Watkins: Running game looked for too many home runs in 2012

Cotton

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Running game looked for too many home runs in 2012

May, 13, 2013


By Calvin Watkins | ESPNDallas.com


The Dallas Cowboys' running unit finished 31st in the NFL in 2012 and starter DeMarco Murray, who missed six games with a foot injury, rushed for 663 yards.

Murray's yardage totals ranked 56th on the franchises' single-season list.

Why was the rushing attack so bad?

Offensive line? Running backs? Play calling? Tight ends? Fullback? What was it?

Gary Brown, the new running backs coach, offered his thoughts on what went wrong.

"We just left a lot of yards out there," Brown said. "I think a lot of guys just wanted to hit home runs more than get those yards that may be ugly, so to speak. We left a lot of yards out there, and I think they understand that. I think we're going to try and do a great job of getting those yards they left out there."

The Cowboys didn't sign or draft a blocking tight end or another fullback in the offseason, instead selecting Gavin Escobar, a pass-catching tight end in the second round after using a first-round pick on center Travis Frederick.

Running back Joseph Randle was selected in the fifth round.

Brown said the Cowboys value fullback Lawrence Vickers, who is recovering from back surgery, and another year under offensive line coach Bill Callahan should improve things.

"The reason the run game was the way it was last year is a combination of things," Brown said. "We all didn't do the best we could possibly do. The key is to be the best we can be and get that thing going."
 

boozeman

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Kind of hard to hit a big run when you are knocked on your ass three yards behind the LOS.

Why nobody acknowledges how bad the blocking was and take what I assume to be a shot at Jones is incredible to me.

This "another year" with Callahan battle cry is even more maddening.
 

Clay_Allison

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On the other hand, a lot of our backs have started to suck after early success and it always seemed like they were too ready to bounce it out. Marion Barber was the most glaring example since it was such a huge personality change for him. Besides the shat blocking, since Julius Jones, all of our backs except Barber got worse at running the football after their rookie year. I don't know that Skip Peete was emphasizing the wrong thing to the backs, but it wouldn't surprise me.
 

ravidubey

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Kind of hard to hit a big run when you are knocked on your ass three yards behind the LOS.

Why nobody acknowledges how bad the blocking was and take what I assume to be a shot at Jones is incredible to me.

This "another year" with Callahan battle cry is even more maddening.
Continuity.
 

Texas Ace

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Kind of hard to hit a big run when you are knocked on your ass three yards behind the LOS.

Why nobody acknowledges how bad the blocking was and take what I assume to be a shot at Jones is incredible to me.

This "another year" with Callahan battle cry is even more maddening.
If there is ONE game that best shows how awful this line is at run blocking, it's the Tampa game.

Murray got hit a whopping nine times behind the LOS in that game.....and yet all we do to improve this line is to draft a center about 15-20 spots higher than he should've gone.

Wonderful.

Maybe after we suck at running the ball again this year, we can go looking for another RB while ignoring the O-line again all while wondering what went wrong.
 

ravidubey

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Maybe after we suck at running the ball again this year, we can go looking for another RB while ignoring the O-line again all while wondering what went wrong.
It's just ridiculous. When this team runs the ball well they either dominate or greatly exceed expectations. With an excellent running game I have little doubt this team could be shooting for 12-4 every year.

Just one OL a year in the top 4 rounds would keep them in contention. Instead they constantly frick around burning at least 4 picks on TE's, LB's, CB's, and fringe RB's every damned year and wait until a desperate need builds for the OL.
 

Genghis Khan

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We seemed to stop running a lot of the misdirections, draws, and delays that in years past created a large chunk of our running yards. I hope we get back to that because we don't seem to be successful any other way. And it is a way to make up for our subpar blocking.
 

Carp

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We seemed to stop running a lot of the misdirections, draws, and delays that in years past created a large chunk of our running yards. I hope we get back to that because we don't seem to be successful any other way. And it is a way to make up for our subpar blocking.
I completely agree. We rarely ran draws, which were a bread and butter play for us for a long time. We don't really seem to try to attack the edges either, a pitch or sweep here and there would be nice. I don't know the analytics and have nothing to back it up, but most of our run plays seemed to be behind Free and our terrible Gs.
 
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