Rushing TD's

[fortdick]

Just checking some statistics, I noticed that we had 5 rushing TD's last season. That's it! 5!

What really struck me is the following

Murray has two, his longest 91 yards. His other was a two yard run against Buffalo.

Jones got one from 5 yards.

Tanner got one from 6 yards.

Romo scored from the one against the Bucs.

Only two rushing TD's from inside the 5 yard line the entire season!

That is just unacceptable.

 

[pupulehaole]

That... Is...... Bad.............

 

[SDCowboy]

I have no problem with that. Romo is who should be going for the score in the redzone anyway. I like our odds much better with him throwing it 3 times into the endzone over running it. The runningback TD total does need to go up some but it's nothing alarming considering how bad the line was/is.

 

[wittenacious]

Totally unacceptable. Pathetic even. If that doesn't motivate the Cowboys to place a major emphasis on building the interior of our O-line this offseason, I don't know what will. I want to believe they're going to do the right thing.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Haven't been reading percyhoward's posts?

 

[Slashar00]

Remember when Emmitt used to get that many rushing TDs in two weeks? Oh, this is sad.

 

[ajk23az]

More reason to upgrade our line with DeCastro and Nicks.

 

[Doomsday101]

Cowboys must become more effective running down by the goal line. Hard to making a living throwing down there.

 

[Fletch]

Totally unacceptable. Pathetic even. If that doesn't motivate the Cowboys to place a major emphasis on building the interior of our O-line this offseason, I don't know what will. I want to believe they're going to do the right thing.

I agree. Very unacceptable! We need to be able to run the ball whether it's between the 20's, or in the redzone. That is how you win in this league and completely dismantle opposing defenses. Run!

And it all starts with the O-line. We better open the wallet for Carl Nicks. That's just the start of it too.

 

[Galian Beast]

I think I did the math, and you want to average at least .75 rushing touchdowns a game compared to the .3125 that we accomplished...

If we get a rushing touchdown in a game, Romo plays to his normal standard (2 passing touchdowns), and we don't turn the ball over, it's a hard team to beat.

 

[jnday]

Romo's health and the 5 rushing TDs justifies putting a ton of resources on the oline . These facts should be hard to argue over .

 

[percyhoward]

Only two rushing TD's from inside the 5 yard line the entire season!

That is just unacceptable.

It gets worse. The defenses we scored those 5 TD against ranked 27th, 28th, 30th, and 32nd in rushing TD allowed. Against the top 26, we didn't score any rushing touchdowns.

We only had 4 red zone touchdown runs:

One of those was a 1-yard drive after Sean Lee returned an interception to the 1.

The other three came in blow outs when we already had 2-touchdown leads in the game, against the league's 28th-, 31st-, and 32nd-ranked run defenses.

What did we do in the red zone against the run defenses we played who were not in the bottom 5, on drives that did not begin at the opponent's 1-yard line?

13 games, 0 TD

 

[85Cowboy85]

Imagine we had 10 rushing touchdowns instead of 5 and we just sprinkled the extra 5 in randomly. How many more games would we have won? IMO you would easily be looking at a playoff birth and possibly a 10-11 win season. Hopefully with a healthy Murray and some improvements to the interior O-line we can dramatically improve our rushing touchdown total next season.

 

[percyhoward]

I have no problem with that. Romo is who should be going for the score in the red zone anyway.

Running Back TD in Red Zone, 2011
Giants: 18
Patriots: 13
Cowboys: 3

I'll take the extra 10-15 touchdowns.

 

[burmafrd]

we have not been able to count on our O line getting movement when it counted since the 90's.

 

[Hostile]

More reason to upgrade our line with DeCastro and Nicks.

It needed to be said louder.

 

[CCBoy]

It needed to be said louder.

Uh, OSHA has posted a bulletin board memo, stating that those decibal levels, hearing protection should be offered and handed out...

 

[Dmoore Esq]

Running in the red zone just wasn't even an option this year. I'm sure a lot of it is the line's fault, but I was surprised that we hardly ever tried to run it inside the 10. The field gets so compressed inside the 10, and if the defense doesn't even think there's a possibility of a run it gets even harder. It's aggravating having 1st and goal and seeing Romo throwing it three times and settling for a FG, but I guess Garrett knows the team better than I do.

I like our backs, and hopefully with a couple of additions on the O-Line the numbers will improve. I don't even think the moves has to be as drastic as Nicks and/or DeCastro. There are a lot of options that could have a big impact on the interior line.

 

[percyhoward]

Running in the red zone just wasn't even an option this year. I'm sure a lot of it is the line's fault, but I was surprised that we hardly ever tried to run it inside the 10. The field gets so compressed inside the 10, and if the defense doesn't even think there's a possibility of a run it gets even harder.

We did actually try to run in the red zone the first five weeks of the season, when we went 2-3. After those five games, we ranked 31st in red zone TD percentage, and eventually made it up to 20th by the end of the season, by concentrating our red zone runs against only the weakest run defenses.

Most fans don't appreciate the magic act we pulled off in the red zone in 2011, with the 21 TD passes, and Romo not throwing a single INT, and all of it with only 3 TD from the backs.

In the four games in which we had a red zone rushing TD, Romo threw 7 red zone TD passes, and our record was 3-1. In the 11 games in which we did not have a red zone rushing TD, Romo threw 12 TD in the red zone, and our record was 5-6. With any threat of a run in those 11 games, that TD pass total could have been 18-20 easily, and our record could have been at least 8-3, considering we'd have been getting about an extra TD per game (by either run or pass).

All we needed was 2 more wins and the division was ours, but we didn't have the complete team to do it. With any red zone running threat at all, we'd have found those 2 wins among the Jets, Lions, and Pats games in the first five weeks of the season. Going 6 for 18 in the red zone in those 5 games (with all 3 losses by 4 points or less) is what cost us the division.