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IRVING — Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo can still escape a collapsing pocket with greater ease than the seemingly always swirling winds of controversy at Valley Ranch.
Romo and the rolling Cowboys head into Sunday night’s showdown at Philadelphia, not so much hyping their chances of taking over divisional supremacy, but stamping out another locker-room brush fire.On Wednesday, struggling receiver Roy Williams continued his weekly discourse into his and Romo’s bizarre disconnect. Speaking openly and not accusatorily, Williams said that Romo throws more accurately to his other receivers, one reason why Williams has just 14 catches in six games.On Thursday, Romo, instead of fielding questions about his three-game streak with eight touchdowns and no interceptions, his excellent judgment of late or the team’s evolving offensive diversity, defended Williams as a hard worker and someone who cares, and then got defensive, attempting to quash any notion of a rift."I don’t look at the numbers. I don’t know what would be good numbers and what wouldn’t be," said Romo, after being informed that Miles Austin has caught 62 percent of the balls thrown to him, while Williams has corralled just 38 percent of the passes intended for him. "We’ve been through this before with people trying to intersect and divide a football team and this team is too strong from the core," Romo continued. "I know the media is going to make certain things appear what they may not actually have been or things of that nature. This team is too committed to winning and too committed to improving to allow anything like that or anything you guys may present to us to divide this team. We’re just going to keep improving, getting better and we’ll be ready to go this weekend."Austin’s starring role in three consecutive wins has allowed the Cowboys to mostly brush over Williams’ curious ineffectiveness on the field. The Eagles might have a say in changing that with cornerback Asante Samuel, who has five of the defense’s 14 interceptions.If Philadelphia can slow Austin, the heat turns up on Williams to produce. The numbers don’t lie, and others beside Williams are now acknowledging that fact.Wade Phillips said Williams and Romo were not on the same page after last week’s win over the Seattle Seahawks when Williams had just two catches for 19 yards. "It has surprised me because they spent so much time in the off-season, the OTAs, training camp," quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson said. "During training camp I thought they were making great strides ... Being this deep in the season and still having miscues is a big shock and there’s no one reason to figure out why that’s happening."This week Williams and Romo have been throwing after practice, hoping to develop some sort of chemistry that will prevent the continuation of the problem."There’s been times when Roy’s open and Tony just has a couple of bad throws and it always seems to be happening with Roy," Wilson said. "Then there’s other times that they’re not on the same page as far as reading the coverages the same way. So there’s been a multitude of things, but when he’s open and they don’t hook up, there’s really no firm explanation of why that’s happening."Williams has heard the criticism since the end of last season when he finished with 19 catches in 10 games with the Cowboys. Because he talks to the media about his and Romo’s troubles each week, some critics are tabbing him as a malcontent like a former Cowboys receiver."I’m not a T.O., or I’m not trying to be a T.O.," Williams said. "I don’t know why people are trying to put me in that category because I’m happy to win. I’ve said that 100 times. I don’t understand why people won’t just say, 'OK,’ and leave it alone."Jeff Caplan, 817-390-7760
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