Update on our rushing game compared to rest of league

[Beast_from_East]

Now that week 2 is in the books, we have a little bit bigger sample size since 12.5% of the season has been played. I thought it would be interesting to track how our running game is going in comparison to the rest of the league each week with this being the first entry.

We are currently 20th in rushing offense at 94.5 yards per game.

Last season we averaged 147.1 yards rushing per game, which was 2nd in the NFL behind only Seattle.

So using my UT education I calculate that to be a difference of 52.6 yards less per game we are currently rushing for. Too early to tell exactly why we are struggling running the ball (dropping from #2 to #20), could be injuries affecting how teams play us, could be teams better game planning for us now that they have a year's worth of tape on our line and their tendencies, or it could be that we lost our bellcow and have replaced him with 2nd tier running backs rotating on a committee basis. Time will obviously tell.

We really need to start running the ball a lot better now that Romo is out. We don't have to be #2 in the league again, but we need to be better than #20 considering how many high draft picks were spent on this line.

 

[windjc]

Now that week 2 is in the books, we have a little bit bigger sample size since 12.5% of the season has been played. I thought it would be interesting to track how our running game is going in comparison to the rest of the league each week with this being the first entry.

We are currently 20th in rushing offense at 94.5 yards per game.

Last season we averaged 147.1 yards rushing per game, which was 2nd in the NFL behind only Seattle.

So using my UT education I calculate that to be a difference of 52.6 yards less per game we are currently rushing for. Too early to tell exactly why we are struggling running the ball (dropping from #2 to #20), could be injuries affecting how teams play us, could be teams better game planning for us now that they have a year's worth of tape on our line and their tendencies, or it could be that we lost our bellcow and have replaced him with 2nd tier running backs rotating on a committee basis. Time will obviously tell.

We really need to start running the ball a lot better now that Romo is out. We don't have to be #2 in the league again, but we need to be better than #20 considering how many high draft picks were spent on this line.

I think the answer is pretty simple. It is multiple factors.

1. A lot of our rushing yards came in the 2nd half of games in 2014 as defenses wore down. In the Giants game we had to pass the ball because we were behind the entire 2nd half. In the Eagles game we had to pass the ball more because of down and distance resulting from a Franchise all-time high 18 penalties.

2. Half of our current season so far was played against the Eagles. We averaged around 75 yards and 3.0 yards per carry against the Eagles in 2014.

3. More passes to RBs. We are scheming to feature Dunbar more in the first two games. Linehan seems to be running a west coast scheme that includes more passes and a few fewer runs for RBs.

 

[Beast_from_East]

I think the answer is pretty simple. It is multiple factors.

1. A lot of our rushing yards came in the 2nd half of games in 2014 as defenses wore down. In the Giants game we had to pass the ball because we were behind the entire 2nd half. In the Eagles game we had to pass the ball more because of down and distance resulting from a Franchise all-time high 18 penalties.

2. Half of our current season so far was played against the Eagles. We averaged around 75 yards and 3.0 yards per carry against the Eagles in 2014.

3. More passes to RBs. We are scheming to feature Dunbar more in the first two games. Linehan seems to be running a west coast scheme that includes more passes and a few fewer runs for RBs.

Good points...........will be interesting to see how the numbers look when we start playing teams outside the division.

 

[Idgit]

If you're just looking at total yards, then the turnovers and the penalties last week have gone a long way towards putting us in positions where we were less likely to run the football. I'd say both are more responsible the how effectively we've blocked or run each of the last two weeks.

Either way, I'm not worried about it overall. I agree with you that with Romo out, it's better to run the ball and keep the passing to the safest of situations and not beat ourselves with turnovers.

 

[windjc]

We should get ready for more of these threads. With Dez out and a backup QB in, teams will be stacking the box. If we run we will have to really commit to it.

 

[jazzcat22]

I think the answer is pretty simple. It is multiple factors.

1. A lot of our rushing yards came in the 2nd half of games in 2014 as defenses wore down. In the Giants game we had to pass the ball because we were behind the entire 2nd half. In the Eagles game we had to pass the ball more because of down and distance resulting from a Franchise all-time high 18 penalties.

2. Half of our current season so far was played against the Eagles. We averaged around 75 yards and 3.0 yards per carry against the Eagles in 2014.

3. More passes to RBs. We are scheming to feature Dunbar more in the first two games. Linehan seems to be running a west coast scheme that includes more passes and a few fewer runs for RBs.

Good points, game situations dictates what we had do to do so far.
Weren't Murray's 2 games against the Eagles last year, down near the bottom, if not the 2 worse games he had yardage wise? I haven't looked it up yet, but IIRC they weren't his best or near his best.

 

[Reality]

I think the answer is pretty simple. It is multiple factors.

1. A lot of our rushing yards came in the 2nd half of games in 2014 as defenses wore down. In the Giants game we had to pass the ball because we were behind the entire 2nd half. In the Eagles game we had to pass the ball more because of down and distance resulting from a Franchise all-time high 18 penalties.

2. Half of our current season so far was played against the Eagles. We averaged around 75 yards and 3.0 yards per carry against the Eagles in 2014.

3. More passes to RBs. We are scheming to feature Dunbar more in the first two games. Linehan seems to be running a west coast scheme that includes more passes and a few fewer runs for RBs.

^^ Everyone should read this ..

 

[superonyx]

People can come up with many reasons. Some may be legit...

However I can't pretend that what I see isn't actually happening. When you watch the games this year you can just feel the lack of impact our running game has. Week by week teams will begin to scheme to make it even harder for our offense to succeed. I feel bad for Weeden because he may be coming into a tough situation where teams can forget about our awesome running game and can just scheme to make Weedens life miserable. And we may not have the ability to stop them.

People will come up with many reasons why we are 20th in the league...trust me almost none of them will be that we let our Power running back leave. They will talk about penalties, game situations, ect. This will continue all season as our running game continues to struggle..

I think Romo and Dez Bryant knew something when they campaigned and begged the FO to resign Murray.

 

[Silver N Blue]

Now that week 2 is in the books, we have a little bit bigger sample size since 12.5% of the season has been played. I thought it would be interesting to track how our running game is going in comparison to the rest of the league each week with this being the first entry.

We are currently 20th in rushing offense at 94.5 yards per game.

Last season we averaged 147.1 yards rushing per game, which was 2nd in the NFL behind only Seattle.

So using my UT education I calculate that to be a difference of 52.6 yards less per game we are currently rushing for. Too early to tell exactly why we are struggling running the ball (dropping from #2 to #20), could be injuries affecting how teams play us, could be teams better game planning for us now that they have a year's worth of tape on our line and their tendencies, or it could be that we lost our bellcow and have replaced him with 2nd tier running backs rotating on a committee basis. Time will obviously tell.

We really need to start running the ball a lot better now that Romo is out. We don't have to be #2 in the league again, but we need to be better than #20 considering how many high draft picks were spent on this line.

What were the stats for the first two games last year? Could not have been great.....comparisons should be made with the first two from last year and the first two from this year imo.

 

[Jstopper]

People can come up with many reasons. Some may be legit...

However I can't pretend that what I see isn't actually happening. When you watch the games this year you can just feel the lack of impact our running game has. Week by week teams will begin to scheme to make it even harder for our offense to succeed. I feel bad for Weeden because he may be coming into a tough situation where teams can forget about our awesome running game and can just scheme to make Weedens life miserable. And we may not have the ability to stop them.

People will come up with many reasons why we are 20th in the league...trust me almost none of them will be that we let our Power running back leave. They will talk about penalties, game situations, ect. This will continue all season as our running game continues to struggle..

I think Romo and Dez Bryant knew something when they campaigned and begged the FO to resign Murray.

Do you see what that same power running back is doing? 11 yards in 2 games. Why does Murray have less rushing yards than Tony Romo? Randle and McFadden have no problem running the ball, so no I don't feel a lack of our running game. We were in a passing 2nd half against the Giants, and we couldn't run worth a crap against the Eagles last year, so how can you use that as a reason to say running game is weaker when they actually rushed for more ypc against the Eagles than Murray did last year? After seeing how garbage Murray has been, I'm even more convinced than before the FO made the right decision. Not to mention we are passing to our RBs way more this year than last. I guarantee our rbbc has more total yards through the 1st two games than we had last year. Who cares how much of them are rushing yards when they are picking up lots of yards on dump offs out the back field?

 

[mattjames2010]

Do you see what that same power running back is doing? 11 yards in 2 games. Why does Murray have less rushing yards than Tony Romo? Randle and McFadden have no problem running the ball, so no I don't feel a lack of our running game. We were in a passing 2nd half against the Giants, and we couldn't run worth a crap against the Eagles last year, so how can you use that as a reason to say running game is weaker when they actually rushed for more ypc against the Eagles than Murray did last year? After seeing how garbage Murray has been, I'm even more convinced than before the FO made the right decision. Not to mention we are passing to our RBs way more this year than last. I guarantee our rbbc has more total yards through the 1st two games than we had last year. Who cares how much of them are rushing yards when they are picking up lots of yards on dump offs out the back field?

Did you not see LB's meeting Murray 5 yards in the backfield?

Wonder if that has anything to do with his struggles.

 

[plasticman]

The Cowboys ran far more and far better in the first half of the game in 2014. They were typically very successful running the ball right out the gates. Murray gained over a thousand yards in 2014 just in the 1st half.

The reaaon for the lack of success is Randle's lack of burst, strength, escapability, and cohesion with the offensive line.

Simply put, they lack the rhythm that familiarity provides between a good offensive line and talented back.

Randle may well improve to the point where he will be adequate but he will never reach the level of Murray over the previous two seasons.

The Cowboys won't abandon the run but that 94 yards per game is coming at an average of 3.4 yards a carry, 27th in the league. It is the 9th worse two game start in Cowboy history.

At this same time time last year the Cowboys were averaging 5.3 yards a carry.

Its time to take a look at Christine Michael.

 

[Jstopper]

Did you not see LB's meeting Murray 5 yards in the backfield?

Wonder if that has anything to do with his struggles.

Ohhh so I guess it is the oline like we've been been saying all offseason

 

[mattjames2010]

Ohhh so I guess it is the oline like we've been been saying all offseason

No one has ever said the O-Line isn't needed. Point out a thread or post where someone indicated that you don't need a somewhat capable O-Line for the running game to succeed.

The Eagles line is terrible when it comes to run blocking. Not just bad, but terrible. I don't even have to look at grades to know they are most likely 30-32. You can't blame any RB not having success behind that line if they are letting LBs run free into the backfield.

 

[maxdallasfan]

I don't care if we run for 2 yards per game. I just want to be playing a game in February.

 

[perrykemp]

One of best aspects of the Cowboys power running game last season was that is dramatically reduced the number of passes Romo had to throw.

One of the reasons why that matters, as Romo enters his twilight years, is that I'm not sure Romo can hold up to the wear and tear of going back to passing 40 times a game.

Last year Romo averaged 27 attempts a game and, in general, on those passes there was less pass rush because teams were terrified of the running game.

It's just two games in so it's too early to make any definitive judgements, however, IMHO the club has decided to go back the mode of putting everything on Romo's shoulders (so to speak) and I'm not sure that is the best strategy.

 

[superonyx]

Do you see what that same power running back is doing? 11 yards in 2 games. Why does Murray have less rushing yards than Tony Romo? Randle and McFadden have no problem running the ball, so no I don't feel a lack of our running game. We were in a passing 2nd half against the Giants, and we couldn't run worth a crap against the Eagles last year, so how can you use that as a reason to say running game is weaker when they actually rushed for more ypc against the Eagles than Murray did last year? After seeing how garbage Murray has been, I'm even more convinced than before the FO made the right decision. Not to mention we are passing to our RBs way more this year than last. I guarantee our rbbc has more total yards through the 1st two games than we had last year. Who cares how much of them are rushing yards when they are picking up lots of yards on dump offs out the back field?

If you haven't yet figured out why Murray is off to the miserable start that he is off to with the Eagles then there isn't much assistance I can give you.

If you really want to answer your own question (I'm sure you don't) just look for a thread here that shows all of the Eagles runs that went for negative yards. Watch those runs and then please come back and tell me why Murray is off to a terrible statistical start.

The total lack of ability to run block by the Eagles offensive line is all it takes for you to be convinced that letting Murray leave was the right decision...interesting.

 

[Jstopper]

No one has ever said the O-Line isn't needed. Point out a thread or post where someone indicated that you don't need a somewhat capable O-Line for the running game to succeed.

The Eagles line is terrible when it comes to run blocking. Not just bad, but terrible. I don't even have to look at grades to know they are most likely 30-32. You can't blame any RB not having success behind that line if they are letting LBs run free into the backfield.

And yet that's the exact reason people were so down on mcfadden this year when he was getting hit behind the line all the time. And is that this year's ratings? Because last year the Eagles were a top 5 run blocking team. And if you're only basing that off this year then we are not good at run blocking either if we're number #20

 

[Jstopper]

If you haven't yet figured out why Murray is off to the miserable start that he is off to with the Eagles then there isn't much assistance I can give you.

If you really want to answer your own question (I'm sure you don't) just look for a thread here that shows all of the Eagles runs that went for negative yards. Watch those runs and then please come back and tell me why Murray is off to a terrible statistical start.

The total lack of ability to run block by the Eagles offensive line is all it takes for you to be convinced that letting Murray leave was the right decision...interesting.

Our running game wouldn't be doing any better imo if Murray was still here. Not to mention other areas of our team would be weaker because of his taking up more money. And also were you in support of signing mcfadden? Because like you just said you can't blame a rb who gets hit in the backfield all the time right?

 

[mattjames2010]

And yet that's the exact reason people were so down on mcfadden this year when he was getting hit behind the line all the time. And is that this year's ratings? Because last year the Eagles were a top 5 run blocking team. And if you're only basing that off this year then we are not good at run blocking either if we're number #20

There's a video out there with every single handoff to McFadden in 2014. I know he's "your boy", but that Raiders O-Line is nowhere near as bad as what the Eagles have shown these past two weeks. I don't think you are understanding how terrible that line looked the other day, if I was a Philly fan, I would have been embarrassed.

It was so bad that there are Philly players claiming we knew the plays with how we were getting into the backfield so fast. Their line is near non-existent in the running game, they might as well be on the bench.