ST. LOUIS - Just five weeks after suffering a broken right
arm, safety Roy Williams didn't get through one quarter of football without
doing it again.
And this time, it doesn't look like he'll be returning this season.
In a completely unrelated incident from his original broken right forearm,
Williams broke his arm again Sunday against the Rams, although in a different
spot on his arm.
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said after the Cowboys' 34-14
loss to the Rams, that he even though Williams was scheduled to be out another
six weeks, that it's likely the safety will now go to injured reserve.
With so many players such as Tony Romo, Terence Newman and Felix Jones out of
action for a limited time, the Cowboys simply can't afford to hold any more
roster spots.
Wearing a protective brace to stabilize the injury, Williams was cleared by
team doctors to play this week.
Cowboys head trainer Jim Maurer said it's an unfortunate coincidence and that
the two injuries were unrelated.
Without Williams, the Cowboys will likely go back to Keith Davis as the
starting strong safety. Pat Watkins initially replaced Williams when he suffered
the first break against the Eagles in Week Two. But Watkins has been rather
banged up himself, missing the last three games with a neck injury.
To make things worse, the Cowboys nearly lost Davis in Sunday's game when he
suffered a head-on collision with a Rams defender during a punt return. Davis
took a while to get to his feet, but later returned to the game.
Line Struggles Continue Things did not get any better for the
Cowboys slumping offensive line Sunday, continuing a trend of inconsistent play
dating back to Week Three in Green Bay.
While the offense's first drive of the game had big running lanes and time
for Brad Johnson to pass, the holes closed and pressure caused miscues in the
passing game. The Rams stretched their first quarter lead to 21-7 after their
offense inherited a short field as a result of an interception Brad Johnson
threw on the Cowboys 17. The pass was tipped by St. Louis defensive tackle
Clifton Ryan at the line of scrimmage and caught off the deflection by
linebacker Will Witherspoon.
On the play, Ryan drove fill-in left guard Cory Procter back into Johnson's
face. Procter's struggles continued, with second-year lineman Adam Carriker
getting around him for a tackle of Marion Barber in the backfield.
Barber had 45 yards after the first series, but just 61 yards on 14 carries
at the half. Take away his 35-yarder to set up the initial score, and Barber was
averaging just 1.9 yards per carry over the first two quarters, as the Rams
continually loaded up to stop the run and the Cowboys couldn't get anything
going trying to pound it in. Barber finished with 100 yards on 18 carries, but
he had several long runs in the second half when the Rams were playing deep to
stop the pass.
In those situations, the pass rush was effective. Brad Johnson was sacked
three times for 17 yards, but he was hit eight other times. On back-to-back
plays in the third quarter with the Cowboys trying to air it out, he was brought
down by a three-man rush.
Pre-snap penalties were a problem for the offense, backing the team into
unmanageable third downs and allowing the Rams' pass rushers to tee off.
"Sometimes when you get into longer down and distance situations like we've
been in, it's harder on those guys," said offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.
"We just need to execute better throughout the game, throughout the series, to
stay in those more positive situations."
- Josh Ellis
No Hot Seats
The question probably was inevitable given the Cowboys' high expectations and Sunday's lopsided third loss in four weeks: Should head coach Wade Phillips and his staff be concerned about job security?
When asked after the game, team owner Jerry Jones categorically said no.
"It's pretty obvious that here with seven games into this season that we need to sit down and look at what we're doing," Jones said. "That's not to be in any way interpreted as a change of any coaching or dramatically change some positions. It's more about how we can be more intense in what we're doing.
"I think there can be a change in effort, intensity, those kinds of things on each individual basis. But I'm not talking about any kind of change with coach or coaches or philosophy or some of the stuff we're doing scheme-wise generally."
- Rob Phillips
Something To Say Not only did Cowboys owner and general manager
Jerry Jones feel the need to address the team in the locker room following the
game, but even the soft-spoken Leonard Davis said a few words to the team, too.
"I don't really talk a lot like that . . . not really a rah-rah guy," Davis
said. "But when I got something to say, I don't care, I'm going to speak my
mind. It really wasn't a big deal."
Davis said he just reminded this team not to focus on last year's success and
a 13-3 record.
"We just can't ride the wave anymore," he said. "Last year is last year. We
can't look back at last year. It doesn't help us now. That's really all I said."
Punter Debuts Wide receiver Roy Williams wasn't the only player
making his Cowboys debut. Punter Sam Paulescu, signed this week to replaced the
injured Mat McBriar, had five punts for a 42.0 yard average in his first game
this season.
His first punt wasn't exactly in the most ideal of places, standing seven
yards deep in his end zone. And the result was even worse, just a 36-yard punt
that set up another Rams touchdown midway through the first quarter.
Paulescu did settle down and had two punts that could've been downed inside
the Rams' five. Both times, the Cowboys' punt coverage team struggled to corral
the ball before going into the end zone for a touchback.
The Cowboys signed Paulescu on Tuesday after placing McBriar on injured
reserve with a fractured right foot. McBriar suffered the injury on the final
play last week when his punt was blocked in overtime and returned for Arizona's
game-winning touchdown.
Scary Moment
Cowboys safety Keith Davis and the Rams' Derek Stanley violently collided during a third-quarter punt return. Both eventually left the field after being examined by their respective medical staffs.
Davis, who finished the game, was seen blinking his eyes repeatedly. He said the impact of the collision temporarily blurred his vision in one eye but said it eventually returned.
- Rob Phillips
Short Shots
Wide receiver Terrell Owens had another relatively quiet game (two catches for 31 yards) despite facing more single coverage than in the last few weeks. "There were some opportunities there; we just didn't connect on them," Owens said . . . Rookie tight end Martellus Bennett caught his first career touchdown pass (34 yards) late in the fourth quarter. Bennett now has five catches for 124 yards this season and is averaging 24.8 yards per catch . . . The Cowboys converted just 5 of 13 third down attempts (38 percent).
Home | Email | Print | Register for New Alerts | RSS
Nick Eatman - 
