Cowboys WR Williams repeating frustrating refrain

By SCHUYLER DIXON
Associated Press Writer

IRVING, Texas(AP) — While his lower-paid teammate breaks records,
Cowboys receiver Roy Williams sounds like a broken record.

The player who cost Dallas three draft picks and a $45 million
contract extension has offered the same refrain for weeks now.
He’s frustrated. He can’t get on the same page with Tony Romo,
and doesn’t know why. He’s much happier simply winning in sunny
Dallas than he was losing in snowy Detroit.

Williams skipped to a slightly different tune this week by
saying he still considers himself the No. 1 receiver despite
mounting evidence to the contrary. He said “things are just
going No. 2’s way,” referring to Miles Austin.

The less-celebrated Austin has more yards and touchdowns in the
past three games than Williams has in his first 16 with the
Cowboys. Austin set an NFL record with 482 yards in his first
three starts, while Williams has 447 yards for the equivalent of
a full season in Dallas.

The former University of Texas standout found himself
backpedaling Thursday, a day after suggesting Romo’s throws are
accurate to Austin and all over the place to him.

Cowboys coach Wade Phillips made a similar observation Monday,
but the reaction to Williams saying it raised the specter of
Terrell Owens. Dallas dumped Owens and his demanding demeanor
during the offseason after widespread reports of locker-room
disharmony last year.

“I didn’t complain that I didn’t get the ball,” Williams said.
“All I said was that, when it comes to me, it’s not there. I’m
not saying it can’t be fixed, because that’s what we do every
day.

“I’m not a T.O., or I’m not trying to be a T.O.”

Austin’s big chance came in part because of one of those errant
Romo-to-Williams throws. Reaching to try to catch a high throw
against Denver, Williams took a hard shot to his ribs. The
damage forced him to miss the game at Kansas City a week later,
when Austin started and set a franchise record with 250 yards
and scored twice. Austin has five TDs in three games.

Williams, meanwhile, has just three touchdowns in a year with
Romo. He has 33 catches, not even close to his lowest total in
four full seasons with Detroit.

The quarterback is far from concerned, though. Romo says he
ignores the numbers and raves about what Williams does in
practice. And don’t even start with questions about whether he’s
missing the throws to the high-dollar guy on purpose.

“You know, we’ve been through this before with people trying to
intersect and divide us as a football team,” Romo said. “This
team is too strong from the core. This team is too committed to
winning and too committed to improving to let anything like that
… divide this team.”

Williams figured to be Romo’s top target among wide receivers
after Owens was released, but he didn’t have the numbers to back
it up. Although he had a 1,310-yard season in 2006 with the
Lions, he hasn’t come close to 1,000 yards any other year. He
scored 23 touchdowns his first three years combined, but has
just nine since.

Phillips maintains it’s just a matter of time. Because he
doesn’t have much to go on in games, he talks about practice. He
started this week by saying Williams makes catches “that nobody
makes” during workouts. When the questions persisted two days
later, he offered an example: a behind-the-back marvel that
coaches kept playing back on video because they couldn’t believe
it.

Of course, the example leads to the question why the ball was
behind Williams in the first place.

“If we had the answer, we’d do it quicker,” Phillips said. “The
only answer is to keep working, and both of them are doing that.
Roy Williams not having a big year for us so far hasn’t kept us
from being 5-2 anyway.”

Williams points out that it hasn’t kept the Cowboys from having
the No. 2 offense in the league, either.

“Everything is working for us: offense, defense and special
teams,” Williams said. “The only thing that isn’t working for us
is Romo-to-Williams and it’s a big deal. It’s the only thing
that y’all have to talk about.”

In T.O.’s old locker room, habits are hard to break.

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