Cowboys’ RB DeMarco Murray leaving yardage on the field pro personnel director says
By Mike Dyce
The Dallas Cowboys have struggled to move the ball on the ground this season. ESPN ranks the Cowboys ground attack 27th overall in the NFL with an average of 62 yards a game.
“They weren’t really moving anybody off the ball,” former Eagles and Redskins pro personnel director Louis Riddick said during a Wednesday appearance on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM’s Fitzsimmons and Durrett.
The blame for the lack of running plays has been passed around with Bill Callahan being criticized for wanting to pass every down or Romo calling pass plays in no-huddle offenses. Either way, starting running back DeMarco Murray has 32 carries for 111 yards through 2 games.
DeMarco Murray wants to carry the ball more, but Riddick thinks he might be the problem with the run game.
“DeMarco is a hard runner, but I have always had some issues with DeMarco because he is very, very, very straight line,” Riddick said. “He has no ability to make people miss.
“As a matter of fact, you saw numerous times that there were some holes that DeMarco could have got through, but he is a guy who has to gather himself to really make hard, sharp cuts to exploit those running lanes. Sometimes it looks like he’s leaning so far forward he’s stumbling, his head’s down and he’ll just run into the back of his own lineman, run into holes where it’s obviously clogged up and he’s not able to move laterally.
“I don’t know if they have anybody on their roster that can really execute those type of cuts the way you want a running back to be able to, especially when the window of opportunity opens and closes really fast. I think [Lance] Dunbar is the guy who’s most able to do that.”
The Cowboys need to get the run game figured out to bring balance to the offense. Whether the problem is play calling or Murray. Lance Dunbar carried the ball one time for 12 yards this season. Jerry Jones has vowed to fix the run game.