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Ryan placed the blame on himself while talking to the media Thursday at Valley Ranch, the last practice day before playing Saturday night in Tampa. "I've been absolutely atrocious," he said of play calling in the 2-minute drill. "Two-minute situations have been our Achilles' heel all year." Yeah, well, but this will be Game 14 in Tampa. And this team or this defensive coordinator still hasn't gotten it right? Ryan is a local media dream because of his quotes, and here's a beauty from Thursday: "The bottom line is I tell my players I'm Sugar Ray Robinson. That's who I am. I'm the champ, and I always know I'm the best. Maybe nobody else in the media believes it, but I know the guys in the locker room do and I do. "So whatever it is, I'm the man in charge. I'm the man who will fix our problem. And I will get it fixed." That kind of juicy stuff sounded refreshing in training camp in August. But now? I haven't heard of any Valley Ranch doubts on Ryan being uttered under the cloak of "don't quote me." Outside the bunker walls, however, many with NFL backgrounds, including some former Cowboys employees and players, have been disgusted for weeks over Ryan's defensive schemes. "Totally unsound" is the description heard the most. "Whatever you think you know about basic play-calling in basic defensive situations, [Ryan] mostly does just the opposite," said one guy. "It makes no sense." Some of those complaints were heard even early in the season, when Ryan's defense was playing rather well. The prediction then was the league would catch up with Ryan. The catch-up happened. Garrett's most important hire once he took over in January was the defensive coordinator. He had to get that one right. It's Garrett who will have to decide at the end of the season if he got it right with Rob. Is it the scheme or the lack of talent? Maybe these final three regular season games will tell us more. Jason has struggled with his answers lately, and has taken severe national and local hits because of it. His eventual answer, however, on Rob Ryan will be the most important he makes.

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