In a Week One match up with the San Francisco 49ers, the Dallas Cowboys did not look like a solid football team. They allowed 28 points, Tony Romo tossed three interceptions, and the hometown fans left AT&T Stadium with much cause for alarm.
At this point and time, none of this was surprising. The 2014 Cowboys weren’t expected to be contenders. Tony Romo was coming off back surgery, much uncertainty surrounded Jason Garrett’s future as head coach, and a defense that performed quite poorly in 2013 was riddled with departures and injuries. In short, Week One was the first of what was to be many, many disappointing days for “America’s team” and its fans.
And then a funny thing happened. The Dallas Cowboys proved everyone wrong.
After dropping that game, the Cowboys have reeled off six consecutive victories and suddenly appear to be one the best teams in the NFL. The road to this level of success may have been a bumpy one, but this club appears poised to be one of the NFC’s top teams for the duration of the season.
When looking at this team’s success, it quite simply starts with DeMarco Murray. A third round pick in 2011, Murray has always been long on talent but short on durability. Throughout his three prior seasons at the NFL level, he often flashed game-changing talent, before ultimately sustaining an injury that derailed his momentum. In 2014, however, Murray has remained healthy thus far, and is producing at a level unlike what anyone could have expected.
Murray has become the first running back in NFL history to rush for over 100 yards in each of the first seven games of a season, toppling Jim Brown’s record of six. His 913 yards on the ground are a whopping 298 more than number two rusher Arian Foster, and his seven rushing touchdowns lead the league as well. At times this season he has put the Cowboys offense on his back and his production is the key catalyst for this team’s success. Murray’s accomplishments can partly be attributed to the investment the team has made into its offensive line. The Cowboys have spent three of their last four first round draft picks on offensive linemen, and the unit’s dominance has made a major impact to this point.
Of course, Murray’s solid play has helped take the pressure off quarterback Tony Romo. In the past, Romo has been tasked with having to carry the offense on his back, and while he has often been successful, nothing he has done has been enough for the media. Even though he boasts one of the all-time best passer ratings in NFL history, whenever the Cowboys melted down, Romo absorbed the blame. With the recent shift the club has made from a passing team to a running one, Romo is able to make big plays without having to carry the entire offense on his back.
The results have been sensational. Over the course of the Cowboys six-game winning streak, Romo has thrown 13 touchdown passes and only two interceptions, a level of efficiency that has often eluded him. He boasts a completion percentage of 69.2 % and a quarterback rating of 104.7 on the season, and that’s including the rough outing he had to endure in Week One. With the exception of Week Five’s win over Houston, Romo has never had to throw the ball more than 32 times in any game during the win streak, and the offense has achieved an ideal level of balance.
Defensively speaking, the ‘Boys have been even more surprising. After yielding one of the worst defenses in recent history in 2013, the 2014 iteration of the unit has been very solid. While certainly not dominant, this group has been effective nonetheless, and has done an admirable job complementing the offense.
The Cowboys upcoming schedule isn’t a deterrent to the team’s success either. Next week features a winnable home match up with Washington, followed by a tough test against the Cardinals, and then a winnable Week Ten trip to Jacksonville to take on the struggling Jaguars.
It remains to be seen if the Cowboys can maintain this level of play all season, but they’ve proven that they are no flash in the pan. They are a formidable opponent, one to be take seriously. How many teams can boast of a win over the defending champion Seahawks at CenturyLink Field over the past few years?
The Philadelphia Eagles are nipping at their heels in the NFC East, and the NFC as a whole is quite competitive, but the Cowboys have made an early statement. With nine games remaining on their slate, this club has gone from an unlikely success story, to first place in the NFC. It’s an entirely different game when you’re on top of the hill than it is while you’re trying to climb up to get there. Now the 2014 Cowboys have the chance to show us what they’re really made of.
Thanks for reading, everyone.
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