IRVING, Texas – After a two-week hiatus, DeMarco Murray has once again been nominated for FedEx Air & Ground Player of the Week, coming off his Week 17 performance in Washington.
Murray ran for 100 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries against the Redskins in the Cowboys' 44-17 win. In doing so he passed Emmitt Smith's franchise record for single-season rushing yards. Smith held the top spot with 1,733 yards, and Murray surpassed him to finish with 1,845 yards on the year.
This week, Murray is going against Miami's Lamar Miller, who totaled 178 rushing yards and a touchdown against the Jets, and Frank Gore, who ran for 144 yards against Arizona. Geno Smith, Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Flacco are the three quarterback nominees.
Fans can vote for the winner at NFL.com/FedEx until 3 p.m. on Thursday. FedEx will donate $2,000 to the American Red Cross in the winners' names.
[embeddedad0]
Murray's gaudy 1,845-yard total cemented him as the runaway winner of the NFL rushing race. He had likely already secured that achievement heading into the final week of the season, but his strong performance helped him finish nearly 500 yards in front of second-place Le'Veon Bell.
Murray has been a near-weekly feature for this award en route to leading the league in rushing. He won it five times, including four times in a row, from Weeks 1-7, as he set a new NFL record for most 100-yard games to open a season.
He was nominated for the award after his Week 14 performance against Chicago, but he ultimately lost to Bell.
Murray finished the 2014 regular season as the NFL's leader in attempts, yards, yards per game, and his 13 rushing touchdowns is tied with Marshawn Lynch for first in the league.
