The defense will be better with Zeke

[CowboyRoy]

What I like about Elliott is that he doesn't give away the play.

With Henry, you're running straight ahead with him. If you want to use a back in the passing game, you have to bring in Dunbar. If you want to pass protect on 3rd-and-7, you need McFadden. If you need somebody compact for third and short, you need Morris.

With Elliott, he can do everything a back needs to do, so it doesn't give the defense any hints. You can't really adjust to Dallas based on personnel, and that gives Linehan and Romo a greater element of surprise, and it keeps defenses playing in more base coverage. Emmitt was like that, too.

Dallas has a nice collection of backs to prevent Elliott from having to rush 400 times like Murray did, but for critical drives, he can carry the water regardless of the situation.

I will take Elliott over Henry any day. I really didnt even like Henry coming out. But I cannot deny that if you give that cat big holes to run through he will be devastating. Really, Elliott should have 2000 combined yards per year behind this line and 15-25 TD's. He should be a Ladanian Tomlinson clone no question about it. Especially behind this line. If he is not, then this was definitely a bad value pick. I think that he will. Lets just hope he doesnt get hurt. Keeping him under 300 carries would be wise.

 

[erod]

I will take Elliott over Henry any day. I really didnt even like Henry coming out. But I cannot deny that if you give that cat big holes to run through he will be devastating. Really, Elliott should have 2000 combined yards per year behind this line and 15-25 TD's. He should be a Ladanian Tomlinson clone no question about it. Especially behind this line. If he is not, then this was definitely a bad value pick. I think that he will. Lets just hope he doesnt get hurt. Keeping him under 300 carries would be wise.

Elliott is a touchdown scoring machine, but I won't judge him by that.

If the offense is scoring in droves, I won't care about the source. Every component affects the other, so if defenses are paying too much attention to Elliott and Dez and the receivers go off, then I'm fine with it.

What I especially want from him is to finish runs. That takes out so much potential for disaster. Murray used to get caught from behind, which led to more snaps, more opportunity for penalties and turnovers to kill the drive, more hits on Romo, etc. Backs that finish eliminate so many problems.

 

[CowboyRoy]

Elliott is a touchdown scoring machine, but I won't judge him by that.

If the offense is scoring in droves, I won't care about the source. Every component affects the other, so if defenses are paying too much attention to Elliott and Dez and the receivers go off, then I'm fine with it.

What I especially want from him is to finish runs. That takes out so much potential for disaster. Murray used to get caught from behind, which led to more snaps, more opportunity for penalties and turnovers to kill the drive, more hits on Romo, etc. Backs that finish eliminate so many problems.

Elliott will be a complete beast. I have no doubts about that. He will be up there in no time with Peterson and Bell

 

[jnday]

I agree with you on that. But none the less, he would have been going through big holes here. He is McChicken with better speed and size and youth. Without the injury history.

Dallas is one of the few teams that Henry could have been successful with. His style of running would have fit well with this oline and blocking scheme. I would like to see Henry become more physical. He definitely has the size and body for it.

 

[CowboyRoy]

Dallas is one of the few teams that Henry could have been successful with. His style of running would have fit well with this oline and blocking scheme. I would like to see Henry become more physical. He definitely has the size and body for it.

Yah, but I guy like Henry definitely wouldnt last more than 4 or 5 years. Doubtful.

 

[Jake0]

The way Henry ran in college was fine for a long career in spite of many carries. He shied away from contact and didn't force big collisions whenever he was able to avoid them. I don't know if that's what teams would want with him in the nfl, but definitely the smart thing to do in college.

 

[erod]

The way Henry ran in college was fine for a long career in spite of many carries. He shied away from contact and didn't force big collisions whenever he was able to avoid them. I don't know if that's what teams would want with him in the nfl, but definitely the smart thing to do in college.

He reminded me a LOT of Ron Dayne, who won the Heisman at Wisconsin.

 

[BlindFaith]

I agree. Think Marshal Faulk. Edgerin James.

Who was the TE on those teams? While Witten is here he will get the bulk of the looks that "could" go to a RB, provided Garrett and Linehan were creative enough to do it.

 

[bsheeern]

When you put gas in your tank, your car gets heavier.

Does making your car heavier make it go?

Actually it does make it go considering gravity comes into play. it will make it go better depending on the surface you are driving on. It will also help is stick to a surface better when cornering.

 

[jnday]

He reminded me a LOT of Ron Dayne, who won the Heisman at Wisconsin.

Henry is much faster. It was reported that his time at 10 yards was the fastest of any RB in the last few years. I think that was reported on the RB special that came on ESPN. That shows his explosiveness. It really surprised me.

 

[bsheeern]

Every game and every play in an NFL game is measurable. If it affects a game or a play, then it is measurable. If it is measurable, then it shows up in the stats. If it doesn't show up in the stats, then it doesn't have a measurable effect. Thus, any effect that is not measurable is not significant.

Adam I respect you and agree with you about 95% of the time since we've been on this board. But the bolded above is just flat out wrong.

 

[Doomsday101]

I don't know if defense will be better that is yet to be seen but hopefully they will see fewer snaps should the offense show they can control the ball.

 

[JoeKing]

How many rushing yards is needed to "make the defense better"? McFadden was 4th in the league in rushing last year but that obviously wasn't enough. This idea that Zeke will improve the defense is half backed, IMO. One tangible thing that will directly improve the defense is a pass rush but they don't seem to be as interested in fixing with high draft picks for this coming season.

 

[KJJ]

I don't know if defense will be better that is yet to be seen but hopefully they will see fewer snaps should the offense show they can control the ball.

It was seeing fewer snaps that improved the D in 2014 we weren't being worn down. Despite having 6 fewer sacks in 2014 than in 2013 due to the loss of Ware the defense showed some improvement by not being exposed as much and being fresher. Being more alert resulted in forcing more turnovers. Eventually the defense will catch up with us regardless how improved the offense is it caught up with us against the Packers in the playoffs. Until we start improving our pass rush our best defense will have to be our offense controlling the ball and scoring TD's.

We're going to be challenged defensively the first 4 weeks of the 2016 season with DLaw and Gregory suspended. What little pass rush we had last season is gone with Hardy added to that list. We're going to have to hope we hit on a couple of solid defensive players in this draft that can make an impact in 2016.

 

[Doomsday101]

It was seeing fewer snaps that improved the D in 2014 we weren't being worn down. Despite having 6 fewer sacks in 2014 than in 2013 due to the loss of Ware the defense showed some improvement by not being exposed as much and being fresher. Being more alert resulted in forcing more turnovers. Eventually the defense will catch up with us regardless how improved the offense is it caught up with us against the Packers in the playoffs. Until we start improving our pass rush our best defense will have to be our offense controlling the ball and scoring TD's.

We're going to be challenged defensively the first 4 weeks of the 2016 season with DLaw and Gregory suspended. What little pass rush we had last season is gone with Hardy added to that list. We're going to have to hope we hit on a couple of solid defensive players in this draft that can make an impact in 2016.

I agree, it can't be just offense the defense has to make plays and Rod will have his work cut out for him. Looking at the overall defense it is a young group of guys and rookies will be counted on to come in and contribute.

 

[KJJ]

It's not the rushing yards that will improve us it's having those yards lead to TD's that will improve us. Despite a career high in carries and 279 touches rushing and receiving McFadden only scored 3 TD's. In 2010 he had 9 fewer touches but scored 10 TD's with the Raiders who didn't have the stout OL McFadden ran behind last season with the Cowboys. Although McFadden wasn't bad between the 20s he and the rest of our backs weren't getting it done in the redzone or in short yardage which put pressure on our QBs and put Bailey on the field a lot to kick FG's. McFadden's longest run last season was 50 yards vs the Packers but he got ran down and that drive ended in a FG. Yards are great but they have to lead to TD's this is why Emmitt was so great his yards led to TD's. We didn't have to depend on Aikman throwing 30+ TD's Troy never had to throw more than 23 TD's in a season because of Emmitt. Dorsett had 12 rushing TD's as a rookie in 77 and as a team the Cowboys had 21 rushing TD's during that championship season.

In 1971 during the Cowboys first championship season they had 25 rushing TD's with Duane Thomas leading the way with 11 and Calvin Hill with 8. Emmitt had 18 rushing TD's in 92 which started the team on their SB run in the 90s. If your rushing yards aren't leading to points especially TD's then it's going to be on your QB to throw TD's to win games. Both Brady and Manning lost the SB in years where they set the record for TD passes. Terrell Davis produced 15 rushing TD's during Denver's SB season in 97 and produced 21 rushing TD's the following year in Denver's SB repeat. Davis scored 8 rushing TD's in the playoffs in 97 and 3 rushing TD's in the Bronco's SB win over Green Bay. He took a lot of pressure off an aging Elway those years. Elway would have never won a SB if he had to continue carrying the Broncos. MARK MY WORDS if Zeke and Morris stay healthy in 2016 the Cowboys will score more than double the rushing TD's they had last season because both players have a nose for the endzone.

Morris has put up 29 rushing TD's in his 4 seasons and Zeke was a TD machine at Ohio State. I have a little more enthusiasm about the Cowboys chances in 2016 than I had before the draft. If Romo can stay healthy along with Zeke and Dez can return to form the Cowboys could be every bit as good if not better offensively than they were in 2014. The defense is going to be challenged especially early in the season with DLaw and Gregory out the first 4 games so we're just going to have to hold our breath with the defense. It's difficult to stop anyone if you don't have a pass rush so a few players are going to have to step up defensively or it could be painful watching our defense.

 

[BlindFaith]

So explain why some of Murray's best games in 2014 were some of Romo's worst games, and vice-versa.

Really, I thought you knew more about football than just stats.

So a team decides to focus on taking away the run, now you have a better passing day. A team decides to focus on stopping the pass, guess what happens.

I think people get irked when you say things like "What I have stated repeatedly is that the success of the running game, generally speaking, has very little effect on whether you win or lose. Whatever effects the running game has on the passing game can be had no matter how well or how poorly you run the ball. All of that is borne out by the facts."

The running game does have a large effect. You just can't measure it or find it in a stat that correlates directly to winning so you dismiss it.

 

[erod]

Henry is much faster. It was reported that his time at 10 yards was the fastest of any RB in the last few years. I think that was reported on the RB special that came on ESPN. That shows his explosiveness. It really surprised me.

He is a slow accelerator. Just like Dayne.

 

[bsheeern]

I've been very clear that I'm referring to efficiency on a per-play basis -- NOT total yards. It's easiest to use YPC, but other per-play stats have a similarly low correlation.

So you are using only STATS to determine if a Team is effective at running the ball and that's crazy.

If the EFFECT of one TEAM having a Good running CAUSES the other team to GAMPLAN differently then that is obviously a DIRECT effect and will have major implications on the game.

 

[bsheeern]

Really, I thought you knew more about football than just stats.

So a team decides to focus on taking away the run, now you have a better passing day. A team decides to focus on stopping the pass, guess what happens.

I think people get irked when you say things like "What I have stated repeatedly is that the success of the running game, generally speaking, has very little effect on whether you win or lose. Whatever effects the running game has on the passing game can be had no matter how well or how poorly you run the ball. All of that is borne out by the facts."

The running game does have a large effect. You just can't measure it or find it in a stat that correlates directly to winning so you dismiss it.

Thank you so much for this post. I couldn't have said it any better and hopefully it resonates.