JJT: Garrett, Cowboys must regain offensive identity in 2016

Clay_Allison

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I hear what you are saying but it hardly fits my response. As I recall Lassic had a run in with Johnson and was sent down the road. Randle did something stupid as well but I guess the point is how would he have performed absent his stupidity?
My point was Lassic started two games and he sucked and we went 0-2 so we ran back to Emmitt Smith with a big bag of money. We didn't say "let's give it another six games and let it play out".

Randle never played a whole season as a starter because he didn't perform well enough as the starter to keep the job. He deserved to get benched even aside from his erratic behavior.
 

L.T. Fan

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My point was Lassic started two games and he sucked and we went 0-2 so we ran back to Emmitt Smith with a big bag of money. We didn't say "let's give it another six games and let it play out".

Randle never played a whole season as a starter because he didn't perform well enough as the starter to keep the job. He deserved to get benched even aside from his erratic behavior.
I was his behavior that put the noose around his neck not his performance. He was the starter until the last incident which didn't bench him. It sent him down the road. His prior year was behind Murray.
 

Rev

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There was a reason the running game improved when McFadden took over.
 

Clay_Allison

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I was his behavior that put the noose around his neck not his performance. He was the starter until the last incident which didn't bench him. It sent him down the road. His prior year was behind Murray.
Doesn't change the fact that he wasn't playing well. Consistent positive yards is vital to a good running game. Yards per carry isn't all of it. Too many negative and zero yardage runs leaves the offense in 3rd in long too often and kills drives.
 

townsend

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Doesn't change the fact that he wasn't playing well. Consistent positive yards is vital to a good running game. Yards per carry isn't all of it. Too many negative and zero yardage runs leaves the offense in 3rd in long too often and kills drives.
That is exactly what killed us in the Atlanta game. Randle got all of his yards in 4 plays and we couldn't get positive yardage in the second half. We ended up leaving the defense out on the field because we couldn't get a 1st down in the 3rd or 4th quarter.

It didn't help that we had Weeden on a leash too, but we could have easily won with a moderately competent running attack in the 2nd half.
 

L.T. Fan

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Doesn't change the fact that he wasn't playing well. Consistent positive yards is vital to a good running game. Yards per carry isn't all of it. Too many negative and zero yardage runs leaves the offense in 3rd in long too often and kills drives.
The point remains no one knows what he would have done over the course of a whole season as a starter. It is all supposition.
 

townsend

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The point remains no one knows what he would have done over the course of a whole season as a starter. It is all supposition.
Trend analysis points to a few big runs and a majority of runs too short to sustain drives. It's possible that he would perform in a way uncharacteristic of that, but that by that logic we don't know Kellen Moore wouldn't have passed for 51 TDs if he had started from day one.
 

townsend

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We didn't sustain drives all year and it had very little to do with the run game.
we had a serious issue passing, and since that was nearly every 3rd down. If we had had a Weeden/McFadden offense all season I think we sustain drives because Weeden's small ball would be okay on 3rd and 5.
 

Cowboysrock55

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we had a serious issue passing, and since that was nearly every 3rd down. If we had had a Weeden/McFadden offense all season I think we sustain drives because Weeden's small ball would be okay on 3rd and 5.
You think the extra .1 ypc between McFadden and Murray makes that big of a difference?
 

L.T. Fan

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Trend analysis points to a few big runs and a majority of runs too short to sustain drives. It's possible that he would perform in a way uncharacteristic of that, but that by that logic we don't know Kellen Moore wouldn't have passed for 51 TDs if he had started from day one.
Trend analysis would have had McFadden on injury reserve.
 

townsend

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You think the extra .1 ypc between McFadden and Murray makes that big of a difference?
Murray? You mean Randle. Don't be a stat monkey, ypc doesn't tell the whole story and you know it. Randle racked up all of his yards on a few carries.
 

townsend

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Trend analysis would have had McFadden on injury reserve.
That's true, I don't think anyone saw McFadden coming back and having a good season, but that's because of how incredibly unlikely it was. You can't assume something just as unlikely would have occurred if Randle had stayed in as a starter.

It'd be like assuming Demarco Murray would have torn up the second half of the season if Kelly hadn't demoted him.
 
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