The 2015 Dallas Cowboys and the Myth of DeMarco Murray

[JoeBoBBY]

Or how about that your defense is getting off the field faster and allowing fewer points because it's playing better? And it also makes sense that an offense would be aware of that and adjust accordingly.

People are trying to take grey and insist that it either be black or white. For the heck of it. With no supporting evidence.

The defense is getting off the field faster because the opposing offense feels pressure to scrore, and they cant get in any rhythm , or set up any other plays because they have fewer attempts. That could be a reason too.....

How do we prove that with stats? I dont think we do;

I will say the D did look better, on its own. Especially when R McClain was actually playing.

However. imho, this team won 12 last year because we actually had a running game and we actually called running plays.......

 

[JoeBoBBY]

I think it has more to do with Mr Cutting Edge himself, drink a carrot shake, run to every drill, snap the ball in 2 seconds Kelly than anything else. Everybody that has left there has dogged on his crap since.

These aren't college Kids......

 

[mattjames2010]

Wow.

Last year, Romo threw for the most TDs of his career, the highest completion % in the league, and the second highest QB rating....but passing is not our philosophy? Interesting deductive reasoning power.

The power teams in recent NFL history are New England, Green Bay, Denver, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, New York, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Seattle. Dallas and Detroit are new to the party, and San Diego has been on the fringe. San Francisco was here and gone.

Do you see a trend with those teams? Outside of Seattle, it's about great quarterbacks and passing games.

Meanwhile, great running teams like Minnesota and Kansas City keep falling on their faces.

Tony Romo

2011 - 522 passing attempts
2012 - 648 passing attempts
2013 - 535 passing attempts
2014 - 435 passing attempts

So, while his TDs went up and percentage, his pass attempts went down. Hmm, fancy that. But you left out that little tidbit, but that's okay, I got it for you.

As for the list of teams you threw out: It's no secret that the NFL shifted towards more of a passing team. When you have the majority of the league being a passing team, the odds of a passing team making it to the Super Bowl and winning goes up. You also have left out San Francisco and Carolina Panthers on your list, one of them made the playoffs the last 3 out of 4 years and the other the past two seasons. And Minnesota made the playoffs when they upped their rushing attempts.

But as I said, it doesn't matter what you think the key to winning a Super Bowl is: Again, give me quotes from Scott Linehan that says in 2014 that our passing attack was the emphasis to our game. It's either you know more than most folks here that keep themselves updated, or you're talking out of your ***.

 

[Rockport]

We can all speculate all we want but the truth is no one knows for sure how good our running game is going to be this year without Murray. The one thing that I don't think anyone has mentioned and to me it's the one thing we're going to miss the most about Murray is his physical style of running. CB's, Safties and even some LB's got wore down by the end of the game. They did not want to see #29 coming at them. That's a big phsychological advantage we had that helped out the entire offense. That will be missed.

 

[percyhoward]

Tony Romo
2011 - 522 passing attempts
2012 - 648 passing attempts
2013 - 535 passing attempts
2014 - 435 passing attempts

So, while his TDs went up and percentage, his pass attempts went down.

If you look at 1st-half pass attempts only, they were the same as the average of the previous three years. Romo's season attempts went down because he threw 128 fewer passes in the 2nd half of games, due to the fact that we were usually leading. We weren't leading because we ran more. If that were the case, every team would do it. We were leading because we ran better, passed better, and played better defense -- and that allowed us to run more.

 

[DejectedFan1996]

Though it's irrelevant, just wanted to point out that Romo did not throw the most TDs of his career last year; that was done in 2007 when he threw for 36 TDs.

Carry on.

 

[big dog cowboy]

We slang it all over the field from 2011-2013. How did that work out for us?

The problem was on the other side of the ball.

 

[big dog cowboy]

You do realize we possess almost the same defense skill set wise from those years, right? This defense is not good.

The turnover in talent the last 2 offseasons on defense has been incredible. We are much much better than just 2 years ago and is now a good defense with a chance to be very good.

 

[erod]

Tony Romo

2011 - 522 passing attempts
2012 - 648 passing attempts
2013 - 535 passing attempts
2014 - 435 passing attempts

So, while his TDs went up and percentage, his pass attempts went down. Hmm, fancy that. But you left out that little tidbit, but that's okay, I got it for you.

As for the list of teams you threw out: It's no secret that the NFL shifted towards more of a passing team. When you have the majority of the league being a passing team, the odds of a passing team making it to the Super Bowl and winning goes up. You also have left out San Francisco and Carolina Panthers on your list, one of them made the playoffs the last 3 out of 4 years and the other the past two seasons. And Minnesota made the playoffs when they upped their rushing attempts.

But as I said, it doesn't matter what you think the key to winning a Super Bowl is: Again, give me quotes from Scott Linehan that says in 2014 that our passing attack was the emphasis to our game. It's either you know more than most folks here that keep themselves updated, or you're talking out of your ***.

Since you can't read or decipher English, I'll leave it at that. I'm going to go talk to the adults.

 

[DandyDon52]

Yep, and Pete Carroll. He's so vastly overrated as a football coach. He bombed miserably with the Jets, took down a good Patriots team, cheated like a gypsy at USC, bailed to avoid the cops and headed for Seattle, and lucked upon a great defensive coordinator and general manager in Seattle.

NOW, we'll see if he can coach, which I don't think he can.

wow erod so wilson and carroll are both myth's too ! lol

 

[DandyDon52]

If Murray brought it, where was it the previous three years while he was here?

Any quarterback by himself equals failure. Good lord.

They didnt call enough runs in previous years except a few games. They abandoned the run like in the GB game.2013.
The run and pass help each other either one by itself rarely works.

 

[DandyDon52]

or if Seattle's Defense was in Dallas.

But they aren't. Which is the whole point.

I would've loaded up at the RB position. And I would run the ball, every game, until their legs fell off.

With the offensive line? Let them boys attack instead of defend. I would be 3, 4 deep at RB with a Bell Cow.........Lets see Seattle stop that.

Dallas had that setup , but they felt the bell cow was not worth 2 mil more than they offered, so now were looking at gus johnson, and lache.
and our primary backs are all injured before they even played a PS game.

 

[windjc]

Dallas had that setup , but they felt the bell cow was not worth 2 mil more than they offered, so now were looking at gus johnson, and lache.
and our primary backs are all injured before they even played a PS game.

Would you like some cheese with that wine?

 

[big dog cowboy]

primary backs are all injured before they even played a PS game.

DMC and Randle would have played if that were a regular season game last night.

 

[DandyDon52]

Would you like some cheese with that wine?

yeah that would be nice !

 

[DandyDon52]

We can all speculate all we want but the truth is no one knows for sure how good our running game is going to be this year without Murray. The one thing that I don't think anyone has mentioned and to me it's the one thing we're going to miss the most about Murray is his physical style of running. CB's, Safties and even some LB's got wore down by the end of the game. They did not want to see #29 coming at them. That's a big phsychological advantage we had that helped out the entire offense. That will be missed.

good point, he was physical, and our run game or phillys is unknown , we have to wait and see, but speculating is fun.
I think though some here believe their speculations.

 

[DandyDon52]

DMC and Randle would have played if that were a regular season game last night.

well sure, but they still got injured about as early as possible.
that doesnt bode well for when they are getting more carries in real games than they ever have before , except dmc , and he has had the injury
history.
you know they may play 16 and do great , but if they dont I might bring it up later on.
I will be watching murray this year too, to see if he has a whole season in him or runs out of gas, misses games etc.
I think he may have made a mistake going to philly for more money, chip is crazy.

I also think the cowboys will pick up another back that is cut elsewhere later on.

 

[percyhoward]

@BlindFaith Which is the better defense, A or B?

DEFENSE "A"
1st drive 10 plays 80 yards, TD
2nd drive 10 plays 80 yards, TD
3rd drive 10 plays 80 yards, TD
4th drive 10 plays 80 yards, TD
total 40 plays 320 yards 28 points
avg 8.0 yards per play, 7.00 points per drive

DEFENSE "B"
1st drive 1 play 80 yards, TD
2nd drive 3 plays, 5 yards, punt
3rd drive 1 play, 0 yards, INT
4th drive 5 plays, 15 yards, punt
total 10 plays 100 yards 7 points
avg 10.0 yards per play, 1.75 points per drive

 

[JoeBoBBY]

well sure, but they still got injured about as early as possible.
that doesnt bode well for when they are getting more carries in real games than they ever have before , except dmc , and he has had the injury
history.
you know they may play 16 and do great , but if they dont I might bring it up later on.
I will be watching murray this year too, to see if he has a whole season in him or runs out of gas, misses games etc.
I think he may have made a mistake going to philly for more money, chip is crazy.

I also think the cowboys will pick up another back that is cut elsewhere later on.

I dont watch much of camp. So last night was the first night I got to see this years team on the field.

Were going to need more depth at RB. If thats all we got behind , what I consider a sub-par stable of RBs using RBBC, were in trouble. They wont be able to get it done. I know the Oline is good, but , were in trouble if Randle/DMC go down. I know Dunbar is there and they talk him up, I just dont think he is an answer either.

So. Like a lot of have been saying all off season: Romo is going to be throwing more this year.............yuck;

I have to beleive we sign a RB who gets cut or even deal for one.....maybe get 2 more in here....

 

[BlindFaith]

@BlindFaith Which is the better defense, A or B?

DEFENSE "A"
1st drive 10 plays 80 yards, TD
2nd drive 10 plays 80 yards, TD
3rd drive 10 plays 80 yards, TD
4th drive 10 plays 80 yards, TD
total 40 plays 320 yards 28 points
avg 8.0 yards per play, 7.00 points per drive

DEFENSE "B"
1st drive 1 play 80 yards, TD
2nd drive 3 plays, 5 yards, punt
3rd drive 1 play, 0 yards, INT
4th drive 5 plays, 15 yards, punt
total 10 plays 100 yards 7 points
avg 10.0 yards per play, 1.75 points per drive

You're trying to make a point by applying this to a very small sample size. Over the course of say 3 games, do you really think that DEFENSE B being that dominant, would always give up a 80 yard TD? No. And DEFENSE A, if they were that bad don't you think they would be giving up bigger plays? Yes.

I'm not saying that there isn't value with looking at stats on a per drive basis. But there are too many factors that play into making that as valuable as per play stats. Not all drives are equal. Two minute warning drives, drives where you are forced to pass, drives that end due to turnover. There becomes an inherit weighting to drive based stats. Per play stats are the least weighted way of looking at things.

By game 3 or 4, things have normalized and looking at stats by a per play basis is just much more valuable. The guys putting together advanced statistical measures do so on a per play basis.
Football Outsiders, Advanced Football Analytics. I'm sure you're familiar with them. I put much more stock in what they have done to really evaluate defense, offense and specific positions.