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The Cowboys' failures last season can't be laid at the feet of ex-coach Bill Parcells, writes columnist Jim Reeves.

My guess? Parcells was being truthful in answering the same question, rather than trying to cover for owner Jerry Jones like he did before last year’s training camp by saying that signing Owens was a “committee” decision that he went along with at the time.

Parcells obviously feels no compunction to try to protect Jones or “the player,” as he constantly referred to Owens, any further.

Parcells’ decision to retire was best for him and best for the Cowboys. From his first year as Cowboys coach there were constant questions about his desire or if he was just hanging on to rebuild his nest egg after an expensive divorce.

But the pitiful finger-pointing going on by a handful of Cowboys’ players now is an attempt to re-write history and take themselves off the hook for woefully under-performing.

Julius Jones was definitely intimidated by Parcells, as most if not all of the players were, but no one can say that the coach didn’t want a great running game and Jones was given ample opportunity to become a star. We’re still waiting.

And while there’s some validity to the criticism that Parcells’ 3-4 defense was too conservative — as opposed to the more aggressive 3-4 new coach Wade Phillips is expected to run — that didn’t keep good players like Terence Newman, or DeMarcus Ware, or Greg Ellis before his injury, from making plays.

Spears and Williams? Not so much.

“I know a lot of people say I don’t cover...I don’t do this, I don’t do that,” Williams told a DFW sports anchor, saying he felt limited by Parcells’ defense. “They don’t understand the scheme of our defense. When it looks like I’m getting burned, that’s not my job to take that player.”

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Maybe he will in Phillips’ 3-4, which reportedly will try to take advantage of Williams’ strengths and play him closer to the line of scrimmage.

If he doesn’t succeed then, though, who’s the next scapegoat?

That fumbled Romo snap in Seattle that ended the Cowboys’ season? Somehow, it wasn’t Parcells’ fault.

“You won’t hear that from me,” Romo said. “For me, it’s almost a situation where Bill’s job will be realized if we are able to do something here...he really did help turn this franchise around, even though we may not have gone where it is expected around here.

“We weren’t very good before he got here.”

No, they weren’t, and they still have a ways to go. I’d feel a lot better about them getting there some day if they’d grow up and accept responsibility for their own failures instead of blaming it all on “The Boogeyman.”

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