Cowboys had top 5 defense before injuries

jokerface said
I hear ya.. but they lost 7 starters...and still finished 14th in overall defense. How many starters did we lose for the year? I believe besides Hawthorne and Vilma no other starters missed significant time and we finished 32nd. Worst in NFL history. It also seems from reading the cowboys forums and comment sections they were not happy about Rob Ryan being fired. They said the Defense was playing well especially with all the injuries and it was Romo choking and Jason Garrett's poor game management that cost them games. One of my favorite quotes from a disgruntled cowboy fan...

"Nice going Jerry, the Saints got Sean Peyton and Rob Ryan from us, funny didn't they get Sproles and Brees from the Chargers? And people say Romo is the problem, how's about stupid GM moves like fireing a guy when his D which was missing half the starter came through in the clutch but the offense choked"
Y! SPORTS

They finished 19th in total D.

Under Ryan’s guidance the Cowboys finished 19th in total defense in 2011 and 14th in 2012. With five defensive starters out for the season, Ryan was forced to use free agent players in significant roles down the stretch this year, a scenario that made it difficult to maintain the top 10 defense the Cowboys were deploying during the first half of the season.

Bruce Carter missed 5 games but their major injuries were Sean Lee and Ratliff.

Baltimore had key injuries to Terrell Suggs and Ray Lewis last year too but still finished a couple spots ahead of Ryan. Im just not very impressed with this guy overall. Even with both of those guys healthy in 2011 he only finished middle of the pack. Even his best year in 2006 was when he had Warren Sapp, Derrick Burgess, Namdi Asomugah, and Duane Starks as some of his starters.