Two of the first three times Lil' Chris Williams touched the ball Monday night, he wound up getting yelled at.
The first time was after he muffed the second Jacksonville punt of the game. That was bad enough. But he nearly ran right into Dolphins coach Tony Sparano as he chased that muff out of bounds onto the Dolphins sideline.
Sparano, predictably, gave the rookie wide receiver out of New Mexico State an earful.
Later in the first quarter, on his very next punt return, Williams messed up even worse. Not only did he field a punt at his own 4 -- a definite no-no for any punt returner -- but he ran laterally and got tackled at the 1, leaving Chad Pennington and the first-team offense in horrible shape.
At that point the kid could have crawled under a rock. Some rookies would have gone into a shell.
Instead, Williams stood there on the sideline and took an earful of coaching from special teams coordinator John Bonamego. Sparano stood about four yards away, arms folded across his chest, listening and waiting his turn. When Bono was done, Sparano got in a few choice words of his own.
And then, the very next time Williams touched the ball, he started to make up for his transgressions with a 36-yard kickoff return. The kid showed blazing speed. There would be another punt return -- four in all, no fair catches, one more slight bobble -- and three more kickoff returns. He averaged nearly 32 yards on those kickoff returns. He nearly broke a couple of them.
And yes, he impressed the coach.
