I really got the feeling that it was important to them to have Murray set a record.
It makes no sense if that is the case for Randle to get just three carries in the second game of the season, two the next game, four the one after that, etc. Setting a record wasn't even a gleam in anyone's eye at that point.
Maybe closeness of games could be used as an excuse, but Dallas was in pretty good shape in the fourth game (against New Orleans) and still gave Randle the ball only four times.
Maybe xwalker is correct and Garrett was trying to set a tone or deferred to his starters.
Maybe the team was concerned that the more Randle carried the ball, the less effective he would be ... which was the case when he received his most carries of the season (13) against Indianapolis. He rushed for 37 yards (2.8 per carry).
That was his only game receiving 10-plus carries. The most he had in any other game was 7 for 56 yards (8.0 per carry), but that included a 40-yard run.
In 2013, he had three games with 10-plus carries and averaged 1.5, 3.4 and 1.9 YPC in them. Don't know if that means anything or is possibly why Dallas didn't give him the ball more ... he hadn't proven he could handle a bigger load.
Again, I like what Randle did last year overall when given opportunities, but one of the things that definitely helped his numbers out were the amount of carries he got. Take away his biggest run each game and the numbers don't look as a good for him.
At Tennessee, minus an 11-yard carry, he had two for 15 yards ... so that's good all around (7.5 per carry).
At St. Louis, minus a 7-yard carry, he had 1 for 2 yards.
Against New Orleans, minus a 14-yarder, he had 3 for 8 (2.2 per carry).
Against Houston, he had 2 for 4 yards period. (2.0 per carry either way you go).
At Seattle, take out his 38-yarder, he had 4 for 14 (3.2).
Against New York, he had a 4-yarder and a 3-yarder.
Against Washington, take away a 12-yarder, and it's 2 for 11 (another good one at 5.5).
Against Arizona, he had 1 for 2.
Against Jacksonville, as mentioned above he had a 40-yarder, his other 6 carries went for 16 yards (2.4).
Against Philly, he had 2 for 6, with a long of 3.
At Chicago, he had 1 for 17.
At Philly, he had 2 for 13 yards, with a long of 14, so his other carry went for -1 yard.
Against Indy, his average already was under 3 before taking out his long of 12. That left him at 12 for 25 (2.1).
At Washington, he had a 65-yarder, so his other 3 carries went for 4 yards (1.1).
So that's two games where he averaged 4.0 or better on his other runs and 10 where he averaged 3.2 or worse. (Didn't count Arizona or Chicago since he had only one run in each of those games.)
LET ME EMPHASIZE that if you do that with any back, it's obviously going to affect his numbers so this is in no way a perfect gauge of what to expect. However, it does show when you receive few carries it can make your numbers look really good (or really bad) without telling the whole story. The more carries you get, the less one big run can skew the numbers, which also can be skewed by goal-line runs, etc.
For instance, take out Murray's longest run of the season (against Washington) and he still carried 18 times for 90 yards (5.0) in that game (I don't want to go through all of Murray's game because I don't have time, but someone can feel free to do it. For a complete examination of either back, you'd really have to break it down even more, though.)
