Archer: With biggest chance yet, Lance Dunbar comes through for Cowboys

Cotton

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With biggest chance yet, Lance Dunbar comes through for Cowboys

Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer

IRVING, Texas -- For the last couple of years the Dallas Cowboys have talked about wanting to get Lance Dunbar involved in the offense, but it never really went into action.

The Cowboys weren’t going to take away snaps from DeMarco Murray last year. In 2013, Dunbar was limited to nine games due to injuries.

In Sunday’s 27-26 win against the New York Giants, the Cowboys backed up their Dunbar talk by putting him in the action.

Dunbar caught a career-high eight passes for a career-high 70 yards. Though he did not get a carry, his receptions served almost like a running game. Dunbar’s previous career high was four catches against Seattle last season. He had 52 yards in a loss to Arizona last season.

He had more catches Sunday than he had in 2012 (six) and 2013 (seven).

“I finally got a chance to make plays, help this team win,” Dunbar said. “We did a good job. My teammates did a great job. Tony [Romo] did a great job trusting and believing in me [that] I can make a play. I was just out there doing my job. That’s what we all were trying to do.”

In the preseason, Dunbar had just one carry for 1 yard. He caught two passes for 3 yards. Some fans questioned the wisdom of keeping him on the 53-man roster, however, there was never a doubt Randle would have a role on the team. In fact, his role is the most set of all the running backs.

Dunbar opened the Cowboys’ game-winning drive with catches of 24 and 16 yards, running away from linebacker Uani' Unga to get Dallas to the New York 32.

“It was a good matchup,” Romo said. “As I am going through the reads I’m thinking that he is as good as some other guys if they’re going to play him man to man. I was hoping they would and the call was the right call.”

Without a timeout Dunbar took a risk in turning up field instead of going for the sidelines, but he had so much space to work that his gamble paid off.

“I know in two-minute they’re going to be dropping back and they’re going to give up the pass to the back all the time,” Dunbar said. “I was just getting the yards I could at the time and hurrying up to get ready for the next play.”

In 2013 with the Detroit Lions, Scott Linehan had two running backs -- Reggie Bush and Joique Bell -- catch more than 50 passes. Last year Murray caught 57 passes.

Dunbar could be the fourth back in three seasons to catch 50 passes under Linehan.

“Anytime we’ve given him opportunities in the past, he seems to be productive with them,” coach Jason Garrett said. "Either as a runner or as a receiver, coming out of the backfield and also when he lines up outside, he’s just a darn good football player.”
 

22cowboysfan22

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Dunbar looked good as a receiver yesterday. I'm guessing with Dez out he sees a decent amount of snaps lined up out wide.
 

ravidubey

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Dunbar looked good as a receiver yesterday. I'm guessing with Dez out he sees a decent amount of snaps lined up out wide.
I was plain shocked he came through as a pass blocker. If he can keep doing that (and stay healthy), then all this Sproles talk isn't so far fetched.
 

22cowboysfan22

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I was plain shocked he came through as a pass blocker. If he can keep doing that (and stay healthy), then all this Sproles talk isn't so far fetched.
All of our backs did a nice job in pass protection. On the Escobar TD, Randle got enough of his man to give Tony the extra second or two to wait for Escobar to get open in the back of the end zone.
 

BipolarFuk

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I don't think he's near the athlete that Sproles was in his prime. But he can be useful.
 

Cowboysrock55

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I was plain shocked he came through as a pass blocker. If he can keep doing that (and stay healthy), then all this Sproles talk isn't so far fetched.
Sproles is pretty good as a RB though. I'm not sure we will ever see Dunbar be effective running the ball. I'm ok with that if he keeps doing what he is doing though. Heck we lined him up as a WR a lot against the Giants.
 

NoDak

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Sproles is pretty good as a RB though. I'm not sure we will ever see Dunbar be effective running the ball. I'm ok with that if he keeps doing what he is doing though. Heck we lined him up as a WR a lot against the Giants.
Probably not. But I'd still give him a few carries just to give the defense something to think about. Even if it's only quick tosses to the outside, or delayed draws from a spread formation. We can't telegraph that it's automatically a pass if he's in the game.
 

ravidubey

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To be clear, Lance Dunbar is never, ever going to be Darren Sproles.

However he can serve in that role for the Cowboys if he remains healthy and keeps pass-blocking like he did Sunday night.
 

Texas Ace

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Sunday night was very encouraging because it showed that Dunbar could actually be a weapon.

We've been hearing for 3 years now from this staff how good he can be and how much they value him, but yet they either never gave him playing time or failed to get this ability out of him when he actually did play that the team claimed he had.

I think the vast majority of us wanted him off the squad because he had pretty much become a worthless player to us. But FINALLY - it looks like they finally figured out what he's good at and how to get it out of him. Even before those 2 big catches on the last drive, he had already made some plays in the passing game.

Hopefully that game was not a fluke and instead is the start of something with him.
 

Genghis Khan

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I was always a Dunbar believer. I think what made this game different and why they kept going to him is the running game wasn't good, and then Dez was out later.
 

ravidubey

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I was always a Dunbar believer. I think what made this game different and why they kept going to him is the running game wasn't good, and then Dez was out later.
I was surprised how well the kid pass-blocked, but it seems like if we put him through too many more collisions like that injury is inevitable. He's too thin to win for long.

Michael can't get ready soon enough.
 
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