NFL.com - Emmitt Smith: Dallas Cowboys have lost true identity

boozeman

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Emmitt Smith: Dallas Cowboys have lost true identity


By Marc Sessler
Around the League Writer
Published: Jan. 23, 2014 at 03:27 p.m.
Updated: Jan. 23, 2014 at 08:20 p.m.

Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith sees the same Dallas Cowboys team that we all see.

Three straight 8-8 campaigns punctuate a championship dry spell that stretches back nearly two decades, when Smith helped the 'Boys knock off the Pittsburgh Steelers back in Super Bowl XXX.

I asked Smith on Thursday over the phone why Dallas can't seem to put it all together.

"I think the Cowboys have somewhat lost their true identity," he said. "I mean, I think the team -- we don't know if we want to be a pass team or a run team."

Smith said the difference between today's Cowboys and the potent Dallas squads of the '70s, '80s and '90s channels back to that lack of a one-two punch, saying those old teams "had tremendous success having a very balanced offensive unit."

Only the Atlanta Falcons ran the ball fewer times than the 'Boys this season. Dallas dialed up just 336 runs, compared to a swath of playoff clubs -- Seattle (336), San Francisco (505) and Philadelphia (500) -- who all finished top five in attempts. Ten of the top 15 rushing squads, in terms of carries, made the postseason in 2013.

NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported last month that the relationship between quarterback Tony Romo and running back DeMarco Murray had grown "frosty" by December. Murray finished the season with the fourth-highest yards per rush (5.2) in the league, but tied for 17th in attempts.

I initially dialed up Smith to chat about a MetLife-sponsored video he shot with a cast of current and former NFL players. Justin Tuck, Nick Mangold, Greg Jennings, Eddie George and Josh Brown recently joined Smith in a singing of the national anthem, MetLife's way of welcoming fans to Super Bowl XLVIII.

Emmitt knows his Cowboys won't be in that game, and he knows why -- and he raises a good point.
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Oh, I think he is dead wrong. We know we want to be a pass team. We became that when Jones signed Romo to that contract. He's not going to pay that kind of money for him to hand off the football. And having Garrett as the gameday architect just makes it worse.
 

lostxn

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Nope, it's a different game then when Emmitt played. Our defense sucks. The 90s defenses were dominant. That's the big difference. You can blame the QB or Demarco Murray or whatever, but it's all facile BS. The defense is the issue, at least since Wade's first year...
 

Cotton

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I don't think we ever truly had an identity. At least not in a long long time.
 

NoDak

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Oh, I think he is dead wrong. We know we want to be a pass team. We became that when Jones signed Romo to that contract. He's not going to pay that kind of money for him to hand off the football. And having Garrett as the gameday architect just makes it worse.
We became that long before Romo signed that contract. The day Red was made OC was the day the running game became an afterthought. It might not have been instant, but you can see the gradual turn to what we are now.
 

Smitty

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We have no direction as a franchise in general. Mostly due to the GM.
 

Clay_Allison

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Oh, I think he is dead wrong. We know we want to be a pass team. We became that when Jones signed Romo to that contract. He's not going to pay that kind of money for him to hand off the football. And having Garrett as the gameday architect just makes it worse.
Yeah, but he's right in a way. We still don't run a 21st century passing offense, we're running sets out of Coryell For Dummies with no hint of a plan to force defenses to compensate for a passing biased offense. A simple failure to run doesn't count as an offense designed to maximize the passing game.
 

ravidubey

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We keep trying to be the team we were in 2007, except minus the offensive and defensive talent.
 

boozeman

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We keep trying to be the team we were in 2007, except minus the offensive and defensive talent.
Even that team wasn't good enough. 13-3 but they had a very easy schedule.
 

ravidubey

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Even that team wasn't good enough. 13-3 but they had a very easy schedule.
That's the target identity, though.

That team lacked depth and became ridiculously vulnerable when Anthony Henry, Andre Gurode, and TO got hurt and Terry Glenn never really got healthy, but with all starters healthy they met the intended blueprint.
 

Simpleton

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It's like the Chiefs this past year. Good enough to roll over bad teams but not good enough to hang with the elite.
I disagree with that.

The Chiefs won a bunch of close games against average or worse teams as they racked up 8 or 9 wins to start the season and then they fell off hard late in the year, basically when the law of averages caught up to them. That Cowboy team dominated the eventual champion Giants twice that year, and the Packers late in the season in a game that basically decided homefield.

The Patriots were the only team better than us throughout that season honestly.
 
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