Jerry Jones: Rob Ryan’s Defense Had Too Many Schemes
By Mike Dyce
Dec 30, 2012; Landover, MD, USA; Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan reacts during the second half against the Washington Redskins at FedEX Field. The Redskins won 28 – 18. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA Today Sports
Jerry Jones made Rob Ryan the scapegoat for the Dallas Cowboys 2012 season. He famously promised to be out of work for all of “like 5 minutes.” It took a little longer than that but he finally landed with the New Orleans Saints.
Many defenders of Rob Ryan though say the defense was devastated by injuries and thats why the Dallas Cowboys struggled last season. At one point they were signing linebackers of the street to come in and fill in for injuries.
“Where we fundamentally came down with Rob is that his philosophy is about multiple scheme,” Jones said, via the Star-Telegram. “I think you have to skinny it down. Philosophically, I don’t think Rob believes in that.”
Jerry Jones pointed to early regular season losses against the Seattle Seahawks and the Chicago Bears (a game in which Tony Romo threw 5 interceptions) as indicators of the defenses poor performance when at or near full strength.
Jerry Jones apparently asked Rob Ryan to scale it down and he didn’t scale it back far enough.
“I think Rob will tell you we had long visits about this in the off-season last year that there was too much scheme. He tried to cut it back and he did skinny it back, but it’s still a lot,” Jones said. “We just didn’t feel like at the end of the day Rob could skinny it back enough to our satisfaction that we could make plays.”