By Justin Porreca
Staff Writer
—
In a quarterback-driven league where it is pass first, run second, where the devaluing of running backs continues, and where ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. has his theory of never taking a running back in the first round because they aren’t franchise players or players that can win a Super Bowl, one player stands alone in an effort to refute these league-wide notions.
That player is DeMarco Murray. Overshadowed by his superstar peers Adrian Peterson, LeSean McCoy, and Jamal Charles, Murray has done everything this season to put himself at the forefront of the conversation as the NFL’s best running back and MVP.
The former Oklahoma Sooners tailback, and now Dallas Cowboy after being selected in the 2011 Draft as a third round pick, is having his best season to date, bar none. Murray was elected to his first Pro Bowl last season, and is well on his way to another one. He has a league-leading 913 yards and 187 carries. He also has seven touchdowns. Oh yeah, and the guy broke Jim Brown’s record, which was set back in 1958, with seven consecutive 100 yard games.
Digging deeper into Murray’s 2014 stats, they become almost freakish. His rushing yards are more than 30 other team’s total rushing yards so far this season. After Week Six, Murray had 41 first downs with 594 rushing yards, which was 35% of Dallas’ first downs. Murray’s yards on first downs alone would be a league-leading rushing yards total. He also has 474 rushing yards before contact, more rushing yards than notable starters Frank Gore, Matt Forte, Alfred Morris, and “Beast Mode” himself, Marshawn Lynch.
Murray is on pace for not only a career season, but quite possibly a record-breaking one as well. If Murray keeps up his pace of 26.5 carries per game, he will surpass Larry Johnson’s NFL single-season carries record of 416 that was set back in 2006. However, a more impressive NFL record Murray seems set on breaking is the NFL single season rushing record, held by Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson.
30 years ago, Dickerson set the NFL single season rushing record with 2,105 yards, breaking O.J. Simpson’s 2,003 yard record set in 1973. In the last 30 years, six men have come close to dethroning Dickerson, Adrian Peterson being the closest in 2012, but no one has finished the deed.
If Murray continues averaging 130.8 yards per game over his next 10 games, he will finish the season with a grand total of 2,093 yards, 13 yards short, but he would become the eighth running back to rush for 2,000 yards in a single season. That would be no letdown, because there is another Hall of Famer’s record Murray would be breaking in the process.
Dallas’ single-season rushing title goes to Cowboy great Emmitt Smith. In 1995, Smith started the season off with four consecutive 100 yard games and finished the season with 1,773 yards. With Murray’s electrifying pace, he would shatter Smith’s record, an amazing feat considering Emmitt Smith is a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest running backs to play the game.
Bring all of these mind-blowing statistics together, and Murray has himself quite the MVP résumé through the first seven games of the NFL season. The only guy in relatively close sight of Murray is an underrated Pro Bowl quarterback in San Diego named Phillip Rivers. Rivers is in Murray’s rearview mirror, waiting for him to come down from the heavens and turn into a normal back again. Rivers broke an NFL record in Week Six with a five straight games of a 120+ passer rating. Rivers also leads the league in QBR, passer rating, completion percentange, and yards per attempt.
This is a quarterback league, where typically only quarterbacks win the MVP, unless a running back has a magical season. Cue Murray. He’s having a season voters cannot ignore, and he has put the entire Cowboys team on his back through the first seven weeks of the season.
Murray should send Dallas’s offensive play-caller, Scott Linehan, a nice thank-you card, since Linehan is the brains behind Murray’s early season success. He can thank his dominant offensive line for opening up the gaping holes he’s running through, but we would not be talking about Murray if it was not for Linehan. After spending five seasons with the pass-happy Detroit Lions, Linehan went to Dallas to be one of the brilliant offensive minds running the Cowboys offense.
Prior to training camp, Linehan told the press that Dallas was going to lean heavily on Murray and the running game. Linehan’s idea of feeding Murray the ball more looks pretty brilliant week by week and is paying dividends so far.
The magic number was seven for Murray in his Week Seven matchup versus the rival Giants. Despite battling an illness and being listed as questionable for the game, he still made an impact. Murray took sole possession of a 56-year-old NFL record versus the Giants, and he will continue his quest toward an MVP nod and the moniker of “League’s Best Running Back.”
