Update on our rushing game compared to rest of league

[DandyDon52]

It's interesting how someone will enter an opinion on some facet of the team's performance this season and when they receive criticism their defense is, hey, you can't judge a situation after only two games. And yet, their opinion was based entirely on that.

I think that the position of RB require the most instinctive traits. You really can't teach some of the things that make a RB truly great. A RB can improve with experience and study to a degree but it won't take them from being average to elite. They either have it or they don't.

It's not just being physically gifted. An elite RB is a true football player with the vision, the instinctive ability to sense the flow of his blockers and opponents. it requires a desire, an inspired dedication if you will, to be the Man. These guys are rare, usually no more than a half dozen per season.

All the great ones had it, not necessarily the most physically gifted. Peterson has it, Murray has it, Emmitt most certainly had it. McFadden, for all his physical gifts, does not have it. Randle does not have it at the NFL level. He can be a change of pace, but he will never be the Man. Randle, much like Marion Barber, is a situational back pressed into a role beyond his ability. If he does manage to make it to a thousand yards with the help of this line then he will have reached his fullest potential.

Rushing for a thousand yards in a season is hardly an accomplishment, over the past 5 seasons an average of 15 RB's reach that mark, half the teams in the league annually had a thousand yard rusher. It basically means your RB was able to stay relatively healthy and carried the ball 12-18 times a game.

Forget stats like total yardage and overall yards per carry for now.

If your team is ahead or close going into the 4th quarter and your opponents has a prolific quarterback or offense, can your running game keep them on the bench? can they close the deal? Can your RB pound it out when everyone knows he is getting the ball?

Last year Murray carried the ball 7 times in the 4th quarter against the Titans for 33 yards, a 4.7 average. He ran 8 times in the 4th quarter against the Seahawks for 50 yards, draining the life out of them. 6 times against the Texans for 31 years, over 5 yards a carry. 8 times for 63 yards against the Bears.

Last year Murray averaged 22 carries a game going into the 4th quarter. Do you see Randle having the stamina to go into the 4th quarter after 15 carries and capable of pounding the ball 5 to 8 times while keeping the drives alive? I just don't see it.

good post, and this points out something that does not show up in stats etc.
Cowboys had a good thng going and should have kept murray and done same thing again this year.
but they blew that , and it doesnt matter how murray is doing, if he were here with this line and this team, I doubt romo would be hurt, and cowboys would be # 1 in rushing.
We are 2-0 but lost romo so now things could go downhill fast.

 

[Staubacher]

good post, and this points out something that does not show up in stats etc.
Cowboys had a good thng going and should have kept murray and done same thing again this year.
but they blew that , and it doesnt matter how murray is doing, if he were here with this line and this team, I doubt romo would be hurt, and cowboys would be # 1 in rushing.
We are 2-0 but lost romo so now things could go downhill fast.

Stop. Murray himself got Romo creamed vs Washington.

We're 2-0 and Murray is stinking it up in Philly.

Time to stop spinning. The guys who run the Cowboys know more than you do.

 

[LocimusPrime]

It's interesting how someone will enter an opinion on some facet of the team's performance this season and when they receive criticism their defense is, hey, you can't judge a situation after only two games. And yet, their opinion was based entirely on that.

I think that the position of RB require the most instinctive traits. You really can't teach some of the things that make a RB truly great. A RB can improve with experience and study to a degree but it won't take them from being average to elite. They either have it or they don't.

It's not just being physically gifted. An elite RB is a true football player with the vision, the instinctive ability to sense the flow of his blockers and opponents. it requires a desire, an inspired dedication if you will, to be the Man. These guys are rare, usually no more than a half dozen per season.

All the great ones had it, not necessarily the most physically gifted. Peterson has it, Murray has it, Emmitt most certainly had it. McFadden, for all his physical gifts, does not have it. Randle does not have it at the NFL level. He can be a change of pace, but he will never be the Man. Randle, much like Marion Barber, is a situational back pressed into a role beyond his ability. If he does manage to make it to a thousand yards with the help of this line then he will have reached his fullest potential.

Rushing for a thousand yards in a season is hardly an accomplishment, over the past 5 seasons an average of 15 RB's reach that mark, half the teams in the league annually had a thousand yard rusher. It basically means your RB was able to stay relatively healthy and carried the ball 12-18 times a game.

Forget stats like total yardage and overall yards per carry for now.

If your team is ahead or close going into the 4th quarter and your opponents has a prolific quarterback or offense, can your running game keep them on the bench? can they close the deal? Can your RB pound it out when everyone knows he is getting the ball?

Last year Murray carried the ball 7 times in the 4th quarter against the Titans for 33 yards, a 4.7 average. He ran 8 times in the 4th quarter against the Seahawks for 50 yards, draining the life out of them. 6 times against the Texans for 31 years, over 5 yards a carry. 8 times for 63 yards against the Bears.

Last year Murray averaged 22 carries a game going into the 4th quarter. Do you see Randle having the stamina to go into the 4th quarter after 15 carries and capable of pounding the ball 5 to 8 times while keeping the drives alive? I just don't see it.

Nice post, I don't think Murray has elite vision like Peterson and Emmit though- perhaps decent or above average vision.

 

[50cent]

you make some good points.6 points at half with a pass first plan is pretty bad.
I predicted that with murray gone, and romo feeling better they would drift back to passing more and they did.
I feel like it led to Romo getting beat up and then hurt.

I think with weedon, they will go back to trying to run more, but at same time teams are going to Stuff the run now , because they dont fear
weedon, and no dez, and no murray, or any back that intimidates defenses.

Atlantas new coach is a good DC and I think he may shut down dallas unless weedon shows he can pass as good as romo.
So this next game they may need to pass first and prove they can , and then start running.

This same cast of characters ate up and spit out 8 in the box last year and now all of a sudden, we act like its a foreign concept that we can't handle. 8 in a box is nothing new. It was the same argument in 2013 when Murray ran for 1100 on 15 carries a game. "He doesn't get it more , because teams are loading the box and its easier to pass!" Fast forward to 2014 with the loaded boxes and it still produced 1800 yards.

This has nothing to do with 8 in a box with this line and more of a going back to the future with a pass first mentality. It backed fired. Nothing was broke. With the running game go start the season. Randle came out at 4 a carry, it the "situation" dictated we pass more so they say.

Dallas' problem is the 3 wide spread gets stuck in their minds as our best weapon and its like they can't get out of calling it to save their lives wwhen simply handing it off with a FB is our true strength.

This is gonna be a tall task to overcome without our starting wr, QB and 1800/YARD BACK, but if we overcome it, it won't be because we passed our way out of it with 3 wide set or dumping it off to Witten every other pass. It will be done because we relied on an offensive line and run game that is our true strength and has been since 2013. We just didn't notice until 2014 and somehow forgkt the first two weeks of this year. We've lost our identity and resorted back to punk soft ball.

 

[DFWJC]

Same thing I heard 2010-13. Great offensive stats, not scoring enough to match offensive production and 8-8 finishes. Dallas ran the ball 20 times to RBS through 3 qtrs, 2 to Romo and not all 20 to Randle. We had zero runs in the 4th vs NYG.

I think you need some context here.

We were losing 23-13 early in the 4th, so we passed to score 14 points and win the game vs NY.

Vs Philly, we did almost exactly what we did last year. Same amount of runs and same results.
Oh, and btw, we won that one too (thank you defense).

Anyway, those two game are about as far from true indicators as we could get.

 

[50cent]

I think you need some context here.

We were losing 23-13 early in the 4th, so we passed to score 14 points and win the game vs NY.

Vs Philly, we did almost exactly what we did last year. Same amount of runs and same results.
Oh, and btw, we won that one too (thank you defense).

Anyway, those two game are about as far from true indicators as we could get.​

​

I have provided plenty of context in the previous posts. The score was 16-13 to start the 4th and we had the ball. Didnt go down 10/until half way through the 4th. ThosePhilly rRU s came after Romo got hurt. We ran the ball more after Romo got hurt than we did with him to make it seem balanced. I've said it before, had Romo not been hurt, the Cowboys would have continued to pass with Romo in first.

There is a difference to how we attacked philly last year. It was a constant diet of runs throughout the game and not a back loaded attempt to balance thing out with a bad k up QB you don't fully trust to throw the ball as much as you do with Romo.

Those 33 rushes are camouflage to the poor game plan for the first 2.5 quarters of mostly passes that led us to 6 offensive points.

 

[DFWJC]

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I have provided plenty of context in the previous posts. The score was 16-13 to start the 4th and we had the ball. Didnt go down 10/until half way through the 4th. ThosePhilly rRU s came after Romo got hurt. We ran the ball more after Romo got hurt than we did with him to make it seem balanced. I've said it before, had Romo not been hurt, the Cowboys would have continued to pass with Romo in first.

There is a difference to how we attacked philly last year. It was a constant diet of runs throughout the game and not a back loaded attempt to balance thing out with a bad k up QB you don't fully trust to throw the ball as much as you do with Romo.

Those 33 rushes are camouflage to the poor game plan for the first 2.5 quarters of mostly passes that led us to 6 offensive points.

So was 14 points and the win in the 4th qtr vs New York not good enough for you...just so we can have a few more runs?

It's good to know that Linehan's poor game-planning doesn't live up to your vast knowledge that requires that you keep your phone off the hook due to hall the NFL GMs calling for your services.

just kidding

I'm just saying..the season is extremely young.

 

[Doomsday101]

According to Garrett:

All I can say is based on what I have seen the running game is down right now and is not producing as it should. Before anyone starts it this has nothing to do with Murray or the Cowboys choice of not resigning him it has to do with our current group just not playing up to a high level. I'm hoping to see improvement out of the run game. For those who feel the run game is doing great all I can say is we have a different view of what is great

 

[50cent]

So was 14 points and the win in the 4th qtr vs New York not good enough for you...just so we can have a few more runs?

It's good to know that Linehan's poor game-planning doesn't live up to your vast knowledge that requires that you keep your phone off the hook due to hall the NFL GMs calling for your services.

just kidding

I'm just saying..the season is extremely young.

To be honest with you, no. I didn'tfeel and still ddon't think the Giants are good enough to force such a close game vs us. It shouldn't have taken a comeback to beat that dysfunction

Its very early and it took one game last dlsesson for this staff to realize our true strength offensively. Hopefully after two, they've realized their mistakes and will get back to what got us to 12-4. Its just sad we had to lose our QB with that mistake of a game plan the first two weeks.

 

[Doomsday101]

To be honest with you, no. I didn'tfeel and still ddon't think the Giants are good enough to force such a close game vs us. It shouldn't have taken a comeback to beat that dysfunction

Its very early and it took one game last dlsesson for this staff to realize our true strength offensively. Hopefully after two, they've realized their mistakes and will get back to what got us to 12-4. Its just sad we had to lose our QB with that mistake of a game plan the first two weeks.

True, 3 turnovers leading to 17 points while not creating any turnovers is hard to overcome. The fact that Dallas did overcome a -3 Turnover margin says a lot about this team. No doubt they must clean it up. They are not going to win many games if they put Weeden in these type of situations.

 

[50cent]

True, 3 turnovers leading to 17 points while not creating any turnovers is hard to overcome. The fact that Dallas did overcome a -3 Turnover margin says a lot about this team. No doubt they must clean it up. They are not going to win many games if they put Weeden in these type of situations.

The same way you will harp on Randle ypc, ill harp.on the fact that those 17/points are directly correlated to our pass game. As well is the 6 points were averaging in the first half of games with a pass first approach especially in the red zone.

I don't expect much from Weeden, he is who is. I'm more interested to see this defense every week now. They have something special brewing and as much as I think our oline is the force that drives our offense (not Romo, Dez, or any RB), I think this defense may have supplanted everything on this team as the true strength of the squad.
They are scary and more importantly, scary young! Sean Lee has just become the QB of this team and his unit has to carry us ala Baltimore with Ray Lewis. This has officially become a defensive team and the offense needs to stay out of there way.

 

[Doomsday101]

The same way you will harp on Randle ypc, ill harp.on the fact that those 17/points are directly correlated to our pass game. As well is the 6 points were averaging in the first half of games with a pass first approach especially in the red zone.

I don't expect much from Weeden, he is who is. I'm more interested to see this defense every week now. They have something special brewing and as much as I think our oline is the force that drives our offense (not Romo, Dez, or any RB), I think this defense may have supplanted everything on this team as the true strength of the squad.
They are scary and more importantly, scary young! Sean Lee has just become the QB of this team and his unit has to carry us ala Baltimore with Ray Lewis. This has officially become a defensive team and the offense needs to stay out of there way.

I agree with you about defense for this team to win Defense will have to play great ball, getting turnovers and creating field position. Offense we will see. On Weeden I think players are capable of developing. he is now in year 2 of the system and same OC I think he is a capable player who can so call drive the bus.

 

[KJJ]

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 much for those who said the running game wouldn't miss a beat due to the OL. Where are some of you now? It's still early but the Cowboys running game finished #2 last season and they're going to have a tough time finishing in the top 10 with the RB issues and Romo and Dez out for an extended period. With Weeden in until past mid season the running game is going to have to improve and we have to stay out of these long down situations. Romo was injured on a 2nd and 11 and was in the process of attempting his 28th pass with around 10 minutes to play in the 3rd quarter.

He averaged 29 passing attempts last season and had the running game been better he might not have been injured. The Cowboys are going to have a tough time holding things down until he returns if Weeden is having to attempt 40-plus passes and finds himself in as many long down situations as we've had to face so far this season. A lot of pressure will be on the defense because the Cowboys are going to have a tough time putting up a lot of points. We're not going to win shootouts so the D has to play great.