The Cowboys have two good running backs, therefore they both got the football. And guess what? They both were productive. They both ignited the offense and they both helped the Cowboys win a game that proved to us once again that it's always better to be lucky than good.
In this case, the Cowboys were a little bit of both.
Good enough to grab a big lead in the game, but lucky enough to hold on when the ball certainly bounced their way in the fourth quarter.
Add it all up and the Cowboys got back to their winning ways and improved to 4-1 here Sunday with a 31-22 win over the Bengals.
It wasn't the prettiest of games, but that shouldn't be too surprising, when you run the ball 38 times, which by the way was just 27 more than last week. But giving Marion Barber 23 carries and nine more to Felix Jones isn't going to be that pretty. Run-oriented games aren't supposed to be pretty.
Of course, the way Jones took that first-quarter sweep on fourth down and turned it into a 33-yard touchdown was a thing of beauty.
But for the most part, the Cowboys just grinded this one out and it was obvious they made a complete effort to run the football, regardless if the holes weren't always there.
"You've got to keep banging away," offensive coordinator Jason Garrett said. "They were doing a good job on defense and we turned the ball over and just got out of rhythm. But the most important thing is that you keep playing and we preach that to our guys all the time. (The Bengals) get paid, too. They're a good defense and they're coming in here to stop us. So you keep banging away and at the end of it, you have to score enough points to win."
And by banging away, Garrett means running that football.
The Cowboys kept pounding it, especially in the second and third quarters. Now, coincidence or not, that's when the Bengals started to make their comeback in a game the Cowboys led 17-0.
But after the Bengals rallied to make it 17-16 and then got within a two-point conversion from tying the score at 24 early in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys finally found their running-game rhythm once again.
On their last big drive of the game, a few plays after Barber's seven-yard run, Jones added another seven yards and then the rookie ripped off an 18-yard run that also resulted in a 15-yard face mask penalty that flipped the field deep inside Bengals' territory.
Trying to be conservative and the Bengals almost daring the Cowboys to put the ball in the air, Dallas had no choice but to throw it on third-and-11 at the Bengals' 15.
That's when the Cowboys just got downright lucky. Not saying the win was completely luck, but their last touchdown was. Tony Romo fires a bullet that ricochets off Miles Austin's hands and straight into Patrick Crayton's mitts in the end zone.
Lucky. Overly fortunate. Right place, right time. Game-clincher.
However you want to slice it, or spin it or justify it, the Cowboys dodged one here Sunday afternoon. Had they not come up with that last catch, and let's also assume it wasn't picked off although the possibilities were high of that result, too, then the Cowboys probably come away with another Nick Folk field goal and they have just a five-point lead with a little less than two minutes and two timeouts to go.
Scary thought considering what the Bengals had done in the second half.
But it was all for not because the Cowboys made enough plays.
And when you look at the final stats, you'll see Tony Romo's three touchdown passes. You'll see that Jason Witten had eight more catches. (And don't look now, but let's officially call him the most consistent player on this offense this year, considering his five games have included receptions of six, seven, seven, seven and now eight.)
And you also will see Terrell Owens' 57-yard touchdown that ultimately gave the Cowboys the commanding lead.
But just like good, balanced offenses are supposed to do, the Cowboys were able to set up the pass, with the run. And when they needed to chew up yards and clock, they ran the ball effectively, too.
It's amazing what two good backs can do.
Barber gets 23 carries for 84 yards, and Jones gets a career-high 96 yards on just 10 carries - and yes if you're scoring at home, that would be 10 more carries than he received a week ago against Washington.
"I wasn't concerned about that," Jones said of getting no offensive touches in the loss to the Redskins. "I knew we'd get it going again this week. I was just happy to be a part of it. I know my role is to come in and change it up. I think we did that today."
When it comes to dividing carries, that might just be what the Cowboys had in mind in the first place with these two. OK, so maybe the difference could've been less between the two.
If you're averaging 10 yards a carry in the NFL, you're going to need a few more. But not that much more. A part of what makes Jones a special player is that he isn't asked to do everything that a starting running back does.
He doesn't get many carries between the tackles on third-and-one. He doesn't have to pick up as many blitzing linebackers, although the Cowboys did allow Jones to do more of that than usual.
But if you need to spread out a defense and get your running back to the outside on a fourth-and-four, that's when you use a guy like Jones. That's not a play we've really seen much from the Cowboys in a long, long time.
When have they had a back who could take the pitch and get two yards on fourth down, much less take it to the house and outrun the defensive angles for six? We know Barber isn't that guy. Neither was Julius Jones, or even Emmitt Smith. Really, Tony Dorsett was the last pure speed back that could get around the corner like that.
Now, there's a reason for that. Obviously, those other backs were more every-down players. I'm not really convinced that Felix Jones isn't an every-down back himself. But on this team, this year, he doesn't have to be.
And those wide pitches like that won't work forever. The Cowboys won't be able to just plug Felix into the game on fourth down and let him run wild like that - not without keeping them honest with some inside runs.
Not saying Jones has hit the Reggie Bush or Brian Westbrook level yet, but his style is similar. And both of those players get halfback dives like other every-down backs. So to keep those stretch plays to the outside working, the Cowboys will have to work in a few inside runs, too.
As for Barber, the fantasy owners might not like the fact he didn't get into the end zone, but this was his type of game.
The holes weren't always there, but he kept ramming it in there. There weren't a lot of flashy runs - his longest just 16 yards - but at the end of the day, he finishes with 84. And if we're going to give Owens a lot of credit for opening up things for other receivers and the running game, then we should give Barber some credit for maybe softening up a stingy Bengals defense for a change-of-pace back to come in and run crazy.
The Cowboys got back to running the football this week. They got back in the win column, too.
Whether it's a coincidence or not, it sure seems like a pattern the Cowboys should stick with.
Home | Email | Print | Register for New Alerts | RSS
Nick Eatman - 
