Are We Being Too Harsh on Terrance Williams?

Anger, frustration, disgust. All emotions many Cowboys’ fans were experiencing during the final seconds of Dallas’ week one match-up against the New York Giants. With 0:09 remaining in the game, wide receiver Terrance Williams caught a pass from quarterback Dak Prescott at the Giants 48-yard line. The Cowboys had no timeouts left and the logical thing for Williams to do is run out-of-bounds as quickly as possible to ensure the Cowboys still had some hope to win the game. While this likely would have forced a difficult 62-63 yard field goal, Dallas kicker Dan Bailey is among the most accurate and reliable in the entire league. This makes the decision obvious, running out-of-bounds is what Williams should have done. This is, however, what Williams chose not to do. He opted to gain a few extra yards by staying in-bounds and while it’s obvious a couple of Giant’s players helped stall Williams, the Cowboys ran out of time and the game was over.

This was obviously a pretty glaring blunder, a mental mistake that should not have happened. Williams’ decision has been heavily criticized and much has been said on Twitter regarding the play, including one tid-bit from the Madden franchise:

But are we being too harsh on Williams in putting direct blame on him for the loss? While it may be easy to justify the answer as ‘No’, when you review the game in it’s entirety, it seems to paint a different picture.

On the first drive of the game, the Cowboys marched 65-yards down the field to setup a 1st and Goal from the Giants 10-yard line. Three plays later, after an incompletion to Cole Beasley and two short gains by RB Ezekiel Elliott, the Cowboys were kicking a field goal from the five-yard line. What if the Cowboys offense had been able to score a touchdown on this drive? On the very next drive, Dak Prescott hit Dez Bryant in the back of the end-zone for what appeared to be an easy 27-yard touchdown. A review of the play, however, led officials to reverse the call as playback showed Bryant dropped the pass as he fell to the ground. What if Bryant held on to the ball and the Cowboys’ lead was pushed to 10 points rather than six. Or what if, on the Cowboys very next drive, the Cowboys were able to score a touchdown inside the Giants 20 rather than settling for another field goal.

There are quite a few examples where multiple Cowboys’ players made costly mental mistakes. Whether it was dropped passes by Dez Bryant, a struggle to run the ball behind the league’s best offensive line, inaccurate throws by Dak Prescott, or even the sun shining in Jason Witten’s face (not to mention some blown assignments on defense), there are so many other instances where the Cowboys could have been in a position to win the game, without having to attempt a long field goal by Dan Bailey.

I’m in now way insinuating that what Williams’ did was acceptable. It wasn’t and he knows it. He admitted to making the wrong decision and will “make sure to follow the rules” in the future. However, to put all the blame on him for the Cowboys loss is a misguided judgement. Football is a team sport. You win and you lose as a team. Nobody on the Cowboys’ roster is pointing fingers at Williams. Yes it was a costly mistake, but if the team had been better early on the game, this scenario would have been completely different and the Cowboys likely would be heading to Washington 1-0.