Cowboys enter playoffs with a healthy, dependable Murray

All DeMarco Murray could do was watch from the Ford Field sidelines.

The Dallas Cowboys were in control of a late October game last season against the Lions in Detroit, leading 27-17 with 6:54 left, but they couldn’t close it out.

It might have been because Murray sat out a second consecutive game with a knee injury, and the Cowboys running game simply isn’t the same without him.

That day told it all.

The Cowboys failed to pick up a first down on their final two offensive possessions, running it on five of their eight plays for a combined 3 yards on the ground.

Talk about a formula for a meltdown.

This year, though, it’s hard to picture a scenario like that happening again when the Cowboys meet the Detroit Lions in the wild-card round Sunday.

Murray is healthy and in the midst of a career year, someone who the Cowboys can rely on to close out games when they have a late lead.

“Fourth quarter, you’ve got to continue to play good ball and make sure you take care of it and make plays,” Murray said. “We’ve got a lot of experience on that end.”

The Cowboys hope they are in that position, of course. But they understand the challenges that the Lions defense presents in their efforts to do that in establishing a running game.

The Lions boast the top-ranked run defense, holding opponents to less than 100 rushing yards in 14 games this season. But similar things were being said about the Seattle Seahawks’ defense when the Cowboys visited them in Week 6.

But Murray, behind the Cowboys’ stout offensive line, rushed for 115 yards on 28 carries against the Seahawks. Most of his damage came in the fourth quarter.

Murray finished off the go-ahead drive with three straight runs for 41 yards, including a 15-yard TD scamper to give the Cowboys a 27-23 lead.

That simply foreshadowed what would come for Murray, who went on to become the first running back to open the season with eight consecutive 100-yard games. He also finished as the NFL’s leading rusher by setting a franchise-record with 1,845 rushing yards, along with 13 rushing TDs, in an All-Pro season.

Just as impressive might have been the workload Murray took on to do it, carrying it an NFL-high 392 times. That is the most by a running back since Kansas City’s Larry Johnson had 416 carries in 2006.

Murray thinks too much has been made about his workload, saying: “I’m 26 years old. I’m not 36.”

That is true, but it doesn’t take away from the feat.

“Quite impressive simply because of the pounding a guy takes with that many carries,” running backs coach Gary Brown said. “I think he took exception to the reputation of him not being durable, so it was important for him to go out and get as many carries as he could and play all 16 games. He proved to everyone around the league that those injuries he had earlier in his career were fluke injuries.

He’s proven to a lot of us that he’s quite durable and quite capable of carrying a load like that.”

The Cowboys attempted to limit Murray’s carries some in the final two weeks – he had 22 against Indianapolis and 20 against Washington – to save him for the postseason.

Now, as Brown said, “Take the leash off and let him go.”

Murray is more than ready for the NFL playoff stage.

He’s been running with an edge ever since coming into the league as a third-round pick out of Oklahoma, attempting to show he was undervalued while also shedding the “injury-prone” label.

“Those are things that wake him up as far as coming in here and trying to be better,” Brown said.

That’s why Murray spends hours in the film room with Brown dissecting various opponents’ defensive fronts and finding ways to expose any potential weaknesses.

On top of that is simply Murray’s natural talents.

He is an all-around back who can run inside and outside, as well as catch the ball out of the backfield and block.

Everyone, it seems, has something that stands out to them about Murray.

For owner Jerry Jones, it’s Barry Switzer convincing him he wouldn’t regret using a draft pick on him. For backup tight end and former college teammate James Hanna, it’s a recruiting trip to Oklahoma in which he vividly recalls Murray busting out a long run during the spring game.

This season has produced even more Murray memories.

Coach Jason Garrett has repeatedly talked about a safety blitz Murray picked up two weeks ago against the Colts, just six days after undergoing surgery on his left hand.

Murray’s hand is getting better each week, but it’s that play that continues to inspire inside the Cowboys’ locker room.

“It has a huge impact on the team because those kinds of things are contagious,” Garrett said. “You know players watch themselves on tape, but they also watch their teammates. It’s less the spectacular stuff but the intangible-driven stuff that’s inspiring.”

This story was originally published January 3, 2015 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Cowboys enter playoffs with a healthy, dependable Murray."