Jerry Jones says running game must improve with Tony Romo sidelined
The Cowboys must run the ball better, coach Jason Garrett and owner Jerry Jones acknowledged Thursday.
The Cowboys have averaged only 3.4 yards a carry so far this season (189 yards on 56 carries), compared to 4.6 yards a year ago. Establishing the running game is of even more importance going forward with Tony Romo (broken collarbone) and Dez Bryant (broken foot) sidelined.
A strong running game will take pressure off backup Brandon Weeden to do too much.
“We have to work hard to have a game, have a game that lets us dwell on the running game,” Jones said. “We haven’t had that. Now, maybe that’s because we didn’t get the running game going to begin with, but we all know how that works.
“But the reason Weeden has my excitement is because they better back off or he can hit it, and he can make the throw. That’s one of the reasons I feel good about him. If he keeps them backed off, then we’ve got to emphasize that we’re going to run the ball.”
It won’t be an easy task to get the ground game going against the Falcons. They have held each of their first two opponents to less than 100 rushing yards (Philadelphia had 63 in Week 1, and the New York Giants had 97 in Week 2).
So far, Joseph Randle and Darren McFadden have carried the bulk of the running load as expected. Against the Eagles last week, Randle led the team in rushing with 51 yards on 18 carries. McFadden had 31 yards on 10 carries, and Lance Dunbar gained eight yards on one carry.
Garrett has liked the running back rotation so far, but said they haven’t run the ball well enough.
“We never do anything well enough, so we obviously have to improve in that area,” Garrett said.
In the season opener against the Giants, the Cowboys rushed for 80 yards on 23 carries. Randle had 65 yards on 16 carries, while McFadden contributed 16 yards on six carries.
The Cowboys also have former Texas A&M product Christine Michael on their 53-man roster, but Michael has yet to make the game-day roster. Jones doesn’t expect Michael being on the game-day roster this week, either, barring an injury.
“It’s hard to dress over three backs and a fullback,” Jones said. “We’re going to do that and certainly all of the three that we’re dressing have earned the right to dress, although I must tell you we’ve really been impressed with what he [Michael] is as a player and I’m glad we’ve got him. But I don’t see because I’m not factoring in an injury to one of our backs.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2015 at 12:37 PM with the headline "Jerry Jones says running game must improve with Tony Romo sidelined."