ESPN

 
ESPN.com team reporter Todd Archer on the Dallas Cowboys' hot topics as they begin preparations for Week 4.

IRVING, Texas – A team’s record with a 100-yard rusher can be a misleading statistic. Was the 100-yard rushing performance more cause or effect? Did the running back’s big day play a critical role in building a lead or did he do much of his damage while his team was protecting a lead in the fourth quarter?

In the case of DeMarco Murray, there is no doubt.

The Cowboys are 5-0 when Murray has broken the 100-yard barrier during his career, including four double-digit victories. In each case, his success on the ground has been a major reason the Cowboys had a lead to protect late in the game.

Sunday’s rout of the St. Louis Rams is the most glaring example. Murray only carried the ball once in the fourth quarter, losing two yards on that touch. He gained 177 yards on 25 carries in the first three quarters, including 86 yards on 10 carries in the first quarter, when the Cowboys jumped out to a 10-0 lead.

That resulted in easy pickings for Tony Romo in the passing game later in the afternoon.

“It all comes from the fact that we were able to run the ball as well as we did,” head coach Jason Garrett said. “You start dictating the coverages and get what you want down the field.”

Murray had 187 yards on 20 carries in the first three quarters of his franchise-record 253-yard performance against the Rams in 2011, the first 100-yard game of his career. The Cowboys had a 20-7 lead entering the fourth quarter.

A couple of weeks later, Murray had 108 yards on 14 carries in the first three quarters against the Seattle Seahawks, helping the Cowboys build a 13-7 lead that they added a touchdown to 43 seconds into the fourth quarter. He finished the game with 139 yards on 22 carries.

Murray followed that up by rushing for 88 yards on 16 carries in the first three quarters against the Buffalo Bills the next week, as the Cowboys built a 34-7 lead. He ended that game with 135 yards on 20 carries.

The 2012 season opener is the only time that Murray has overcome a slow start to rush for 100 yards in a game. He gained only 20 yards on eight carries in the first quarter, but he broke free for a 48-yard gain early in the third quarter and had 87 yards on 13 carries entering the fourth, with the Cowboys up by a touchdown. Murray finished with 131 yards on 20 carries.

Winning tends to come easy for the Cowboys when Murray gets going early in the game.

The challenge is remaining reasonably committed to the run when Murray doesn’t find much room right off the bat.

“It’s critical, and it’s not always easy,” Garrett said. “It’s not always easy here and it’s not always easy around the league to come out and say, ‘We’re going to run the ball. We’re going to run for 150 yards in the first half.’ It’s unrealistic to think that.

“But you have to be persistent with it. You have to keep banging away. You have to keep finding ways to run the ball, whether it’s with a new personnel group, a new formation, a new this, a new that and you have to be persistent with it and keep attacking that way.”

IRVING, Texas -- Anthony Spencer's season officially came to a close Wednesday when the Dallas Cowboys decided to place the defensive end on injured reserve.

To replace Spencer on the 53-man roster, the Cowboys signed cornerback Chris Greenwood off Detroit’s practice squad.

Greenwood visited Valley Ranch before the 2012 draft. The Lions drafted him in the fifth round but he did not play last season because of an abdominal injury. He was among Detroit’s final cuts this year and re-signed to the practice squad.

Per league rules, the Cowboys will have to keep Greenwood on the active roster for three weeks.

With Greenwood, the Cowboys have five cornerbacks on the 53-man roster. He joins Brandon Carr, Morris Claiborne, Orlando Scandrick and B.W. Webb. The Cowboys also have Micah Pellerin on the practice squad.

IRVING, Texas – Al Johnson was a second-round pick for the Dallas Cowboys in 2003, but before he could ever play in a game he needed microfracture surgery on his right knee.

If there’s somebody who knows what Anthony Spencer will face if he chooses to have that procedure, it’s Johnson.

“To this day I’ve had no problems with my right knee,” Johnson said. “You couldn’t even tell I had surgery. It doesn’t bother me one bit, even at the end of my career.”

Johnson played in 48 games with Dallas from 2004-06, starting 31, before signing in 2007 with Arizona, where he started 14 games. His career came to an end in 2008 with Miami because of problems with his left knee.

But Johnson offers hope for Spencer for a recovery. He had his surgery in August 2003 and was back on the field full-time by March 2004 -- and did not miss an organized team activity, mini-camp practice or training-camp practice.

“I didn’t do much for a long time,” said Johnson, who is now a high school football coach in Wisconsin. “I was on crutches for a full six weeks, no weight on the area. Then it’s a slow rehab process to get back into it. The good thing was that I had a lot of time, and that’s what Anthony’s going to have, minus two months. I was back doing the full offseason workload by March.”

Johnson had his microfracture surgery performed at the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colo.

“The more I talked to doctors about it, the biggest thing was the size of the affected area,” Johnson said. “Mine was about 10 centimeters, which was pretty small, and it was a new injury. It’s like this: If you dig a hole straight down, it’s easier to fill back in, but if it’s an older injury, it’s rounded like a beach, and it’s slow in and slow out. What they do is drill holes, it fills up with blood and then it’s supposed to harden. If it’s a jagged edge or a deep edge it fills in. But if it’s like a beach, then sometimes it doesn’t take because you keep wearing it away.”

Johnson lost weight to help with the weight-bearing issues, but was able to regain the pounds when he picked up his rehab. The Cowboys have had other success stories with microfracture surgery, including linebacker Kevin Hardy.

The key, Johnson said, is patience.

“We have awesome trainers with the Cowboys,” Johnson said. “They do a great job. They followed my doctor’s protocol. Even after I came back I never had one issue. I didn’t have any swelling. That’s the big thing.”

A weekly analysis of the Cowboys’ quarterback play:

Rewind: Tony Romo had to throw just 24 passes, completing 17, in the Dallas Cowboys’ 31-7 win over the St. Louis Rams. When was the last time Romo threw so few passes in a game he started and finished? It was Oct. 23, 2011, against the Rams. The common denominator in those games was DeMarco Murray’s rushing. On that day in 2011, Murray ran for 253 yards. On Sunday, he had 175. The running game took the burden off Romo, but that does not mean he was simply along for the ride. Romo had three touchdown passes, and his 24-yard scores to Gavin Escobar and Dwayne Harris came on pinpoint throws. Romo was sacked only once and rarely pressured with the offensive line giving him time to get the ball down the field. Romo averaged 8.8 yards per attempt against the Rams, which was his highest in three games.

Fast-forward: San Diego has struggled to stop the pass, and you can’t expect the Cowboys to run the ball as well as they did last week. A week after Philadelphia’s Michael Vick threw for 428 yards, Tennessee’s Jake Locker had 299 yards against the Chargers' defense. No offense to the Titans, but they do not have the weapons to match the Cowboys, and the Chargers do not have a consistent enough pass rush to hurry Romo. Quarterbacks are completing 67.2 percent of their passes against San Diego, and Romo has shown improved accuracy this season.

Take care of the ball: Nothing hurts a road team more offensively than a turnover. It gets the crowd going. It gets the defense going. It causes doubt from within. In his past 17 road games, Romo has had turnovers (interceptions or fumbles) in 11 games. The Cowboys are 3-8 in those games, including 0-1 this season. In the six road games in which he has not turned it over, the Cowboys are 4-2. Romo has one interception on 115 pass attempts this season, and that came off a miscommunication with rookie receiver Terrance Williams. His fumble at Kansas City did not lead to any points for the Chiefs.

Prediction: Romo’s top two receiver targets are banged up. Miles Austin could miss the game with a hamstring or at least be limited. Dez Bryant is battling through back spasms. But Romo will have to make plays. And he will against a struggling pass defense. He has to stay away from mistakes. And he will. Look for Romo to have his first 300-yard game of the season even if Austin (hamstring) does not play or is limited and look for at least two touchdown passes.

IRVING, Texas – The Dallas Cowboys will get Ed Hochuli’s crew for Sunday’s visit to the San Diego Chargers.

It is the first time the Cowboys will have seen Hochuli since Week 11 last season, when they beat the Cleveland Browns 23-20 in overtime. Dallas was penalized 11 times, with nine accepted for 92 yards. Cleveland was penalized 12 times for 129 yards.

Last week Hochuli’s crew worked the Detroit Lions-Washington Redskins game. The Lions were penalized eight times for 71 yards and the Redskins were flagged six times for 45 yards. Of the 14 penalties, four came on special teams.

The breakdown:

Roughing the passer -- 1
Defensive holding -- 1
Illegal formation -- 2
Offensive holding -- 2
Illegal block above the waist -- 1
Defensive pass interference -- 1
Unnecessary roughness -- 2
Face mask -- 1
False start -- 1
Illegal use of hands -- 1
Delay of game -- 1

Quarter-by-quarter:

First -- 5
Second -- 4
Third -- 2
Fourth -- 3

IRVING, Texas -- With Anthony Spencer looking at season-ending microfracture surgery on his left knee, the easy thing to do is criticize Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones for putting the franchise tag on Spencer for a second straight season.

It’s a complete hindsight move and, frankly, wrong.

Jones is an easy target for a lot of things, but he can’t predict injury, especially to a guy who missed only six games in his first six seasons.

When it comes to the franchise tag, it comes down to what did the Cowboys know and when did they know it?

The defensive end market in free agency was soft, which they did not know before they had to use the tag on Spencer.

The Cowboys are paying Spencer $10.627 million this season, which is more than the top guys got on the market in terms of guaranteed money. But the Cowboys could not risk losing Spencer.

He was coming off his first Pro Bowl season. He was coming off a career-high 11 sacks. They felt he would be fine in the move from outside linebacker in a 3-4 to defensive end in a 4-3 just like DeMarcus Ware has shown.

They did not have a replacement on the roster and their focus in the draft was on the offensive line, especially in the first round.

Players and agents dislike the franchise tag because it is too limiting.

In Spencer’s case, he will have made $19.483 million the last two seasons. That’s a pretty good two-season pay day.

What this likely surgery does is limit Spencer’s value in the future, and what it could mean is the Cowboys bring him back at a team-friendly rate in 2013.

Could he have made more? Possibly, but the Cowboys used a tool that was collectively bargained by the owners and NFL Players Association.

If players don’t like the tag, then they need to complain to their union.

IRVING, Texas -- Losing Anthony Spencer for the season is jarring for the Dallas Cowboys' defense.

Spencer is their second-best pass-rusher and a force against the run. The Cowboys felt the move from an outside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme to defensive end in the 4-3 was not a big change for Spencer and he would assimilate just as well as DeMarcus Ware has.

He had 11 sacks last year and was named to the Pro Bowl. The move to defensive end would only enhance his ability to get to the quarterback.

Now he’s looking at a long rehabilitation and having to wait to show he can do it all over again in 2014.

But the games go on for the Cowboys and there is no easy fix, unless there is a team willing to trade a valuable pass-rushing commodity the way the Cleveland Browns were willing to trade Trent Richardson last week.

For as well as George Selvie has played in the first three games, he is not Anthony Spencer. For as well as the defensive line has played so far, there still has to be some concern that these guys will be able to hold up over the course of a season.

Selvie, who has two sacks, has played 16 games in a season once and was signed only because Tyrone Crawford was lost for the year to a torn Achilles. Nick Hayden was out of football last year and has never started more than 10 games in a season. Kyle Wilber had a sack last week against the St. Louis Rams, but he has not shown he is more than a part-time player. Caesar Rayford was picked up in a trade the first week of the season and was active for the first time last week. They signed David Carter last week for depth. They signed Drake Nevis on Tuesday to hopefully add some size to the interior.

The Cowboys need Ware and Jason Hatcher to continue to carry the day.

A healthy Spencer -- or even a part-time Spencer -- would have kept most of their backups in the roles in which they could be expected to handle. They didn’t expect Hayden to be a starter, but Jay Ratliff’s sports hernia recovery took a lot longer than expected and he’s going to miss at least another three games on the physically unable to perform list. They didn’t really expect Selvie to do this, but now he has to bring it every week.

Defensive line coach Rod Marinelli has worked magic so far with a lot of guys nobody has ever heard of.

If the group continues to play as well as it has, then he will deserve a raise in 2014.

IRVING, Texas -- If Doug Free played this well the past couple of seasons, the Dallas Cowboys wouldn’t have had any problem with his contract.

Free, who accepted a pay cut that slashed his salary in half instead of being released this offseason, has been phenomenal in the Cowboys’ first three games. ProFootballFocus.com’s grades rank Free as the No. 1 tackle in the NFL so far this season.

By comparison, ProFootballFocus.com ranked Free 44th and 66th during the first two seasons of his four-year, $32 million contract, which explains why the Cowboys insisted on tearing up the deal.

“He’s responded really well,” coach Jason Garrett said. “We’ve talked a lot about how we rotated him at the end of last season. He responded well to that, responded in the offseason, came back in great shape and was ready to go. He really has been impressive since the start of OTAs, really trying to take advantage of the opportunity.

“I think he’s working on some technical things that will help him. I think he’s playing tougher and he’s staying on blocks, both as a pass-protector but also in the run game.”

Perhaps the pay cut has given Free a renewed sense of urgency. Free, whose performance improved after he started splitting time with Jermey Parnell late last season, has probably benefited from being more familiar with offensive coordinator Bill Callahan’s zone-blocking scheme.

“When you’re working with a new offensive line coach, there are new techniques that you use,” Garrett said. “For a guy who has played a little bit, sometimes there’s some unlearning that has to happen. I think that’s a cycle and a progression that has to happen for a player, but Doug’s a smart guy. I think he understands where he is in his career. He’s developing more and more confidence, and he’s technically becoming better and better.”

IRVING, Texas -- Dez Bryant will keep his touchdown celebrations simple from now on.

Bryant received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for making a throat-slash gesture after his customary X signal with his arms when he scored in Sunday’s win over the St. Louis Rams. He actually just waved his hands under his chin, as if to say, “Cut it off,” but Bryant acknowledged that he made a mistake.

“I shouldn’t have done it anyway,” said Bryant, who nevertheless plans to appeal the fine he anticipates is coming from the NFL office. “I never put anything with the X. Do the X and go on.”

After being flagged, Bryant made a beeline to coach Jason Garrett to apologize for the penalty.

"He said, ‘I screwed up. I’m sorry. It’s just a reaction I had. I won’t do it again,’” Garrett said. “What do you say to that? Let’s go to the next one."

IRVING, Texas -- In order to be a great defense, teams have to handle adverse situations.

So far through three games the Dallas Cowboys have handled those situations nearly flawlessly.

In four quick-change situations after turnovers by the offense, the defense has allowed only two field goals.

The New York Giants, Kansas City Chiefs and St. Louis Rams have run 15 plays following the Cowboys’ four turnovers and … have gone nowhere. Well, actually they have gone in reverse, totaling minus-1 yard.

“It’s very important for us to come back out and set the tone again,” cornerback Brandon Carr said. “We don’t care what happens offensively or on special teams or whatever the case may be, when duty calls for us to go out there we have to do our job.”

Against the Giants, the defense held New York to a field goal after a Tony Romo interception on a drive that started at the Dallas 1. The Giants ran four plays and lost one yard. Against the Chiefs, the defense held Kansas to a field goal after Lance Dunbar's fumble. The Chiefs started at the Dallas 31 and gained 9 yards. The Chiefs lost 5 yards on their next drive following a Romo fumble and were forced to punt.

On Sunday against the Rams, Dwayne Harris’ muffed punt gave St. Louis the ball at the Dallas 34. The Rams turned the ball over on downs when a fake punt went awry. The Rams lost four yards on the drive.

Mindset is as important as execution, according to coach Jason Garrett.

“It’s critical,” Garrett said. “We talked about the team, the team, the team all the time. That’s the manifestation of it on Sunday afternoon. If you pick each other up, don’t blink, somehow someway, the offense doesn’t get the job done and turns the ball over, the defense has to go out there and do their job. Similarly if the defense can’t slow them down, the offense has to respond. The special teams, they’re always in a situation where they have to respond and pick somebody up. That’s just the nature of it. You’re always trying to pick each other up and always try to have each other’s back and play together as a football team. Those situations happen every week in the NFL. It’s rarely a case where one side is always picking the other side up. It’s always going back and forth and everyone simply has to respond the right way.”