Let's Not Blame It All On Randle
By Cory Mageors | @inthemageors
You can count me as a Joseph Randle apologist, but my argument isn't skewed when I watch the film. The Cowboys running game is not on fire right now, and it's out of sync on a lot of fronts beyond just placing the blame on Randle.
Actually, Randle is picking up tough yards despite the small running lanes made available to him.
I can only imagine that Demarco Murray had a little to do with helping the defense figure out how to stop the Cowboys. There are a number of plays where you can tell they almost knew what the Cowboys were going to do before the snap.
You can see linebackers moving towards the gaps while Travis Frederick still has the ball. And they look fearless moving to their desired destination.
That being said, the Cowboys struggled to run left without Ron Leary and in the first half ran the ball almost solely behind Doug Free and Zack Martin.
Martin struggled a number of times which is very uncharacteristic, and Free looked like a turnstile sometimes.
Let's take a look at why the Eagles make the line look a little suspect more than Randle.
Example 1
Everything looks right here. The guards are pulling, the lane is open, but the Eagles do not fear the backside cutback, so they go full force to the point of attack at the line of scrimmage and Brandon Graham finds a crack to slip through behind the pulling guard for the negative yards tackle.
Example 2
On this play, you see gaps available, but you also see absolutely no fear in the pursuit of the runner. Look below, Romo rolls out to his left, and nobody even thinks about checking him. Every focus is on the running back. Everything is blocked okay, there should be a lane, but the backside defense is blazing in through the cracks because they don't fear the cutback or the roll out.
Example 3
Martin gets pushed back by No. 72 Cedric Thornton on the snap, which means the running lane is going to change, but also look at how perfectly placed No. 59 DeMeco Ryans and No. 95 Mychal Kendricks are. If Martin wins his battle, he's pushing Thornton into Ryans and Kenricks is the only one left to make a play, standing on the outside.
As you can see though, Ryans takes on Kluttz in the middle of the gap. The running lane has sealed off and a cutback at this point forces him back to Kendricks at the hashes. Randle still picked up 5 yards, but this could have been an explosive play if Martin wins his battle.
Example 4
It wasn't just Randle. On this play Darren McFadden has no running lane to the left side. Jason Witten and Lucky Whitehead are locked up with Tyron Smith looking for somebody to block. No lane, so McFadden tries cutting back but he's too deep, again linebackers are just sitting there waiting for him to move.
Example 5
This is a quite fascinating play. It's busted from the beginning. As soon as Randle gets the ball, Doug Free loses Conner Barwin and he busts into the backfield. That's where the play should have ended though. You can see Travis Frederick trying to keep his guy at bay, somehow Randle is able to pick up positive yards, before he gets hit by Martin down field. It actually could have been a pretty big play if Martin hadn't run into him.
All in all, a lot of people will look at the stat box and say Randle isn't carrying his weight. But the guys in the locker room heard Jason Garrett say "We have to run the ball better." And they know that means a collective group. He didn't say Randle has to do this or that. He says we. He's talking about the guys up front, because Randle has shown that if the gap isn't there he can still make something out of it, just imagine what it will be like if the gap was wide open like last year for Demarco Murray.
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