IRVING, Texas – Rob Ryan took all the blame for the defensive debacle in Philadelphia, but he was wrong in doing so.
That’s according to DeMarcus Ware, one of the few Dallas defensive players who performed well in the lopsided loss to the Eagles.
“He’s not going to let his players take the blame for what happened, but it’s partially on everybody,” said Ware, who had a career-high four sacks in the game. “We’re not going to let him down anymore.”
Ryan readily admitted Eagles coach Andy Reid “kicked my ass,” consistently making calls to expose weaknesses in the Cowboys’ defensive game plan. And he was right. Philadelphia frequently got LeSean McCoy loose by calling run plays to spots vacated by blitzes or movement on the defensive line and picked apart the Cowboys’ deep Cover 2 zone with intermediate routes across the middle.
However, there were also plenty of occasion when defenders failed to make plays when they were in good position.
“I think regardless it’s all 50/50 – 50 on coaches, 50 on players,” Ware said. “But it’s up to the players to execute and make plays. We didn’t do that last week. We’re surely going to do that this week. We’ve corrected everything we need to correct.”