Jerry Jones promised an off-season of change for the Dallas Cowboys, and changes have been made. One major change was at defensive coordinator where Rob Ryan was fired and replaced by Monte Kiffin.
After the firing, no excuse was actually given for the change until now. Per ESPN Dallas, Jason Garrett says the change was made because the Cowboys didn’t produce enough turnovers.
“We had 16. That’s 28 more opportunities with the ball,” Garrett told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. “Give me some of those 28 opportunities.
“That’s something that we really sat back and thought a lot about, had a lot of discussions about — what’s the best way to try to achieve that, and then, ‘OK, you want to do that, now who are the guys who can help implement that?
The Cowboys were not the greatest in the takeaway department especially when you factor in the Bears had 44. What’s it say that the Cowboys offense gave the ball away 29 times. Should Garrett have been fired twice?
Garrett continued to try to sugar coat things when he said that Ryan did do a good job. Some things were just missing.
“I thought Rob did a really good job,” Garrett said after Dallas’ 8-8 season ended. “I stood up here a number of times and said ‘You don’t want to talk about injuries’ and ‘We’re not talking about them now,’ but in answering your question I’m going to say that it was a real challenge for [Ryan]. If you think about the number of guys we lost on defense, starting, marquee players who are just simply out, and the other guys who are battling through injuries and the challenges he had bringing guys from the practice squad up, from off the street and on our team and literally playing them two days later.”