Cowlishaw: Cowboys, Garrett finally embrace 'beast mode' football; will it last?

[Cotton]

Cowlishaw: Cowboys, Garrett finally embrace 'beast mode' football; will it last?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Born again. Recalled to life. A new chapter.

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Call it what you like — time will tell if it’s here to stay — but for one afternoon at LP Field, the Cowboys’ almost total commitment to the running game produced a surprisingly comfortable 26-10 road victory over the Tennessee Titans.

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This was DeMarco Murray at his best, setting a career high with 29 carries to grind out 167 yards against a defense that shut down Kansas City and Jamaal Charles last week. This was a showcase for an offensive line that features three recent first-round picks. And this was — brace yourself — a window into the future of Jason Garrett as resident guru of smashmouth football.

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“This is how you want to play,” said Garrett, who was more emphatic than is customary about practically everything in his postgame remarks.​

“If you can run the ball, run the clock, you can control the football game. You need to be a physical football team to win in this league. We want to be a balanced offense that attacks you a lot of different ways.”

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And he said these things as if he hadn't coached another style — one more prone to throwing the football while trying to protect leads — for the first 56 games of his head coaching career. But leave that alone for now. We saw, and more importantly, he saw what this offensive line and Murray can do in order to make victory look simple.

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Run the ball. The Cowboys did that 43 times Sunday afternoon compared with 33 pass plays (29 attempts, four sacks). They held the ball for more than 41 minutes. And they maintained this extraordinary commitment to the ground game despite Murray fumbling in the first quarter for the second time this season.

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“I told him, ‘That's about your third carry of about 30 you’re going to get today. Hold onto the damn ball,’” Garrett said.

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By halftime, the Cowboys led 16-0 and Murray had run for 115 yards, fourth highest total in Cowboys history. He finished the game with 10 rushing first downs, just one short of the club record shared by Emmitt Smith and Marion Barber.

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“DeMarco is turning straight beast mode,” said Dez Bryant, who still managed 10 catches for 103 yards and a touchdown on a run-happy day. “Straight beast mode.”

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We all know the numbers about teams’ remarkable records when they run the ball a lot. That leads some to insist on an overdose of running even though those winning numbers are often just the residue of a team with a lead trying to run out the clock.

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The Cowboys are 12-1 when Murray carries 20 times, but there was nothing belated about this running effort. Murray had more carries in the first half than the second. As a matter of fact, on first-and-10, coordinator Scott Linehan dialed up Murray running plays 18 times for 113 yards.

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Maybe I should say Linehan called Murray’s number and Tony Romo stuck with it 18 times. But actually Romo, who passed for just 176 yards, was as excited about this team’s approach and production as he gets when he throws for 400 yards.

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“We've done the stat thing plenty of times,” Romo said. “It’s about winning, and if our football team can continue to run the ball like we can, I’m all for these types of games.”​

In two games, Murray has 51 carries for 285 yards. Thoughts that Linehan would bring to Dallas the same approach that had Matt Stafford throwing 600 passes have vanished as the team has as many runs as Romo pass attempts after two weeks.

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“We’re going to get respect for that as we move forward after seeing two games of pretty darn good production in the run game,” Linehan said.​

The respect from the Titans was immediate.

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“Give them credit,” Tennessee coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “They ran the football well. They did to us what we did to Kansas City last week.”

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Today’s NFL is all about being surprised at what one team does against another because it all seemed so different a week ago. The Cowboys weren't the only team that had to work fast Sunday to avoid an 0-2 start. You can add teams as different as Washington, Cleveland and New England to that mix.

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But there’s one thing we do know. Next week when the team visits St. Louis, where Linehan was head coach when Stephen Jackson was emerging as one of the league’s real workhorse running backs, fans can expect to see a Cowboys team committed to the run.

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Even if Romo is bouncing back from sacks and this defense is playing at a higher level than anticipated, a clock-eating ground game is a weapon this team has to keep firing.

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Big first half

DeMarco Murray had 115 rushing yards in the first half, the fourth-most in team history since 1991, when the Cowboys started tracking the statistic. First-half yards and total yards for the game:

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Player	1st	Total	Date	Opponent	Result
Emmitt Smith	140	140	Nov. 8, 1999	at Minnesota	L 27-17
Emmitt Smith	129	237	Oct. 31, 1993	at Philadelphia	W 23-10
Julius Jones	119	198	Dec. 6, 2004	at Seattle	W 43-39
DeMarco Murray	115	167	Sept. 14, 2014	at Tennessee	W 26-10

 

[boozeman]

“This is how you want to play,” said Garrett, who was more emphatic than is customary about practically everything in his postgame remarks.​

Translation: Everything broke just right so I felt secure in continuing to run the ball, mainly because the opposing O poses little threat.​

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[townsend]

I have a feeling that if the Titans had had their long TD in the first quarter we'd have been on the wrong side of a pass happy, turnover laden blowout.

 

[Genghis Khan]

Translation: Everything broke just right so I felt secure in continuing to run the ball, mainly because the opposing O poses little threat.[/LEFT]
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True. We'll see if they stick with it. No seems to want to notice that Garrett said something along the lines of, "can't always do that" about the running against Tennessee.

 

[Genghis Khan]

I think we will stick with it against the Rams at least. how could you not?