Texas NFL Capsules: Cowboys WR Williams repeating frustrating refrain

IRVING — 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.

Houston’s defense has new edge

HOUSTON — Houston’s defense has a new attitude. Some might call it confidence, but the Texans prefer to call it something else.

"You have to have the swagger when you step on the field that you’re going to get it done, you’re going to go make big plays to get off the field," linebacker DeMeco Ryans said.

It’s a feeling that’s growing each week as this group improves and Houston keeps winning. On Sunday, they’ll see if their newfound swagger can help at Indianapolis, a place where they’ve never won.

"This is the game we’ll be judged on as a defense," cornerback Dunta Robinson said. "So many times you see the Colts go out there and play a team that’s been playing well and score 30 or 40 points. If we want to be the type of defense that we think we are and that we know we can be, we’ve got to go out and make a statement."

The group had a rough start, particularly against the run, and allowed an NFL-worst 205 yards rushing a game in the first three games. They’ve turned it around since then, giving up about 58 yards a game through their last five.

The defense was key in Houston’s 31-10 win over Buffalo on Sunday. The group allowed just 7 points off three first quarter turnovers and shut out the Bills after halftime.

Houston’s veterans said having more playmakers on defense has allowed them to play with more confidence.

"We’re playing a lot better — all 11 guys," Robinson said. "In previous years maybe two, three, four guys max on the defense were making plays. But now it’s everybody. So that’s kind of a different feeling. I’ve never been in that situation where all 11 guys are out there making plays."

The unit has been helped by the emergence of rookie linebacker Brian Cushing, who earned his second AFC defensive player of the week honor this week. He leads the team and all rookies with 66 tackles, has two interceptions and two forced fumbles.

Other newcomers to the unit are end Antonio Smith and tackle Shaun Cody. The pair have joined first-round picks Mario Williams and Amobi Okoye to shore up Houston’s defensive front.

"Antonio seems to be getting better every week for our football team so that’s very encouraging," coach Gary Kubiak said. "We all played very good up front (Sunday) and he was the leader of the pack. Shaun Cody continues to get better too."

The secondary has improved in recent weeks with Robinson warming up after missing training camp, cornerback Jacques Reeves and safety Eugene Wilson returning from injuries, and the addition of safety Bernard Pollard.

The players also think they’ve improved because they didn’t point fingers during their early-season struggles. Each player simply figured out what he was doing wrong and fixed it.

"Everybody is confident in their abilities and that swagger just comes from being accountable and everybody doing their job," Ryans said. "When you know that guys are going to line up and do their job it’s easy to go out and play with swagger because you’re only worried about what you have to do, you’re not worried that those guys are going to be wrong or they may mess a play up."

They’ll get to see how much they’ve improved against the undefeated Colts and their NFL-best passing game. Peyton Manning threw for 567 yards and four scores in two meetings with Houston last season.

"We’ve got to get to him," Robinson said. "We’ve got to get pressure on him and we’ve got to get off the field on third downs. The best way to beat this team is keep this offense off the field and that’s what we have to do."

-- Kristie Rieken