Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett has made it clear that the team intends to run the ball more in 2013, after a 2012 season that saw the fewest rushing yards ever produced by the team since the NFL went to a 16-game regular season. On Sunday night, at least, Garrett followed through.
Rookie Joseph Randle, Phillip Tanner, Lance Dunbar and Kendial Lawrence combined to rush for 170 yards and two touchdowns (one from Tanner and one from Lawrence) on 34 carries. Rookie center Travis Frederick and second-year guard Ronald Leary did some fine run-blocking, and Garrett came away pleased with the debut of the running game.
“I thought it was a good start running the football,” Garrett said, per ESPN Dallas. “We ran it well. We ran it a few different ways. We ran it inside. We ran on the edge. I thought the backs ran hard.”
Starter DeMarco Murray sat out, leaving Randle to lead the team in rushing with 70 yards. The new-look Tanner, who has slimmed down noticeably since we last saw him, was also impressive, going for 59 yards on 10 attempts.
“There’s always room for improvement,” Tanner said. “We’ve still got a long ways to go. We’ll go watch the film, capsulize what we did well and look at what we did wrong and fix that. But this felt like a solid foundation.”
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