"I'm the No. 1 receiver," Williams said. "But things are just going No. 2's way."There are a few problems here. It should be said that, especially early on, that Romo was off and he hung Williams out there for a brutal hit against Denver.
"He gets the ball thrown correctly his way," Williams said of Austin. "I'm stretching and falling and doing everything. Everybody [else] who's been here's balls are there. Our footballs [from Romo to Williams] are everywhere right now."
That said, I think anyone who watches the Cowboys knows that Williams isn't "doing everything." Roy Williams has caught only 38 percent of the passes thrown his way this season. That's worse then Patrick Crayton who was benched a couple weeks ago. I think worse than that is veiled unwillingness to take responsibility, the notion that he's doing everything, but the football thrown to him are everywhere.
I was just googling around and found this old Football Outsiders post at the time of the trade which pretty much predicted what Williams would be. Herm Edwards was on ESPN this morning discussing Wiliams, and as usual, broke it down to the essentials--"Just catch the ball. And when you catch the ball, run with it." I think Roy will have a big game this week. I'd be shocked to see him come up small after all of this.
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I don't know; his 2.2 catches per game in 2009 far outshine the 1.9 catches per game he had last year with the Cowboys. At this exponential rate of improvement, he might even be a 4th receiver by 2015.
careful with how you use the word 'exponential'..
/nerd
There's only one problem with your "Williams will have a big game" theory. The Cowboys are playing the Eagles. The Eagles secondary, save for a rough loss to New Orleans, has been excellent. Asante Samuel and Sheldon Brown are not to be trifled with. And the Eagles have owned the Cowboys in recent years.
Of course, I liked the Eagles against the Raiders too!
It sounds crazy, but I kinda want the Ravens to swoop for him. I don't buy his argument, I'll say that. But he has had NFL success and he does have a lot of talent. It's true that Romo isn't the most accurate QB (though 60% is definitely respectable, especially considering how much he's on the run). Flacco's throwing 66% with a relatively weak receiving core. That might be the difference there.
Or the Cowboys could just emulate the Lions of recent past and play Kitna.
Nah Dan, this is that Jeff George logic. Plenty of talent, yet somehow things never work out, and there's always a team convincing themselves that this time it'll be different.
Yep. And the Ravens seem to have pretty consistently avoided any guys that might be attitude problems. So I don't see them making any play for Williams. They're more likely to go for a WR in the draft, although CB is obviously also a huge need.
We went after Boldin and TO. Hell, we had TO
Haha, it could be, I'm willing to admit that. I would only give up a 3rd or 4th rounder, I'll stipulate that.
Well, he WAS a pro-bowler in 2006, with something like 1300 receiving yards and 10 TDs.
Yeah, that's essentially what I'm basing this on.
I watched him play for the Lions quite a bit, and he was basically the only bright spot on the team for three years. I know he can play, I think he just needs to get used to the idea of winning. It can be a shock to win when you're used to getting your touches, losing, and going home.
Here is the problem I have with the latest tempest in the teapot over Roy Williams, we never get to see what question he was asked. And I personally think its important because Roy Williams has gone out of his way NOT to be a distraction since he has been there. This in face of the act that from the time he was traded for a loud chorus of people, including prominent former Cowboys, have said he wasn't worth it.
Now to be sure its looking like he wasn't worth everything Jerry gave up for him, but most guys in that situation will try to go off and respond to every comment. For the most part RW has kept his mouth shut and just tried to work. He came back early in the offseason to work with Romo. He has blocked his ass off in the run game. You don't see him sulking on the sideline and he doesn't appear at least to be jealous.
So what was the question that evoked the response? I could easily hear someone asking him what the difference is between the success Miles Austin is having and RW's struggles. In that instance what he said looks like an honest answer. I can tell you that I haven't really seen Austin make any acrobatic catches. He just makes a lot happen with the run after the catch. But it has been obvious from the beginning of the season and even last year that Romo has a problem gauging where RW will be or where to throw the ball when he goes to him. Doesn't mean RW has caught everything he should have because he has had some drops too. But it is at least part of the reason his numbers don't look better.
And then there is this...
Sunday's game against Seattle can't arrive quickly enough.
"I don't want to blame it on rust, I don't want to blame it on medication or anything like that," said Williams, who caught one pass for 16 yards and dropped two others. "I just played terrible.
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"The thing I've got to do, I've got a chance to get better this week. I'm glad that wasn't the last game of the year because I would have to live with this for four or five months.
"But that taste is out of my mouth. I'm ready to roll. I'm ready to catch the ball and do the things I've been doing."
Does that sound like a guy trying to pass the buck? Have you ever heard TO say anything similar? And let me tell you something, that guy could have DEFINITELY hid behind the rib injury because its hard to do anything at all, like even breathe, with that injury. But instead he owned it and said he has to work harder. As a matter of fact in just about any interview you read of his the one thing he comes back to time and time again is having to work harder and work through the problems. That is what I like to hear and that's why I am not buying that he was throwing Romo under the bus. As he pointed out yesterday in a subsequent interview he wasn't saying he wanted the ball more, he was just saying they still aren't on the same page. And they aren't.
Now I am not going to say something ridiculous like RW is as good as TO. Clearly he isn't. However its not his fault that he isn't and while he is not TO he is still a pretty good receiver. At some point he and Romo will get on the same page and then he will make a lot of plays for the Cowboys. But until that time people need to take a chill pill and just let him be. Hell Irvin wasn't a TO either but he turned out ok.
"Here is the problem I have with the latest tempest in the teapot over Roy Williams, we never get to see what question he was asked."
That's a great point. It seems like we never get to see the question when players are quoted like this. He doesn't seem like the type of player to just come out and make this statement, but I don't know...
Has Roy Williams been dropping balls? Or just running bad routes? Or is he being thrown bad balls? I'm sure it's a combination. I don't watch as much Cowboys as you guys so I don't know. But when they quote stats about how many balls he catches that are thrown to him, that really only gives us so much information.
He runs good routes for the most part. He has definitely had some drops. But on and kind of crossing routes or slants Romo has consistently miss fired to him. And those could and should be his bread and butter. He probably will never just run away from somebody on deep balls but he can make it happen on post routes and crossing routes. But it seems like Romo can't judge his speed for some reason.
But it seems like Romo can't judge his speed for some reason.
This seems to me to hit the nail on the head. He seems to throw an awful lot of balls behind Roy. Now whether or not this a function of him not running precise enough routes or whether he's faster than Romo thinks he is, I don't know. He was an absolute beast here at UT, a man playing among boys, even for the level of talent that Texas routinely gets, and one of the reasons for that was his deceptive speed. He was never a speed burner, but really, really quick for such a big guy.
I was really excited when the Cowboys got him, but it certainly hasn't worked out as well I had hoped. He could still turn out to be really good, but even at the time, I thought the Cowboys gave up too much to get him, and still do.
Amen
Oops. Meant as a reply to SGW.
Sg thanks for getting on here and saving me some typing. As someone who had Dallas Cowboys onsies since infancy, I am still amazed at what can create a "tempest" in Cowboy Land. Roy has not lived up to expectations, but dude has been a team player since he got here. He has always openly claimed blame for his failings, and by all accounts has been a stand-up guy, and more importantly team mate. I listen to The Ticket out of Dallas, have been for a long long time. The afternoon guys have been the harshest critics of the 'Boys for quite sometime now, and on Monday were actually praising Roy for not letting his lack of production affect blocking, celebrating with his recievers when they score(something TO rarely did) and reapetedly saying that simply being a Cowboy was enough to get him through this maze. They have a daily report "the Ranch Report" given to them by Todd Archer, beat writer for the Dallas Morning News, and on wed after this comment came out on ESPN, Todd said that Roy basically answered the same question for about 15 minutes. At no time did Todd feel that the tone Roy was giving out was passing the blame, accusing Tony of playing favorites, or anything that resembled the "controversy" that followed the interview. Basically the jist being Roy saying over and over again "I don't know what the deal is, we work our ass off, everyone else has figured it out, thank god I'm not a Lion anymore."
That being said, it would be nice if Roy would make a catch on something not placed right into his chest. A catch on a ball he had no chance would be nice...seem him do it before...we are waiting...
I am definitely anxious to see him go up and get a few especially in the redzone. In the past his hands were ridiculous, I don't know what the hell is going on with him Dallas. Seriously
That should have been block quoted down to the last quote of "But that taste out of my mouth..."
Austin is hot right now, and presumably defenses will start to worry more about him. This can an opportunity for Williams to get open and put himself in a position to come up big - provided he *does* catch the ball.
Consider: the more often Moss gets double-teamed, the more often Brady can hit Welker for his wonderful YAC. Football is a sport with not one but two teams, so a lot of variables to work with. However, there is one that any player can work on as an individual- fundamentals. When it is thrown to you, Catch. The. Ball.
Monetary issues always get in the way. Whatever kind of receiver Williams is, because he has not performed at a level equivalent to his draft status or the cost to the Cowboys in trade, he will be denigrated. Especially, given that Austin has performed well beyond the expectations folks have had for him.
In 9er land, one year they moved up the draft to get all American wide receiver, JJ Stokes, who never turned out to be anything other than a second or third option. TO, on the other hand, came out of nowhere, and quickly, surpassing Stokes right away. These things happen.
But no one will really care one way or the other if the Cowboys win the Superbowl. For me as a non fan, beyond my Wade Phillips et al coaching staff skepticism, my Jerry Jones meddling owner skepticism, what strikes me about the Cowboys is how their awesome running game is underachieving. When you have not one but three running backs of such high quality, they should be ripping up the league and setting up the passing game for all the Cowboy receivers and Tony Romo.
Everybody is talking about Flaco with Balti, but when I see what Ray Rice does to opponents in the second half, it strikes me that he has done more than Flacco to have made an improvement in that offense. I like Favre, but I have no doubt, those wide receivers he has are not the reason this season has gone so well for him, but that having Adrian Peterson in the backfield has made the real difference.
Dallas has had one of the best rushing offenses in the NFL this year.