By Miles Austin – The Anti-TO: “I’m just doing my job in the group and these last two weeks I just happened to get some of the credit for it.”
October 27, 2009 – 4:00 am by Michael Bean
10 catches for 250 yards and 2 TDs. 6 catches for 171 yards and 2 TDs. Those would be the lines of Miles Austin’s past two games – both wins for the Dallas Cowboys. So much for Tony Romo missing Terrell Owens. And so much for wondering if Roy Williams can be the #1 type guy that people thought Dallas needed him to be. Miles Austin can be that threat in the passing game for the Cowboys if the past two weeks are any indication.
Dallas thumped the visiting Atlanta Falcons 37-21 on Sunday afternoon, and improved their record to 4-2 in the process. With the New York Giants losing at Arizona, the Cowboys suddenly find themselves just a half game out of first place in the NFC East. Austin joined another productive Cowboys wide receiver, Michael Irvin, on his radio show on ESPN Radio Dallas to talk about all his individual success recently, what it’s done for his confidence, and how he’s been able to silence some of his critics who thought he wouldn’t be able to play more than just outside on the perimeter.
On what these past two weeks have been like for him individually:
“They’ve been exciting, they’ve been fun, but they’ve also been a lot of work. We’ve been working really hard as a team and all our hard work is starting to pay off slowly. We’ve got a long way to go and we got to continue to still work hard. We’ve got a long season and left and we’re going to continue to just work hard and hopefully we can keep getting the dividends of that.”
On if he’s surprised by just how productive he’s been:
“I guess I would be a little bit surprised because I haven’t had that type of success before on this level yet. But, that being said, I put a lot of hard work in to it so when good things starting happening, I don’t want to say I’m used to it, but we’re doing it in practice. So it just kind of carries over in to the week. So during the game I’m not surprised, but I guess I’m surprised if I look back at it, I would be a little bit surprised.”
On his confidence level after all the recent success:
“I mean, I feel slightly confident. I’m always a pretty confident guy. But I really feel it’s just execution. We’re going in, running the plays that are called, everybody’s blocking upright. All I have to do really is my job. That’s what coach always preaches – everyone just do your job. And that’s basically what I’m trying to do. I don’t try to do anything more than my job. I just try to do my job for the play and that’s what everyone’s really focused on. And if everyone’s doing their job – granted, I might get some of the credit only because I’m the one who scores the touchdown. But there’s 10 other guys, there’s guys on the defense helping us, there’s guys on special teams, there’s the scout team guys. It’s really a collective group. I’m just doing my job in the group and these last two weeks I just happened to get some of the credit for it. But really it’s everybody as a whole.”
On if he has heard and agrees with those who say that Austin can’t succeed when lined up as a Z-receiver rather than out wide as an X:
“No, I haven’t heard that but I don’t think there’s much of a difference besides for the most part being on the ball or being off the ball. I mean, basically we sometimes have mirrored routes, but I feel all the Xs can run all the Z-routes, and all the Zs can run all the X-routes anyway. So we got a really diverse group of guys, but we got guys who can run all the same type of routes. Like Roy, Roy can run slants, Roy can run fades. So can Pat, so can Sam, so can I Kevin (radio host Kevin Kiley). So I feel although we’re positioned as X and Z, we can run all the routes. So it’s good to have a group of guys that can run all the routes.”
Listen here to Austin with Irvin on ESPN Radio Dallas
Tags: Dallas Cowboys, ESPN Radio Dallas, is Miles Austin the Cowboys best receiver?, Michael Irvin Show, Miles Austin, Roy Williams, Tony Romo, top NFL wide receivers
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