Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray is off to a sensational start this season as he’s become the third player in NFL history to rush for at least 100 yards in each of his team’s first five games of a season.
Murray has gained those 670 yards on 130 carries, a workload that peaked with a career-high 31 totes in last Sunday’s overtime win over the Texans. That’s put Murray on pace to tie Larry Johnson’s record of 416 carries in a single season, something that Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said that the team would prefer not happen.
“DeMarco was out there and we think that’s probably too many carries in the game, week in and week out,” Garrett said, via ESPNDallas.com. “He ended up with 31 so we’d like to get that number lower. We’d really just like to get the other guys an opportunity. I don’t see any wear and tear in DeMarco but having said that, we want to make sure we create a rotation and we’ll focus on doing that in the next few weeks.”
Offseason talk of an expanded role for Lance Dunbar hasn’t materialized as he and Joseph Randle have combined for just 22 carries through the first five weeks of the season, although Murray’s success may have had some impact on whatever the Cowboys had in mind coming into the season. Whatever the reason, the Cowboys can’t let their desire to preserve Murray for the entire year allow them to break something that doesn’t need fixing on offense.