Cowboys Concerned About DeMarco Murray's Fumbles but Won't Stop Running Him

IRVING, Texas — There is no question that the Dallas Cowboys are concerned about running back DeMarco Murray's case of the yips when it comes to fumbling the ball.

He has fumbled four times in five games this season—all in the first quarter.

It's a huge concern for the Cowboys and Murray himself: "You just have to take care of the ball,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "Whatever style of runner you are, you have to take care of the football. Those are the things that really contribute to losing more than anything else. And nobody knows that more than DeMarco Murray and we’ve just got to continue to focus on getting it right."

The Cowboys will continue to focus on it. But don't think for a minute that they are going to consider benching Murray or even cutting him, as former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson famously did once to Curvin Richards in 1992 to prove a point.

These Cowboys have no intention of "throwing the baby out with the bath water." This baby, who is the NFL’s leading rusher, has been their meal ticket to success en route to their first 4-1 start since 2008.

Just as the case has been following early fumbles against the San Francisco 49ers, Tennessee Titans and St. Louis Rams, Murray rebounded from a first-quarter fumble in Sunday's 20-17 overtime victory over the Houston Texans with another big game.

He rushed a career-high 31 times for 136 yards, becoming just the third back in NFL history with five consecutive 100-yard games to open the season; joining Hall of Famers Jim Brown and O.J. Simpson.

He had 24 carries for 103 yards after the first-quarter fumble.

"We put him back out there," said a matter-of-fact Garrett. "We trusted him."

With 670 yards on 130 carries this season Murray is on a historic pace to run for 2,144 yards, which would surpass Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record by 39 yards.

“He’s playing really well,” Cowboys running backs coach Gary Brown said. “I think he’ll tell you he needs to get better, obviously, holding on to the rock. But I think he’s going to be critical on himself. He’s going to look at himself and see how he can get better. He is playing well, but we’re not satisfied yet. We’ve got to keep playing and keep getting better.”

How dominant has Murray been on the ground this season?

He currently leads the league in rushing by 210 yards over Pittsburgh’s Le’Veon Bell, who is second with 460 yards on 87 carries.

How reliant are the Cowboys on Murray running the ball?

Consider that the Cowboys' two backup running backs have combined for 22 carries and his 130 carries are 39 more than New York Giants running back Rashad Jennings, whose 91 rushing attempts rank second in the NFL.

Murray, who is on pace to tie Larry Johnson’s NFL record for carries in season of 416, is a statistical anomaly in this day and age, with teams often employing a running back-by-committee approach.

So while the Cowboys will continue to emphasize the importance of taking care of the football, they are not going to stop giving DeMarco Murray the ball.

“He’s a damn good football player,” Garrett said. “The biggest things I emphasize with him is, ‘Let’s get people not talking about [the fumbles], opponents otherwise, and let’s get people talking about how good a player you are,’ because he’s having a great year for us and doing so many great things.”

The fumble against the Texans was certainly the continuation of a disturbing trend. But the Cowboys don't see it as evidence of Murray being careless with the ball. The ball came out while he was fighting for extra yardage after being hit right on the ball while he was going down.

What made the situation more troubling was that Murray had already secured the first down.

"Good play by them," Murray said. "You got to know when you’re down and you can’t fight for extra yards on certain situations and it's hard when you’re running hard to think about those things, but sometimes they win and you got to get down, great play by them and a bad play by me.”

The Cowboys want Murray to understand every game situation and to be conscious of the ball when fighting for extra yardage. But they don't want him to change who he is as a runner because getting the physical, dirty and gritty runs are what he does best.

"I think he has a good understanding of that," Garrett said. "On the one run he made a really good run in short yardage, we make the 3rd-and-1. If you look at that, DeMarco kind of comes out of it, he’s got it somewhat secure and he’s going down and the guy comes over the pile and makes a direct hit on the ball. They’re not easy plays, but he knows more than anybody else the importance of taking care of that rock and preserving that opportunity.”

“He’s very productive for us,” Garrett said. “He made some big runs, made some big little runs. You know, the dirty runs that nobody’s going to talk about. I thought that was all over the tape for him. He’s a tough, physical guy, played downhill all game and did a lot of good things for us.”

He has actually been doing great things that are on the path to historic.

So look for the Cowboys to harp on the fumbles but keep feeding him the ball.

All quotations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Clarence Hill covers the Cowboys for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.