After a stellar performance by Marion Barber III in last Saturday’s preseason game, the debate continues over who should be the primary back for the Dallas Cowboys.

Marion Barber looked good. In fact, he looked better than I remember him running in any game last year, and he ran very good last year. The thing that stood out most was his ability to make defenders miss. To be a good running back in the NFL, you have to be able to deal with a defender. There is usually at least one defender between the running back and a decent gain. That’s the running back’s guy. Some backs power over the guy, other’s use shifty moves, but to be successful, a running back has to be able to deal with ‘his’ guy.

Last year, Marion Barber did this with solid running and an unwillingness to go down. In the game against the Broncos, he was also doing it with his feet. When a running back can beat you with his feet and with his power, he’s going to have success. And, if Barber keeps running like that, he’s going to deserve more playing time between the 20’s.

Julius Jones has also run well in the preseason, though it hasn’t shown as much on the stat sheet. There is more to football than statistics, and Julius has definitely looked better than he did last year. He’s running with more freedom and decisiveness.

This is best exemplified by a short six-yard burst he had through the lines. It was a sliver of a hole, and Barber may have only accomplished a three-yard gain, but Jones was a blur of motion and piled on an extra few yards through speed alone.

Certainly, Jones is going to make more people miss with his feet than Barber, but if he’s going to take the next step, he will need to shed tacklers with his power as well.

Make no mistake, though. Barring injury, the Cowboys will feature both backs throughout the season. How they divvy up the carries is up for grabs, but both of them will get plenty of playtime in games. For Jones, it is the last year of his contract, and he will need to demonstrate the potential we saw in his rookie year.

How will the Cowboys divvy up those carries? Conventional wisdom says if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it. And the Cowboys’ running game last year was not broken, so we might see a repeat of Jones being the primary back and Barber being the third down and goal line back while also getting a little of the load toward the end of the game.

This system doesn’t exactly favor Jones, but it worked well last year. Jones wears the defense out with his feet, and a fresh Barber comes in to deliver the payload.

But I hope they opt for a different approach, giving Barber some time between the 20’s, and Jones some time in the redzone. It’s a more difficult system to implement. You want to match the running back with what he does well, but you also don’t want to become predictable. If you only run the ball between the tackles when Barber is in the game, the defense will play on that, and if you run a lot of screens, draws, and stretch plays with Julius, the defense will key on it. You have to mix it up while still playing to their strengths, which can be difficult to accomplish, but can also pay huge dividends.

But, any way it comes out, I think everyone should be rooting for both backs to succeed. Too often, fans pick a favorite and sometimes root for that running back to the detriment of the other back. No matter which back you favor, both of them doing well is good for the Cowboys.

So, for me, my hope is that next year the Cowboys repeat the dilemma of having two running backs that they like a lot.