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Cowboys Vs. Buccaneers: Rob Ryan Defends Defensive Performance

Rob Ryan has become embattled in Dallas, as the defensive coordinator's unit has fallen prey to late-game swoons allowing teams to make fourth-quarter comebacks, such as last week's Giants comeback against the Cowboys in Arlington. Ryan spoke with the media on Wednesday defending his defense, citing that they had "only two bad games" all season (quote courtesy of ESPN Dallas):

"Look, I like to stretch the envelope about as far as I can stretch it mentally demanding on our players but if there are some problems and it doesn’t work I’ve got to tone back," Ryan said. "That’s the hardest thing for me to do, but it’s something that has to be done. And we’re going to do that. I’ve got better players than everybody else and that’s just a fact. For us not to execute and statistically we’re garbage, well, when you give up 500 yards to somebody you’re going to be garbage. You know, and that’s the way it is. But we’ve done a lot of really good things this year also. But our players are there. We just have to do a better job of getting everybody to play together."

Owner Jerry Jones also confirmed to ESPN Dallas that Ryan and head coach Jason Garrett were working to review the defense, which has been criticized for being too complicated.

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Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.