Can We Call It a Failure Yet?

Roy Williams stated on Wednesday what all of us already knew.  Roy and Tony are not connecting on the field.  Really?  As if we all had not been watching the disaster known as the Roy Williams Experiment.

After the Seattle game, Williams has played in 16 games with the Cowboys, the length of a full NFL season.  During that tenure, Williams has 33 receptions for 447 yards and only three touchdowns.  What other receiver in the NFL would have a starting job putting up those numbers during a full season?

Let's look at the stats for the other Cowboys receivers in 2009 alone.

Miles Austin has 26 receptions and 563 yards with six touchdowns.

Patrick Crayton, who has been replaced as a starter, has 20 receptions for 291 yards and two touchdowns.

So far in 2009, the Cowboys have been reluctant to go to Williams in key situations, and who can blame them?  Williams has been reluctant to make a catch.  Although he has been suffering from a rib injury (which we can all agree to blame on Romo), Williams has seemed almost skittish in his attempts across the middle of the field. 

The one thing that the NFL has proved time and time again is that once a receiver stops going across the middle, he is done.  As much as Cowboy fans want Roy to succeed, a lot of those fans acknowledge that this entire experiment has been a bust.

When Williams was acquired by the Cowboys in 2008, fans across the Metroplex and the rest of the country felt like it signaled the beginning of the end of Terrell Owens in Dallas (which is an entirely different story—Owens was done too) and the beginning of the Romo to Williams connection that would lead this team to a Super Bowl. 

Instead, the Cowboys threw away two draft picks.  One of which, Brandon Pettigrew, has the same amount of catches as a rookie tight end in Detroit that Williams has as the lead receiver in Dallas.

The most unsettling thing for most fans in Dallas was the comment made by Williams during his statement on Wednesday morning.  Williams made reference to the fact that all of the other receivers were getting balls thrown right to them while he was having to reach and stretch and turn. 

Williams did something not thought to be possible.  With that one statement, Williams was able to put himself in the same category as Terrell Owens. 

It is always amazing how players can place blame on everyone but themselves when things are not going well.  If you were being outplayed by someone from Northeast Oklahoma State (Crayton) and Monmouth (Austin), wouldn't you complain too?

The bottom line is this: Roy Williams has not worked out in Dallas.  Whether he wants to admit it or not, Williams has been the problem.  Watch the games Roy.  You'll see what all of us already know.