Most of Randle's opportunities came after Murray softened up the defense. If Randle could take advantage of what the OL provides Murray wouldn't have received almost 400 carries last season and Randle would have received more than 51 carries. From what I saw watching the Seattle game and from watching Randle's career he wouldn't have had the staying power to plow through the Legion of Doom over 4 quarters and 28 carries that's my opinion. Murray has had some very productive games behind every OL the Cowboys have had since 2011. None of the backs the Cowboys have had the past 4 seasons including Randle has run as efficiently when given the opportunity over a number of carries except Murray which is why he was the established starter and team rode him hard last season.
The Seattle defense wore out because the Dallas offense kept the ball for almost 40 of the 60 min. of the game. It wore out because its own offense kept going 3-and-out and punting the ball back to the Dallas offense. It wore out because of the OL and TE's bowling them over for 2/3 of the entire game. It wore out because Romo kept converting his 3rd down throws and extending the drives so that Murray could have some more chances to run the ball.
They didn't wear out because Murray was hitting them hard at the end of his runs. I remember seeing about 3 or so hits that Murray delivered to DB's, but I also remember seeing Randle do it at the end of his big run.
If it was simply the size and toughness of the running back... M Lynch would have worn Dallas out and gained a lot of yards. He didn't because Seattle didn't have the OL to do so, or the passing game to extend drives and wear out the other team's defense. There is no doubt that Lynch is better at the "dirty yards" than Murray is... but that mattered not at all in that game, even with Dallas turning the ball over a few times.
It was a combination of all of those things that had Seattle on the ropes by the end of the game. It was the cumulative effect of all of that which was wearing down Seattle's D and showing the entire nation what it looks like for a defense to be whipped and want no more. By the last few min of the game... the Legion of Boom just wanted the game to end, and you could tell plain as day.
I absolutely loved watching that... and I'm sure you did too.
The issue that I have is that so many are equating playing that kind of offense with having Demarco Murray, when in reality, it was a combination of all the things I mentioned. Murray was just a small part of that.
If I thought that had walked out of the door along with Murray... I'd be upset too. The thing is, I think it was the totality of the Dallas offense. Murray couldn't have done it on his own, just like a bigger, stronger Lynch couldn't do it on his own either.
I'm not saying Randle won't do well what I'm saying is I'm not convinced he, McFadden or any of the Cowboys backs will provide the dirty yards that Murray provided last season that kept the chains moving consistently and kept Romo from having to put the ball up 35 plus times a game. Julius Jones use to break off long runs but he wasn't consistent over the course of a game which is why he flamed out. Any back can break off a 30-40 yard run then average 3.6 yards the rest of the game. That simply is not going to cut it if the Cowboys expect to be the team they were last season and improve on it.
Julius Jones didn't have anywhere near the same caliber offense that he was playing with... the OL in particular. His time running behind Torrin Tucker, Al Johnson, Pat McQuistan and Rob Pettiti wasn't very productive. That line didn't give him consistent lanes or movement up front. He did have a couple of good OL on that unit... but as a whole, that OL was poorly coached and didn't work very well.
I'm not going to argue about this very much though. I have no more idea of how it will play out than you do. We do want the same thing though: the run game to continue to build off of what we saw last season. I think it will and you worry that it won't. That's cool though.
