Earlier this season, Dallas Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray was on pace to break the single-season rushing record. On Monday news broke that Murray was instead on pace for a trip to the hospital. While DeMarco Murray having hand surgery sounds like bad news, he may actually still be available for next weekend’s game against the Indianapolis Colts.
Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said Murray broke the fourth metacarpal bone in his left hand. Murray downplayed the injury after the Cowboys’ win over the Eagles. Apparently the injury occurred late in the Sunday Night game, which the Cowboys won on the road 38-27.
The broken bone required surgery to fix, which Jones said took place on Monday afternoon. However, Jones told Dallas sports-radio station 105.3 The Fan that he may still play against the Colts on Sunday.
Murray has cooled down since his early-season results put him on track to enter the league record books. However, his 11 100-yard games have allowed him to accumulate 1,687 yards, a career high, and 351 carries, also a career high. If he can rush for 87 more total yards during the next two games, Murray will break the Cowboys’ single-season team record of 1,773 yards, which Emmitt Smith set in 1995.
Murray is currently the NFL’s leading rusher. In fact, he has accounted for 38 percent of all of the Dallas Cowboys’ total yards from scrimmage this year, a higher percentage than any other player in the league.
If DeMarco Murray having hand surgery knocks him out of the lineup this weekend, Joseph Randle and Lance Dunbar would get the nod to line-up behind QB Tony Romo in the backfield. Randle has 237 yards this season with two touchdowns, while Dunbar has 91 yards.
Needless to say, Cowboys players, fans and coaches alike are hoping for Murray to be available. Romo has silenced his critics this season, but he’s been able to do so in large part because opposing defenses have had to key-in on Murray. Without that threat in the backfield, the Colts could afford to blitz a bit more and make things tough for Romo this weekend.
