Yes, You've Got To Feel For Cowboys' Terrance Williams
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ARLINGTON (105.3 THE FAN) - When it comes to Terrance Williams failing to find the sideline at the end of the Cowboys' season-opening 20-19 loss to the visiting Giants, you kinda have to feel for him.
Even though, when it comes to the instincts to find that sideline in a way that might have salvaged the game, T-Will apparently had no feel at all.
"It doesn't bother me,'' Williams said of the criticism he knows is coming due to him not sprinting out of bounds with a tick left on the clock to allow Dan Bailey a chance at a game-winning 62-yard field goal. "I'm used to people blaming me, anyway. So it's not something new. I know what type of guy I am. I know how I work. Hearing different people talk about me, that's not going to bother me.''
Ah, but it does. Williams is acutely aware of the frequent "body-catcher'' criticism and is fully plugged into a social-media world in which everybody is a critic and everyone is an expert.
The problem here isn't "character'' or "work ethic''; the problem here isn't really the analysis of outsiders, either.
"At the end of the day I'm still here, I'm still doing my job,'' said Williams, who to his credit stood in the AT&T Stadium locker room fielding waves of harsh questions. "I'm trying my best to put my team in position to win. So I can't continue to pay attention to what people say; they're going to talk bout me regardless. Only thing I can do is focus on what my coaches say and what my teammates say.''
Right. And what does his coach say?
"What he needed to do there,'' coach Jason Garrett said frankly, "was simply run out of bounds. It's a well-practiced situation. We've been in that situation a lot and (Williams') instincts took him inside. Obviously, with no timeouts and 12 seconds to go (when the third-and-10 play started at Dallas' 46-yard line), he needs to catch that ball and immediately get out of bounds.''
Oh.
Making Williams the singular goat here isn't appropriate. The Dallas defense recorded a rare sack and a rare interception and held Eli Manning's offense to 20 points … buy got gashed in the clutch. The Dallas offense, operated by rookie QB Dak Prescott in for a sidelined Tony Romo, never quite got fellow rookie Zeke Elliott completely loose on the ground and only managed to get Dez Bryant one reception, but the Cowboys still moved the ball well enough to swing four Bailey field goals, including one each from 54 and 56 yards …
But were left needing a chance at a fifth field goal. A 62-yarder. A long shot, but a shot.
And yeah, you know, down-deep, that really does bother Terrance Williams.
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