What happens when we run

[Bleu Star]

If you look over the course of Murray's career with the Cowboys you can see why Zeke was the obvious pick for us in this draft. I think most people would agree that Zeke is at least a better prospect than Murray was coming out of college. I think others would go further and say that Zeke from day one is better than Murray was at his prime with us. I'm in the later camp, but let's wait and see there.

My point is let's look at what happened when we fed Murray the ball during his time here.

Murray had 19 regular season games with over 100 yards. Of those 19 games, we went 15-4. A couple of those games featured an injured Tony Romo.

The bigger question could have been why didn't we run the ball more while we had Murray, but I don't think that will be a problem going forward.

Will we go undefeated with this defense? Probably not, but should we make the playoffs with some breathing room? I think so. I think with this offense healthy, we're a top 5 offense and the defense is probably a top 15 defense. That's good enough to make a run this year, and I think next year we'll have a top 10 defense. I'm pretty excited about the next two years and it largely starts with Elliott and Smith.

My only question is why didn't we feed Randle more? After all, he was the best RB in Big D. Right?

Nice post btw.

 

[Rogerthat12]

It was definitely Pete Carroll. He said that before the 2014 game against Dallas in Seattle.

After the OL ended up bullying his bullies, it was clear that the OL was already very good.

He should know of all people, Dallas gave Seattle power formations all game long and dared them to stop them and they could not.

Funny how Dallas was losing the game and still pounded away with Murray for the game winning TD.

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Glorious!

 

[percyhoward]

Most teams will not keep running if the run is not working.

The bigger your lead, and the later in the game, the less that matters.

League-wide in 2015, compared to the first half of games, teams ran 26% more often when leading in the second half of games. NE, Hou, Was, Ind, and SD ranked in the bottom five (28th - 32nd) last year in YPC. They all ran more often when they were leading in the second half.

Chargers +11%
Patriots +15%
Commanders +25%
Colts +26%
Texans +30%

 

[CowboyRoy]

thanks, percy, for putting some data in there to back that.

i assume that defense plays into that, too. meaning, if your offense is working AND your defense is getting turnovers or not giving up first downs, that's when you build up a lead that you can sit on by running out the clock. i don't have the time or the inclunation to flesh that out with data, although i'm sure it's there.

do you have any numbers that match that?

You dont need any data. Football is pretty simple. ANY team or QB will be better of with a stout run game. Just like they will better with a stout defense or a great passing attack. The more things you do well, the better. The best teams can win in different ways. Pass, run, defense, special teams.

 

[CowboyRoy]

He should know of all people, Dallas gave Seattle power formations all game long and dared them to stop them and they could not.

Funny how Dallas was losing the game and still pounded away with Murray for the game winning TD.

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Glorious!

Nothing better for me then watching a team grind it out like Murray there and run over a team. But with Zeke we should see more big plays.

 

[CowboyRoy]

Having a guy come in and immediately become an All-Pro contributor certainly helped. He was the first rookie OL all-Pro in like 50 years.

Tyron Smith and Frederick coming into their own at an All-Pro level certainly didn't hurt either. Leary was also much, much better than any interior player we had recently.

That kind of talent on the OL let's you do a lot.

I also think Linehan had a better "feel" for the flow of the game. I like JG as a coach, but I think there's simply too much to do during the week to also be playcalling on Sundays, which is why hardly any HC call their own plays.

Garrett stunk as an OC for 4 years before he became the head coach.

 

[waldoputty]

The bigger your lead, and the later in the game, the less that matters.

League-wide in 2015, compared to the first half of games, teams ran 26% more often when leading in the second half of games. NE, Hou, Was, Ind, and SD ranked in the bottom five (28th - 32nd) last year in YPC. They all ran more often when they were leading in the second half.

Chargers +11%
Patriots +15%
Commanders +25%
Colts +26%
Texans +30%

I am talking more about your first half data - where people are not running out the clock.

 

[Rogerthat12]

Nothing better for me then watching a team grind it out like Murray there and run over a team. But with Zeke we should see more big plays.

If you liked that sequence, you will love this play from 2014, Murray has 2 TD's in this effort but look at this one!

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Up top view:

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Can you imagine Zeke in this blocking scheme with his ability in space!

 

[percyhoward]

I am talking more about your first half data - where people are not running out the clock.

The only point I've made is that teams have more rushing attempts in wins because they run more when they are protecting a lead and trying to run out the clock, and that's why you can't look at the correlation between rushing attempts and wins and conclude that a team won because it ran more.