ARLINGTON, Texas -- Close your eyes, Emmitt Smith.
You too, Tony Dorsett.
You took the big handoffs in big games for the Cowboys. You gained yards, won championships and earned busts in Canton.
There will be no busts in Canton for the current Cowboys. Not for any running backs, anyway.
A renewed commitment to the running game was all the talk this summer about, but the Cowboys still have an aversion to handing the ball off when it matters most. Two of those failures Sunday provided the impetus for a season-opening 28-17 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
The Cowboys drove 78 yards to the San Francisco 2 trailing 7-0 midway through the first quarter. DeMarco Murray had been gashing the 49ers the entire possession with runs of 7, 6, 5 and 6 yards.
It's second-and-1 from the 2. A running down, right? Make a statement with those three big hoss offensive linemen you drafted in recent first rounds. Stick the ball in Murray's gut, and take it to a physical defense like the 49ers. Punch them in the mouth, punch the ball into the end zone and tie the score.
Nope. Not these Cowboys. Romo didn't like what he saw at the line of scrimmage so he called a timeout. When he returned to the field, Romo came ready to throw. But Pro Bowl pass rusher Justin Smith blew past Pro Bowl blocker Tyron Smith for a 9-yard sack of Romo.
An incomplete pass later, the Cowboys had to settle for a 29-yard field goal by Dan Bailey. Instead of a tie game, the Cowboys were only able to cut the deficit to 7-3. That's as close as the Cowboys would get the rest of the day.
Cowboys coach Jason Garrett was in no mood to discuss the ill-fated, game-changing sequence.
"I don't want to get into how the plays were called or not called," Garrett said. "We tried to put our team in the best situation down there inside the red zone, and we didn't convert that opportunity."
Owner Jerry Jones said Romo audibled out of a run to a pass on the play. Let Romo make the call, and it will always be a pass.
Nonetheless, the Cowboys did have one more chance to at least make a game out of it.
Then Cowboys found themselves in a first-and-goal at the San Francisco 5 early into the second quarter, trailing 21-3. Again, Murray fueled the 75-yard drive with 46 yards on 7 rushes.
Don't get cute here. Give it to Murray two more times. If he can't get it in, then spread the field on third down in short yardage and give Romo's arm a whack at it.
Instead, Romo became the first option on first down. He missed a wide open Dwayne Harris on a slant, was flushed from the pocket and tried to squeeze a pass to tight end Jason Witten in the corner of the end zone on a busted route. But linebacker Patrick Willis intercepted the soft toss.
Instead of cutting the San Francisco lead to 21-10 by showing some trust in Murray, the talent and money of the Cowboys once again trotted off the field and left an undermanned defense in charge of the team's fate.
Afterward, Romo talked about defenses loading up in the box to stop the run. But if the Cowboys didn't hand the ball off to Emmitt Smith against loaded fronts back in the 1990s, he never would have won any rushing titles.
Sometimes you need to show a little faith in your people, especially when you have three first-rounders up front trying to open holes and a Pro Bowl back running behind them.
Romo threw three interceptions in the first half, and the 49ers converted them into two touchdowns and a 28-3 lead by intermission. And that's all the 49ers would need on this day.
The Cowboys are obsessed with throwing the football. It doesn't matter if it's Jason Garrett, Bill Callahan or Scott Linehan calling the plays. Minus the victories, the Cowboys do love their stats.
Romo, Dez Bryant and Jason Witten have all benefited statistically in their careers when the football has been in the air. But not the Cowboys as a team, not in the past four years, anyway.
Murray wound up with 118 yards on 22 carries. But they were mere window dressing in yet another loss. It's hard to believe the Cowboys spent almost four weeks in California and neglected to install a short-yardage rushing package.
The Cowboys wasted Murray Sunday, and this team is not that talented to be wasting its assets.
Sports on 09/09/2014