Rookie DeMarco Murray had more than a just a breakout game on Sunday – he had a career day. Murray set a Dallas Cowboys franchise record with 253 yards rushing against the St. Louis Cardinals. And the Cowboys have had some of the greatest running backs in the game, including NFL career rushing leader Emmitt Smith and Tony Dorsett, 8th on the all-time list just ahead of Jim Brown.
In fact, Murray turned in the 9th best single-game in NFL history.
In spite of that performance, the Cowboys are not ready to name Murray the starter for Sunday’s game against Philadelphia. “We haven’t even had those discussions yet,” coach Jason Garrett said, “but he’s certainly earned the opportunity to get the ball a lot. There’s no question about that.”
That’s a funny position for Garrett to take, considering that prior to this week’s game, the Cowboys had a total of 424 yards rushing in 5 games, or 85 yards per game. Murray tripled that this week, in leading the Cowboys to a 294-yard rushing day as they clobbered the Rams 34-7.
Combine that with the fact that Felix Jones will miss a second straight game with a high ankle sprain and Tashard Choice has a shoulder injury, Murray would seem to be an obvious choice to start.
While Murray waits to hear about whether he is officially the starter for next week, the congratulations poured in.
Former Cowboys single-game record-holder, and still all-time leading rusher with 18,355 yards, Emmitt Smith congratulated Murray via Twitter: “Congrats to @DeMarcoMurray AWESOME job …we needed this”
Tony Dorsett added his congratulations as well, Tweeting, “D.Murray congratulations on your performance today for the Cowboys.”
Sooners fans aren’t surprised by the breakout game. Last year at Oklahoma, Murray started in all 14 games and racked up 3,685 yards rushing and 1,571 receiving, and also owns Oklahoma’s career all-purpose yards record with 6,498 yards, and is the career touchdown leader with 64.
