Williams: DeMarco Murray ready for the Cowboys to give him even more

[Cotton]

DeMarco Murray ready for the Cowboys to give him even more

DeMarco Murray has never felt better. He said he is "great" after an offseason of yoga, spin classes and MetCon workouts.

And Scott Linehan's promise to use the running game more has Murray champing at the bit.

"It’s always great to hear those things," Murray said. "I don’t care what we do, running, passing. As long as we’re winning, I’m happy with the overall stat, which is a win or a loss. [Linehan] brings a lot to the table. We’re excited to have him. The offense is doing well. We’re being very versatile, so it’s always good to be a versatile offense, and I’m excited for the season."

Murray had the third-most yards in the NFL in the final eight games of last season, finishing the year with 1,121 yards and his first Pro Bowl berth despite missing two games in October with a sprained MCL in his left knee.

"DeMarco is great," Linehan said. "I’d love to see him have the best year of his career. We all would, and he’s going to in my opinion. ...It’s nice to have that go-to guy. I feel that we have a great one."

Linehan is known for having pass-heavy offenses. Critics point to the league-high 40.7 pass attempts his Lions' teams threw per game over the past five seasons.

But last season, the Lions had more yards (6,274), more rushing yards (1,792), more rushing attempts (445) and had the run game as a bigger percentage of its offense (40.4) than the Cowboys did. Dallas ran only 35.3 percent of the time last season, with only 336 rush attempts.

"I definitely think there were some games where we could have done better running the ball as a collective unit," Murray said. "There’s always room for improvement. The times we had success, I think everybody was doing their job. The receivers were blocking down field. The offensive line was making huge holes. [Lance] Dunbar and I were running well. It’s all about being on the same page and trusting technique and trusting coaches and just running ball plays."

The Cowboys drafted guard Zack Martin and now with three first-round picks up front, the offensive line should be a strength of the team. Murray could be the big beneficiary this season.

"He’s very quick and makes the big guys look good," Martin said. "He sets up blocks real nice. As long as we’re on the same page, he’s going to make us look good."

-- Charean Williams

 

[jsmith6919]

Murray said. "I don’t care what we do, running, passing. As long as we’re winning, I’m happy with the overall stat, which is a win or a loss.

 

[Cotton]

Yeah, he can say that all you want, but it was obvious last year that he wasn't happy at times.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

Yeah, he can say that all you want, but it was obvious last year that he wasn't happy at times.

Maybe that was because we weren't winning...

 

[L.T. Fan]

Maybe that was because we weren't winning...

I think he also knew that the play calling in obvious run situations were shelved by Romo or Garrett.

 

[jsmith6919]

Maybe that was because we weren't winning...

or maybe it was because this gif was from the second half of the Green Bay game

 

[Cotton]

or maybe it was because this gif was from the second half of the Green Bay game

Yep.

 

[NoDak]

Maybe that was because we weren't winning...

That gif is from last years Packers game. Yeah, I'd say he had a right to be pissed.

 

[NoDak]

Time stamped.

FML.

 

[Cotton]

That gif is from last years Packers game. Yeah, I'd say he had a right to be pissed.

I would have been furious if I were him. Hell, I was furious, and I wasn't even playing.

 

[NoDak]

I would have been furious if I were him. Hell, I was furious, and I wasn't even playing.

Looks like he's screaming "WHYYYYY?!?" as he rips his helmet off.

Why indeed, Mr. Murray.

 

[jsmith6919]

I would have been furious if I were him. Hell, I was furious, and I wasn't even playing.

I was so pissed it got to the point where I was laughing like a madman everytime Buck and Aikman were saying "they have to go run here" and sure enough it was pass, pass, pass

 

[Cotton]

DeMarco Murray ready for any job, but what role will Cowboys' play-caller Scott Linehan give him?

RAINER SABIN Staff Writer
rsabin@dallasnews.com
Published: 02 June 2014 08:53 PM
Updated: 02 June 2014 08:55 PM

IRVING — Off to the side, away from his teammates, DeMarco Murray worked alone Monday on a blocking sled.

Over and over, he’d stutter-step and turn before thrusting his body and pushing the padded dummy attached to the bulky apparatus. This was grunt work. Yet it had to be done. Over the years, Murray has become valued as a skilled pass protector, providing an additional shield for quarterback Tony Romo in an offense predicated on throwing the ball. It’s a thankless job that Murray does without complaint.

“I don’t care what we do — running, passing. As long as we’re winning, I am happy,” he said.

But Murray likes to get his hands on the ball, too, because good things happen when he does. In games when he receives 20 or more carries, the Cowboys are 11-0.

It’s a striking stat considering that Dallas is 24-24 since Murray entered the NFL in 2011. But throughout Murray’s tenure with the club, the Cowboys have been reluctant to feature him as they’ve tried to defeat opponents with an offense powered almost exclusively by Romo’s arm.

Now enter Scott Linehan, the Cowboys’ play-caller who doubles as the team’s passing game coordinator. The second title is telling because it reveals much about his natural tendencies as a coach.

Linehan, after all, likes to throw the ball. Between 2009 and 2013, when Linehan directed Detroit’s offense, no NFL club attempted more passes than the Lions. During that period, the running game became an underutilized branch in Detroit’s attack. Never was that more apparent than in the 2012 season, when the Lions had the lowest percentage of carries in the league.

“We threw it a lot in Detroit, but a lot of our passing game was designed to be a lot of what we didn’t feel we had in the running game,” Linehan said.

With Dallas, Linehan doesn’t believe he’ll have to overcompensate the same way because there is no obvious weakness to disguise. Linehan came to that conclusion after reviewing game film from the team’s 2013 campaign.

What he noticed during those cram sessions is a ground attack that was efficient. The Cowboys gained 4.48 yards per carry — the eighth-highest average in the NFL and almost a full yard more than what Dallas averaged in 2012. An offensive line in transition finally congealed and developed a firm understanding of the team’s zone blocking scheme that Bill Callahan, Linehan’s play-calling predecessor, first implemented two years ago.

Murray, meanwhile, rebounded from a disappointing sophomore campaign. Last season, he became the first Cowboys player since 2006 to rush for more than 1,000 yards as he earned an invitation to the Pro Bowl.

“DeMarco has always been a hard runner,” guard Mackenzy Bernadeau said. “He runs his behind off. He’s good at making the reads and making the cuts. Getting a repetition of the plays, knowing how we’re going to block the scheme, knowing what to look for when he’s making his cuts and reads, it just took time. It takes time.”

In spite of the positive results, the Cowboys’ faith in their running game wavered to the point that they curiously deserted it when it was functioning well. The most obvious case of reckless abandonment occurred in a disastrous 37-36 loss to Green Bay last December, when the Cowboys frittered away a 23-point lead in the second half and marginalized Murray despite his game average of 7.4 yards per rush attempt.

“The times we have success, I think everybody was doing their job,” Murray said. “It’s all about being on the same page and trusting technique and trusting coaches.”

Murray hopes, in turn, his superiors believe enough in him that they feel he has what it takes to shoulder the load and deliver victories just as Romo is expected to do. Linehan says he has confidence the Cowboys’ top running back is capable of that.
“Murray can do it,” he said.

But it remains to be seen whether the Cowboys will make Murray an accessory or a driving force in their offense, a glorified pass protector or the team’s bell cow running back. Whatever they choose, Murray says he’ll go to work just as he did Monday while facing down the blocking sled that stood in his way.

He knows that more obstacles — some more abstract than others — may await.

 

[boozeman]

I think there were similar records with Emmitt Smith as well.

Fact is, if your RB is getting that many rushing attempts, the team is keeping ToP and is usually in the lead.

The issue is not getting 25 carries for 25 yards, but rather not giving up after a half where he is not exactly getting nailed for a loss every time.