Cadillac Is Leaving 'Em In His Dust Martin Fennelly, The Tampa Tribune, published 19 September 2005 They patted him down when he entered the stadium. Another 100-yard game fell out. As he went, the Bucs went. And he went and went. Again. Club has itself a running back. "He's a warrior," Mike Alstott said. His coach told him to sit, but the energizer wouldn't. At the very moment it was announced that he'd left the game with an injury and his return was "questionable," he came back in and answered. Add the Buffalo Bills to the witness list. Likewise a sellout crowd at Carnell Williams Stadium. They walked to the parking lot and their gas guzzlers talking about the new engine driving the Bucs. Their team is 2-0 for the first time since 2000. Jon Gruden is a genius again. Last week it was 27 carries for 148 yards in Minnesota. This week it was 24 carries for 128 against a very good defense. Last week's touchdown went 71 yards. This week's went 3 yards, but was as impressive in its own way. He punished the Bills as much as the Bucs defense did in a 19-3 win. Cadillac Williams slid through one last hole Sunday. Cameras parted to make way for the kid everyone is talking about. He limped slightly from a sprained left foot. He injured it just before halftime. After halftime, he gained 57 more yards, broke off a 31-yard run and twisted and fought his way into the end zone for a score. And how was your day? He's the first rookie runner since Edgerrin James in 1999 to begin his career with consecutive 100-yard games. Emmitt Smith never did that. Gale Sayers never did that. Walter Payton never did that. Errict Rhett never did it, either. The season is only two games old, but already we've seen special things from Carnell Williams, things we've never seen in one Bucs package, the kind of things that change teams and seasons. The kind you can't take your eyes off. "We watch him just like you do," Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber said. He sees holes before they're there. He makes them when they're not. He slides, he glides. He makes 5 yards instead of 3, 3 instead of 1, and so on. If you nap, he's gone. If you look for him to take the easy way out of bounds, you eat his helmet for lunch. And if it's hot, like it was Sunday, and if you're from Buffalo, which the Bills are, you're done talking at him by the fourth quarter. You're out of breath. "Once them guys get to drooling, they don't come off the ball as fast," Cadillac said. "They're definitely not talking anymore." That was actually said with all modesty by Williams, who repeatedly thanked his offensive line, which deserved it after paving the road for 191 rushing yards, the most yards ever by the Gruden Bucs. The linemen talked about Cadillac. "He's so tough," right tackle Kenyatta Walker said. "You saw him on TV in college, and you just didn't know how tough he is." How tough? After Williams sprained his foot, Gruden decided to sit him in the second half. But Cadillac stretched some, then appeared before his head coach, who had been true to his word. He had ridden the Caddy. But not now. "No, you're done," Gruden said. "Coach I can go. Let's go, man," Williams said. Gruden was adamant: "Well, OK." As Cadillac goes ... Cadillac is here, and his shoulders seem enormous. He won't take no for an answer, even against stingy Buffalo. In the fourth quarter, the Bills dropped Williams for a 3-yard loss. The next play, he tore loose for 31. And there was the touchdown that put this game away. Stopped at the line by Bills linebacker Jeff Posey, Williams twisted away and lunged into the end zone. "Guys are going to have their shots," Williams said. "I'm going to go down. But you can't just hit me and expect me to lay down." Maybe he heard too many questions about his size before the draft. Maybe there's a small chip on one of those big shoulders. All the better. But it's that left foot that has Bucs Land holding its breath. Williams limped again as he left the locker room. Who knows what this week will hold? It ends with a trip to Green Bay, where the Bucs never win. Not that it's impossible. As Cadillac goes ...