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Five Wonders: DeMarco Murray for MVP
October, 21, 2014
By Todd Archer | ESPNDallas.com
IRVING, Texas -- It's time for Five Wonders and me need to stop wondering just how the Dallas Cowboys are doing this. With two more wins they will equal their win totals from each of the last three seasons.
I didn't see it coming and neither did a lot of people, despite what some may be claiming right now.
October, 21, 2014
By Todd Archer | ESPNDallas.com
IRVING, Texas -- It's time for Five Wonders and me need to stop wondering just how the Dallas Cowboys are doing this. With two more wins they will equal their win totals from each of the last three seasons.
I didn't see it coming and neither did a lot of people, despite what some may be claiming right now.
- I wonder if DeMarco Murray can win the Associated Press' Most Valuable Player award. The only Cowboy to have won the award was Emmitt Smith in 1993. His value was at its zenith since the Cowboys started 0-2 in his absence due to an contract squabble and they ended up winning 12 of their last 14 games and repeated as Super Bowl champs. Smith finished with 1,486 yards and nine touchdowns in those 14 games. Murray leads the NFL with 913 yards rushing. Only three other teams have more yards than Murray. But the trek to an MVP will be difficult in a season in which Peyton Manning established the NFL record for career touchdown passes. Adrian Peterson won the award two years ago when he ran for more than 2,000 yards. LaDainian Tomlinson won it in 2006 and Shaun Alexander won it in 2005. Since 2000, only four running backs have been named MVP. (Marshall Faulk was the fourth in 2000). Maybe there will be some Manning fatigue when it comes to the voting, especially since he's won the award five times. Regardless, Murray will have to be among the top vote getters. Quick aside -- so should Tony Romo, but that's another wonder for another time.
- AT&T Stadium has become the place to hold a big event. The College Football Playoff will hold its championship there in January. The NBA has held its All-Star Game there. Top-flight boxing and soccer matches have come through Arlington. So too has a Super Bowl. But I wonder if the NFL's new rule will make Jerry Jones think twice about bidding on another Super Bowl. At the most recent owners meetings, a team that wins a Super Bowl bid will have to give up a home game and play a regular-season game in London in the five years following the event. There is a lot of money to be made on a Super Bowl, and Jones wants to show Super Bowl XLV was not an overwhelming success mostly because of the poor weather, seating fiasco or no seating fiasco. But he also wants to keep Cowboys' fans happy, believe it or not. He's been on record saying he would not give up a home game to play a contest in another country. It's a little bit of a conundrum for Jones, but I think having a second chance at getting the Super Bowl right -- and making a boatload of money for his fellow owners -- will trump the fact that a Detroit Lions team or Buffalo Bills squad (just an example) will not come to Arlington for a Dallas home game.
- I wonder if this is the week Tyrone Crawford gets his first sack. He's come close. He leads the Cowboys in quarterback pressures and he's earned the nickname “Cinderella Man” from defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli. The Cowboys hope he can go from mopping the floors to being the princess of the ball, so to speak. With the Washington Redskins coming to town, Crawford could show the guy he has replaced, Jason Hatcher, was right with his prediction last year. Hatcher, who led the Cowboys with 11 sacks in 2013 and was named to the Pro Bowl, said Crawford's development would make him expendable. That was part of it, but Crawford missed last season with a torn Achilles and the Cowboys did not want to pay a huge amount of money for the 32-year-old Hatcher. It would seem fitting if Crawford gets the first sack of his career with Hatcher at least in attendance.
- Last week I tweeted that I thought Zack Martin was playing better than any of the Cowboys' offensive linemen, even Tyron Smith. Some of you hooted, which is OK. But I'm going to stick with my premise and up it: I wonder if Martin can earn not only a Pro Bowl spot but perhaps win the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award. OK, maybe I'm going overboard with the latter, but he could be the best offensive rookie. The problem is he won't have any stats that voters can point to other than what Murray, Romo and Dez Bryant et. al have produced. So I'll stick with the Pro Bowl. Larry Allen didn't make the Pro Bowl as a rookie, but then made it from 1995-2001 and 2003-05. I'm not putting Martin in Allen's category by any stretch, but I'm trying to point out how difficult it will be for him to make the Pro Bowl. As much as players pay attention to what's going on across the league, they don't really pay attention to interior line play and vote players based on reputation, not just ability. I wonder if Martin can do enough as a rookie to earn it.
- I opened the wonders with a question about how the Cowboys are doing this. I was being facetious to an extent. I know how: Controlling the line of scrimmage with a running game, controlling the clock and capitalizing on opportunities. There will be some games, however, when the offense will not convert on 57.4 percent of their third down opportunities. It's impossible to expect them to be that efficient all season. So I wonder what will happen to the defense when it has to play more. They don't get to the passer enough. Garrett and Marinelli talk about affecting the quarterback all they want but that's sort of euphemism for, "we can't get any sacks." Eli Manning sliced up the defense on the New York Giants' fourth-quarter touchdown drive, completing five straight passes on an 80-yard drive that ended with a 5-yard touchdown pass. At different times during the season the defense has hit the snooze button on drives and been beat. If they are exposed more when the offense is not on top of its game, I just wonder if the defense can carry the day.
