Quote:
Originally Posted by Murphy3
Romo being out is a big reason as to why the running game is struggling. The safeties are playing close to the line of scrimmage. No one respects Bollinger or Johnson.. team's sell out against the run because they know the QB's can't get the ball to anyone. They also know that they can blitz at will simply because Johnson couldn't hurt them down the field at all.
Yeah, the offensive line has struggled, but a huge part of that has to do with having no QB. Part of it is also that they're not playing that great..but the bigger issue with the running game has to do with who's taking the snaps.
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I'm with Murphy here. I think we see a much different running game if Romo was in there. The last few weeks, it sure looked to me like offenses were selling out to stop the run because that was the only way the Cowboys could possibly beat them. I know if I were defensive coordinator and I was going against Brad Johnson, I wouldn't really worry about the Cowboys hurting me deep. If you can just completely forget about a team's most dangerous dimension, it makes it a LOT easier to shut down other facets of that team's game. Yeah the line isn't what it was last season, but I still think things get much better for the running game when Romo gets back.
And I'm not sure how exactly to put this, but is it possible that we overrate Barber just a little bit? I'm not trying to be critical of Barber here, but it seems like Barber is considered the feature back by the coaches, and I don't quite see that out of him when I watch the game. Barber to me just seems a little better when he's fresh, and that running style has to take a lot out of him. Also, less carries for Barber means we get a change of pace from someone else, and it exposes Barber to less of a pounding which would be good for his longevity. Yes, Felix being out hurts this strategy, but it really didn't seem to be happening even when he was here. And also, have we seen anything from Choice that says he doesn't deserve a few carries when he's the second back? All I see from Choice is him getting good chunks of yardage with every run, but for some reason it seems like the staff doesn't think he can play. I think he can play, and at the very least it could have given the Giants something different to look at and saved Barber some pounding.
The funny thing is we wanted to be a running-back-by-committee when we didn't have the personnel for it, and this year we finally have some pretty good backup running backs and our coaches refuse to really use them. I don't get it, and this is one of the many things that coaching staff does that absolutely confuses me. This is a small complaint today in that I don't think it would have changed the game all that much, but I'd like to see our rookies get some carries because I think both of them can play. In my opinion, using all of them does nothing but make the running game better and more efficient.