Ryan sees improvement for Cowboys

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ARLINGTON, Texas — Rob Ryan knows he tried to do too much in his first season as defensive coordinator for the Cowboys.

Without offseason workouts because of the NFL lockout last summer, Ryan was left with basically a cram session as he tried to install his complicated 3- 4 scheme during a hurried preseason.

“You want to be best right off the bat, and you want to be multiple, that’s what I like to do,” Ryan said. “I think I’m smart, and I know I am, but unfortunately I probably put a little too much in too early.”

The Cowboys were ultimately better on defense than the previous season, but the boastful Ryan felt his unit lost confidence late. The Cowboys lost four of their last five games, including a finale against the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants that determined the NFC’s last playoff spot.

“It wasn’t all schematic- related. The parts where I take the blame for was when there’s confusion on the defense, and a lot of that was us not getting on the same page, even in training camp,” Ryan said. “Little details come back and hurt you when you’re playing against a Super Bowl champion. That hurt, and then the fact that I think we lost a little bit of confidence in the back end, we weren’t challenging receivers.”

With a normal offseason this year — the Cowboys wrapped up four weeks of on- field workouts Thursday at Cowboys Stadium — Ryan has been able to set a foundation for what they will do throughout the season.

“We’re not throwing the entire playbook at these guys,” he said. “We’re taking slower steps. ... We understand what we’re doing a lot better than we did last year at this point. It’s not even close.”