different in game narrative.

Last nights was 3 turnovers netting the Giants 17points. That is a huge part of the narrative on why the Cowboys O did what they did.

If the Cowboys WR core/group didn't mess up in some of those situations where we turned the ball over I bet we would have seen more Run plays.

Is every game going to be where the Cowboys have 3 turnovers? I doubt it. I don't think our WR group generating that many Turnovers is going to be an issue. Just chalk it up to opening season and getting the rust off.


D.Murray was not going to be the same player this season as he was last season. He was in a contract season.

Sure our style of a brusing/bell cow RB last year was part of our O and would have probably been the same this season if D.Mo would have stayed but Defenses would have defenitely evolved/progressed to neutralize that as much as possible so it wouldn't have been as sucessful as last season.


Now defenses are more unsure what we are going to be running as we are. Sure we don't have a bruiser type yet (not sure what C.Mike can do or be) but they still cant plan accordingly because our RB style is still a mystery and keeps them on edge as it does us. I think this one game one can see maybe a pattern showing up but its hard to judge because of the in game narrative of our WR core and their turnovers and having to shift our RB group to be more slot receiver type.

 

[JoeBoBBY]

So if you were coaching in the NFL, you'd play scared and never pass instead of focusing on trying to score touchdowns?

Thats not even remotely close to what I was implying.
Take things to extreme much?