Seahawks, Bobby Wagner look to slow Cowboys RB Demarco Murray
SEATTLE – Bobby Wagner wasn’t even out of his uniform at Washington yet he was already dialed in for Dallas.
“I can’t wait,” the Seahawks’ middle linebacker, leading tackler and primary run stopper said late Monday night beneath FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, after the victory over Washington improved Seattle to 3-1 for today’s game with run-first, run-often Dallas (4-1) at CenturyLink Field.
Wagner has 43 tackles through four games, on pace to break Terry Beeson’s Seahawks record of 153 tackles set in the 1978 season. He had just gotten done throwing down Washington’s Alfred Morris and Kirk Cousins as part of his eight tackles with a sack and three tackles for losses.
But he was already thinking of Demarco Murray, the NFL’s leading rusher. That’s because today, Murray will be trying to match the great Jim Brown as the only players in NFL history to rush for at least 100 yards in each of his first six games of a regular season. Dallas has the second-leading rushing offense in the league at 160 yards per game – second only to Seattle.
Wagner knows Murray’s quest to tie a record – and Dallas’ quest to become just the second visiting team to beat Seattle in the last 25 games at CenturyLink Field – are coming right at him.
“Tackling will be big,” he said. “They are committed to the run. I saw them in the St. Louis game they were down (21-0 last month before winning 34-31) and they were still trying to run the ball.
“They are committed to the run … and I love that. I love that.
“And I will be right there on every single play.”
He will need to be for the Seahawks to stay atop the NFC West.
Their other top run stuffer from the back of the defense, Kam Chancellor, is questionable to play because of a strained hip. The thudding strong safety crowding the line and filling running lanes with a hammer like Wagner’s is why Seattle leads the NFL in allowing only 62.3 yards rushing per game.
The Seahawks’ roster addition Saturday was another sign Chancellor may not play: Seattle signed safety Steve Terrell from its practice squad and waived seldom-used defensive end Greg Suggs.
Murray – not to mention an improved defense – is why Dallas is one of the NFC’s surprise teams. After years of being overly reliant on Tony Romo’s often-skittish throwing, the Cowboys are relying on the offensive-line talent they’ve been drafting for the last four years. Those blockers have plowed lanes for Murray to romp for 670 yards rushing in five games. He is on pace for 2,144 yards, which would set a new NFL single-season record. Eric Dickerson set the mark in 1984 with 2,105 yards.
And Dallas is giving the ball to him at a rate that is one pace to tie Larry Johnson’s league record from 2006 of 416 carries for a season. Romo is benefitting from Murray’s running game and that better offensive line, completing 69.2 percent of his throws with nine touchdowns and five interceptions. His career completion rate entering this season was 64.8.
Ah, what a different a running game makes.
“To me, the biggest difference is really the commitment to stay with the run,” Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said. “Even when they had some games where they were down and had to come from behind to win it, they stayed consistent in the run game.”
Then again, as Quinn said: “Really, it’s probably easier to stay committed to it as successfully as they are running the ball.”