After the Dolphins beat the Browns on Sunday, wide receiver Mike Wallace didn’t have anything to say to reporters other than instructions to go talk to the coaches about a game plan that resulted in one catch for Wallace in his Dolphins debut.
Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant had a similarly low output in relation to expectations on Sunday night, catching four passes for 22 yards after a 2012 campaign and 2013 preseason that hinted at much bigger numbers. The Giants saw those hints and doubled Bryant all night long, opening up space for Miles Austin and Jason Witten to catch 18 passes for 142 yards on the way to a 36-31 victory.
It’s not the game Bryant would want for himself, but it is exactly the result the team is looking for and Bryant said after the game that he’s fine being the object of the defense’s respect when it opens things up for his teammates.
“If teams want to continue to keep doing that, we’ll continue to keep doing what we’re doing,” Bryant said, via Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com. “I honestly feel like it’s respect. You’re respecting me, so therefore, it’s always good to see somebody else shine. When it opens up for me, I’m going to do what I love to do, and that’s make plays.”
Bryant hasn’t always been so sanguine about being relatively uninvolved in the passing attack, but experience has likely taught him that big games for Witten and Austin in Week One are likely to lead to big games for Bryant down the road as defenses try to stop an offense with plenty of options for Tony Romo to use in the passing game.