The Marion Barber III argument

When you look at the numbers from last night's game, one could say that Marion Barber and Julius Jones are equal. Jones rushed 16 times for 66 yards, with a longest run of 21 yards.

Barber ran 11 times for 65 yards, and scored one touchdown. His longest run was 19 yards.

But stats don't show heart. Stats don't show effort. And stats certainly don't tell strength. Barber was the stronger back last night. His acrobatic touchdown run was amazing. He broke tackles. He ran over the opposing defense. He ran aggressively and pumped up the team.

Julius Jones, on the other hand, fell down too easily. He didn't break away from tacklers. While trying to run the clock out, he takes an up-the-middle run and turns it outside to avoid tacklers, but then runs out of bounds, which stopped the clock. Fans on message boards starting calling him "Julia." His runs seemed mediocre, at best. That might be overstated. He looked poor. But I am comparing him to Barber, who in my opinion, is the better runner.

The two-back system in Dallas should be scrapped now. Marion Barber should become the full-time back for the Dallas Cowboys immediately. Barber has carried the ball 273 times in the last two seasons for 1192 yards and an amazing 19 touchdowns. That is what we could expect from Barber running full-time for the Dallas Cowboys. We'd probably get more from him if he knew he was our sole back, or should I say "soul" back. Just for comparison, Larry Johnson ran the ball 416 times last year and 336 times in 2005, far more carries than Barber has had in just two seasons.

Julius Jones ran the ball last year almost as much as Barber has in his entire career. Jones ran 267 times, for 1084 yards and 4 touchdowns. Hardly an elite back. Hardly comparable to those of Barber.

But stats don't show effort, right? Stats don't show heart?

Well, playing on the field and performance does show effort and heart. We, the fans, can see it. And I'd love to have one person argue to me that Julius Jones deserves to start for the Dallas Cowboys, how he deserves a majority of the runs, and how he deserves to start the game and run the ball during the most important part of the game: when Dallas is down. Barber has shown time and time again that he's a stronger back, has more heart, and plays harder than his counterpart.

When will the coaches in Dallas recognize this? Hopefully by Sunday.