Trend? probably not.

In the immortal words of Pacman Jones, “It’s the Rams, man!”
Still, it is the NFL and the Cowboys have a tendancy to play it close regardless of the opponent so a 27 point (34-7) win was just what the fans were hoping for. The largest margin of victory under a Jason Garrett coached team comes with a record rushing day for rookie Demarco Murray but before we get to Murray’s record setting performance there are a few others I would like to mention.

Montrea Holland was on his couch last Sunday and this Sunday he is starting for the Dallas Cowboys. Not only starting, he had a superb game. I don’t recall any penalties from him which is what you would expect from someone with a little rust on him. Dez Bryant shows up for the second half of the game. Great catch on  that final touchdown. Abram Elam, where have you been all year? I was worried that Demarcus Ware may not get a sack as the game started to count down, but he didn’t disappoint, he never does. Mike Jenkins gets an interception, his first in over a year. He’s been playing stellar this year but he has hands of stone or he would have a few more ints. Sean Lee and the entire defense was at its best for most of the game. I hope that they are just now beginning to peak and will only get better as the year progresses. I am sure glad the Cowboys did not cut Dan Bailey the moment I wanted them to, that kid has potential. Is Phillip Tanner the new backup running back because we all know who the new starting RB is!  Tanner ran hard the few carries he got and scored the games 1st touchdown in the second half.

Some of the not so good. Even in a 27 point win, there are players that didn’t look very good and one is Doug Free. He is still getting beat and he is still holding. ARGH!  I am pretty close to packing him back up and heading to the service counter for a REFUND! Tashard Choice, yes he hurt his shoulder, but it appears he hurt it trying to recover his own fumble!  I bet Jerry is rethinking that trade deadline decision now. If it were not evident before this game, it sure is now that Choice will not be back next year with the Cowboys.

Now on to the most impressive performance yesterday. Rookie Running back Demarco Murray sets a franchise record with 253 yards rushing on 25 carries! He broke Emmitt Smith old rushing mark of 237 yards set way back in 1993. That first quarter 91 yard touchdown run by Murray was explosive to say the least. The intial hole was a monster but he still had to make the safety miss, which he did and then it was cake walk into the endzone with Dez leading the way. I can remember thinking that he was sure to get 100 yards rushing on the day and good for him. Boy was I off the mark. You could see the coaches start to feed Murray the ball more and more. Choice was basically the forgotten man even before he got injured. The injury came in the 3rd quarter on his 2nd carry of the game.

Of course Murray didn’t stop there, he had 3 more runs of ~20 or more yards and ended up with a Cowboys record of 253 yards rushing. I think we all held our breath for a second when Murray went down early in 4th quater after a long run. That was kind of an odd play and I am anxious to read what might have happened to him because he simply sat down just before contact. Even the announcers thought he might have tweeked his hamstring but he was back in the game on the next series so what ever it was, it must have been nothing.

As a Cowboys fan, you can’t help but get excited when you see this type of performance by a player. It’s easy to start touting Demarco Murray as the next great running back but I remember a game in Seattle a few years back when another Rookie Running back named Julius Jones had an impressive 195 yards rushing and even though he was a nice RB for a while, he certainly didn’t live up to the hype he generated after that first big game! Here’s to hoping that Demarco Murray ends up being more like Emmitt Smith than he does Julius Jones.