The don't run enough, run enough, don't run enough trend continues

[Nova]

Down 2 scores under 7 mins 2 and 14 you don't see a reason you can't run the ball?? Ok the statement right there shows the agenda here and you are not looking at situational football. If you are gonna run on 2&14 most of the time it's going to be a draw deep in your territory to not make a mistake and play field position. We are trying to win a game here and save time on the clock but the problem is again we have no urgency and no tempo and no explosion to strike fear in the defense and it's by play design.

We were down 2 points at that time. And the 2nd and 14 only happened because we had a holding penalty on a short pass to Beasley on 2nd and 4. IMO, that was a prime down for PA or another run up the middle because they hadn't stopped it all day.

Instead it was the 3rd pass in a row and SD had caught on and the DL pinned its ears back and forced a hold on Leary.

 

[frickster]

If we could run, it wouldnt give a high powered offense the ball so much.

 

[CowboyStar88]

If we could run, it wouldnt give a high powered offense the ball so much.

That's not true look at the opening drive of the 2nd half how much time the Chargers kept the ball and marched it down the d's throat. They couldn't stop rivers and the passing game and Dallas could complete 3rd downs. They stopped Dallas passing game. The big play that turned the tide of this game was the drive before half they had SD in a 2nd and long and have up I believe a 19 yard pass. That allowed SD to March down the Field and get a FG. This team could not stop the pass at all nor get them off in 3rd down.

 

[frickster]

That's not true look at the opening drive of the 2nd half how much time the Chargers kept the ball and marched it down the d's throat. They couldn't stop rivers and the passing game and Dallas could complete 3rd downs. They stopped Dallas passing game. The big play that turned the tide of this game was the drive before half they had SD in a 2nd and long and have up I believe a 19 yard pass. That allowed SD to March down the Field and get a FG. This team could not stop the pass at all nor get them off in 3rd down.

That's not true look at the opening drive of the 2nd half how much time the Chargers kept the ball and marched it down the d's throat. They couldn't stop rivers and the passing game and Dallas could complete 3rd downs. They stopped Dallas passing game. The big play that turned the tide of this game was the drive before half they had SD in a 2nd and long and have up I believe a 19 yard pass. That allowed SD to March down the Field and get a FG. This team could not stop the pass at all nor get them off in 3rd down.

If you can't stop a teams offense isnt it a good idea to try ball control? It sure worked on the Super Bowl teams with Emmitt Smith.

 

[CowboyStar88]

If you can't stop a teams offense isnt it a good idea to try ball control? It sure worked on the Super Bowl teams with Emmitt Smith.

If we had the ball sure it might help but if you can't convert 3rd downs well ball control won't work either

 

[frickster]

If we had the ball sure it might help but if you can't convert 3rd downs well ball control won't work either

i agree, but throwing 3 times and punting just gives it back to them sooner. How would an 8 minute drive have looked in the 3rd quarter. Do you think the defense could have used a breather. We stunk yesterday but what I am saying is long sustained drives against a good offense helps the defense.

 

[CowboyStar88]

i agree, but throwing 3 times and punting just gives it back to them sooner. How would an 8 minute drive have looked in the 3rd quarter. Do you think the defense could have used a breather. We stunk yesterday but what I am saying is long sustained drives against a good offense helps the defense.

Lol I don't think there was 8 mins left in the 3rd to eat up! Haha oh boy. We need speed on the offense we need to get Dunbar on the field and stop being afraid of using him. I'm sure the defense is just fine giving Murray 4 yards a clip he isn't a strike fear gonna take it all the way back like McCoy is Spiller or Muscle Hampster. Honestly I see Murray and Mathews as the same type of player and we didn't respect him.

 

[Future]

Again they didn't do it with the running game. They did because Rivers converted his 3rd downs by passing and missing a total of 7 passes. It had nothing to do with the run game. We didn't convert 3rd downs to keep them off the field we didn't score on our drives the way they did.

We scored 14 points on offense, so there was something wrong on offense.

Plus, the best way to stop Rivers is to keep him on the bench and control the clock by running the freaking football.

 

[CowboyStar88]

We scored 14 points on offense, so there was something wrong on offense.

Plus, the best way to stop Rivers is to keep him on the bench and control the clock by running the freaking football.

How are we going to keep him on the bench when we can't stop him on 3rd down? At half we were 0/4 and they were like 8/11 or something ridiculous. We ran the ball it didn't phase the Chargers one bit. Murray isn't a back that strikes fear in a defense they don't fear he is gonna take it to the house that's why nobody ever brings help down in the box.

 

[frickster]

You keep him on the bench by running and chewing up the clock. Going in and throwing 3 times and punting sure didn't work.

 

[T-RO]

The "we don't run enough" mythology is pure craziness. It has almost nothing to do with our core problems. Our run/pass ratio was higher than most winning teams yesterday and it didn't help us a bit.

Until the 4th quarter we had a higher run/pass ratio than the Chargers. What good did that do us? The 4th quarter of course was full of more Charger running and more Cowboys passing since we were two scores down so the final ratio had us throwing 4% more per down.

Guys you've got to learn that stats always have CONTEXT.

 

[T-RO]

We scored 14 points on offense, so there was something wrong on offense.

Plus, the best way to stop Rivers is to keep him on the bench and control the clock by running the freaking football.

You don't control the ball by running the ball. Pure myth. You control the ball with first downs. And yesterday...when the Cowboys defense NEVER stopped the Chargers...the offense had little opportunity to build any momentum.

 

[wick]

Funny how this trend maps very cleanly to win, lose, win, lose. The correlation is correct, but the causation is not. Winning causes the running. We ran the ball far better than San Diego yesterday, averaging 5.8 yards to 4.1. San Diego ran it more because they won the game and ran out the clock at the end. Had running really been important, we should have won since we ran it better. But we didn't because running doesn't determine winning. San Diego dominated us through the air, throwing for 394 net yards and a whopping 9.4 yard per attempt to our pedestrian 225 and 6.1. Ball game.

 

[Future]

Funny how this trend maps very cleanly to win, lose, win, lose. The correlation is correct, but the causation is not. Winning causes the running. We ran the ball far better than San Diego yesterday, averaging 5.8 yards to 4.1. San Diego ran it more because they won the game and ran out the clock at the end. Had running really been important, we should have won since we ran it better. But we didn't because running doesn't determine winning. San Diego dominated us through the air, throwing for 394 net yards and a whopping 9.4 yard per attempt to our pedestrian 225 and 6.1. Ball game.

I would agree about running out the clock at times, but they ran the ball 27 times and we had just 15. No way that big of a discrepancy comes when they were running out the clock, especially since we had the lead going into the 4th.

 

[wick]

I would agree about running out the clock at times, but they ran the ball 27 times and we had just 15. No way that big of a discrepancy comes when they were running out the clock, especially since we had the lead going into the 4th.

San Diego ran the ball their final five snaps. So it was 22 rushes to 16 prior to that. But San Diego ran 70 plays to our 56. So they ran the ball on 31 percent of snaps to our 29 percent when they weren't running out the clock. That's insignificant and is not why they won the game. They won because their passing attack destroyed our defense to the tune of almost 10 yards per snap while our passing attack was stuck in third gear, gaining just 6.1 yards per attempt.

 

[Zman5]

While I almost never agree with the run-the-ball-more-when-you-were-passing-well arguments, there were a couple of third-and-short running downs yesterday where we went empty-set and passed the ball that left me scratching my head. There are some regular running situations where we choose to pass for some reason. In past years, I could understand it, but at this point early in this season, they are safe, makable calls, and we should be making more of them.

I noticed the same and was SMH. Murray runs for 10 on the first play and gets the first down. He then runs for 5, then 3 so we are 3rd and 2 for the first down.

What do we do? We go full spread shotgun with empty backfield and pass. Pass is incomplete and we go 3 and out.

Two problems with this play call. Murray is running well, does it hurt to try to feed him the ball this early in the game to get the 2 yards. Second, the formation pretty much told the defense, hey we are going to pass. If they wanted to pass, why not try to at least have the defense guess if the play is going to be a run or pass.


There was another instance where Murray rips off 7 yard run. Next five plays. Yep you guessed it. All passes and the drive stalls. How can a RB get into a rhythm playing like this? I can see it if Murray was getting stone walled but he was playing well yet we didn't use him.