For as much talk as Dallas defensive coordinator Rob Ryan dishes out, the condemnation of his unit's performance in a 34-7 rout by Philadelphia Sunday night is fairly even-tempered. Easily the league's chattiest coordinator, Ryan's comeuppance could be a lot worse - but it's only Monday morning.
ESPN Dallas' Tim MacMahon said the on-paper match-ups that favored the Cowboys' strengths (passing offense and rushing defense, particularly) are exactly where Dallas was gashed by the Eagles:
Philadelphia made the sexy matchups look like mismatches. The NFL's top-ranked rushing offense rolled for 239 yards against the top-ranked rushing defense. A Pro Bowl collection of cornerbacks shut down Miles Austin and Dez Bryant, who combined for a grand total of one catch in the first three quarters.
"It was a butt kicking by a really good football team," Cowboys linebacker Keith Brooking said.
The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram's Clarence Hill Jr. took to the inevitable task of feeding Ryan's many, many words right back to him:
One thing is for certain, all hype beats all talk.
Surely, the blowout win had nothing to do with defensive coordinator Rob Ryan's comments in the summer when he promised a victory over the "all-hype" team.
As Ryan said this week in not backing down from the comments, "If they need my words to motivate them, we are going to beat their [butt] anyway."
But there is also something to be said about walking the walk if you going to talk the talk.
Ryan's pumped up and cocky defense didn't come close to backing up his words.
They looked more like a scout team than a unit ranking seventh in the league overall and first against the run.
SB Nation's own Blogging The Boys declared it's "Back To The Drawing Board" for Dallas, who had previously prevented high-yardage "big plays" on defense until Sunday:
Last week we marveled at how the Dallas Cowboys were not only putting up a very high number of big plays (plays of 20+ yards) but allowing very few on defense as well. In fact, up until the Eagles game yesterday, the Cowboys had the best big play differential in the league with +15. But that changed quickly yesterday.
Not only did the Eagles offense pull off seven plays of 20+ yards compared to only three for the Cowboys offense, but the Eagles also recorded 22 plays of 10 yards or more, versus only 11 for the Cowboys.
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