Back in May, Joseph Randle claimed DeMarco Murray “left a lot of meat on the bone” for the Dallas Cowboys in 2014. Murray ran for an NFL-best 1,845 yards. Randle carried 51 times as the backup running back. Everybody had a good laugh over the comment at the time.
Still laughing now?
Since signing a free-agent contract with the Eagles worth $21 million guaranteed, Murray has rushed for just 130 yards. His 2.7 average is a full two-yard drop from last season. Meanwhile, teammate Ryan Mathews has 205 yards on the ground and a 5.0 average — nearly double Murray’s.
To be fair, the offensive line has struggled. There are plenty of examples where Murray had a defender in his face as he accepted the handoff or didn’t have a chance to get out of the backfield. However, there is a reason Mathews has experienced more success than Murray.
Murray is leaving meat on the bone.
Murray ran 20 times for 83 yards against the New Orleans Saints in Week 5, easily his best game as an Eagle. Of course, Mathews carried eight times for 73 yards against the same defense. The “backup” was more than twice as productive.
And the discrepancy was not mere coincidence. Tape shows Mathews’ vision is simply better than Murray’s right now.
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Sometimes it was obvious, like this 1st-and-10 run in the third quarter. If Murray simply moves straight ahead when he takes the handoff, this should go for a moderate-to-big gain.
Nobody can say for sure what exactly Murray didn’t like about this hole. All we know is he doesn’t trust it, hesitates and cuts the other way in an attempt to bounce the play outside.
While it looked like something might be there in the previous frame, it’s futile. The Saints rally to the ball, and instead of a quality run, Murray is stopped for one yard.
Two plays later, it’s 2nd-and-10, and this time Murray is supposed to go off tackle. Once again, there will be room to run.
Murray has often been described as a one-cut runner who gets downfield in a hurry. Here, he’s ignoring a lane right after the handoff. The play-call may well be designed to get outside, but a sizeable hole is there for the taking, and the All-Pro back doesn’t see it.
Once again, a run that would’ve gone anywhere from a handful of yards to a chunk went for one instead. The Saints corralled Murray on the outside, the Eagles were stuck in 3rd-and-long and wound up kicking a field goal.
One more. This is a counter handoff designed to get the defense moving left, while the carry actually goes to the right. It’s 1st-and-goal, a situation where the Eagles were really expecting Murray to do damage.
An enormous hole is opening right before Murray’s eyes, yet inexplicably, he wants to bounce this outside. In this particular case, we can already see at least one defender waiting for him.
Sure enough, Murray gets to the edge and is surrounded. To make matters worse, the back stumbles and winds up losing two yards on the attempt.
There simply doesn’t appear to be a lot of “feel” for the game right now from Murray. Sometimes, it seems he has trouble making up his mind, like on this 1st-and-10 handoff.
No, there isn’t much of a hole here. In fact, by the time Murray reaches the line of scrimmage, there won’t be anywhere to go at all. It’s not like he doesn’t have options, though. We just saw him try for the edge when he didn’t have to.
This time, there are opportunities to either side. Instead, he bottles himself up at the line of scrimmage, for a sliver of daylight that was barely ever there.
Here’s another attempt up the middle on 1st-and-10. It’s the fourth quarter, the Eagles are up by a ton. All Murray really has to do is pick up a few and this will be a successful play.
It’s blocked up. Murray has options. He can cut it straight up for a few, or if he’s feeling adventurous, there is a lane to the outside for a potential big gain. Can’t go wrong here, right?
Only Murray runs right into the back of tight end Zach Ertz blocking into the play, and his man drags him to the turf. It’s really hard to explain what the ball-carrier sees in this situation, because at least from the film’s perspective, there really was never anything there.
These were five runs, or a quarter of Murray’s for the day, and there were at least two more we could dissect and question the decision-making, though not as blatant.
This wasn’t a one-game phenomenon, either. While the O-line was largely to blame for the early-season struggles, we found instances of Murray’s hesitance in our review of the Week 2 loss to the Cowboys as well.
We have Murray freezing in the hole.
And we have Murray not trusting his blocks.
So while everybody thought it was a big joke that Randle would have the audacity to accuse the reigning NFL rushing champion of leaving plays on the field, it appears there may be some truth to that. At least, that’s been the case with the Eagles thus far.
Blocking has been the primary issue for sure. But even when the Eagles' line executes, Murray isn’t necessarily following through.