Playcaller Scott Linehan likes to use DeMarco Murray and Dez Bryant to establish the tone for the Cowboys’ offense.
Murray and Bryant are thrilled with this approach.
In each of the Cowboys’ first three games, Murray has carried the ball on one of the game’s first two plays.
Murray had 16 carries in the first half, 10 in the first quarter, against San Francisco and 17 first-half carries against Tennessee, including eight in the first quarter.
Bryant has not gone longer than four plays into the Cowboys’ first possession without catching his first pass.
“It’s nothing we’ve talked about,” Bryant said. “I just wait. Truthfully, I just wait. The ball comes to me, I just do my job. But for any guy you get it early and hopefully you can stay that way the entire game.”
Bryant and Murray have combined to touch the ball on 103 of the Cowboys' 191 offensive plays this season (54 percent).
"He likes to put the ball in our hands," Murray said. "You have to like that.
"We talked about running the ball more in training camp, but I wanted to see how it was going to work out during the season. I thought this year might be different because he spent a lot of time talking about the running game and addressing it with the entire offense -- not just the offensive line and the backs."