Around thE NFL Monday’s news & notes

Cowboys: Two games into the season, the Dallas Cowboys defense had allowed nearly 900 yards and 54 points while creating plenty of concern. They were the only team in the league without a sack or a forced turnover. Cowboys linebacker Bradie James was already talking about an “adverse situation” and what a shame it would be to “just fall apart.” Well, take a look at them now. The NFC East-leading Cowboys (8-3) have become one of the NFL’s top defenses, and their play will be important heading into the crucial December stretch that begins Sunday in New York against a Giants team that was one of the two that torched them in September. “We’re just a better defensive unit right now. We’re all on one string playing together, everything’s flowing together, everybody’s buying into the system and everybody’s just having fun,” safety Gerald Sensabaugh said Monday, when Dallas returned to practice after it extended weekend after beating Oakland on Thanksgiving.

Jaguars: Jacksonville’s second trip to the West Coast resembled the first. The Jaguars (6-5) fumbled twice, missed two field goals and allowed six sacks in a 20-3 loss at San Francisco on Sunday. They were equally inept at Seattle in October, when David Garrard was sacked five times and fumbled twice in a 41-0 debacle that was the most lopsided loss in coach Jack Del Rio’s seven seasons. Del Rio and his players insisted Monday that the cross-country flight, the three-hour time difference and the altered routine had nothing to do with the team’s performance. “If we did that at home, it would be the same outcome,” fullback Greg Jones said. “The West Coast didn’t have anything to do with it.” The Jaguars fell to 2-4 on the road this season, with the four losses coming by a combined score of 105-28. They remain in the AFC playoff picture, partly thanks to Baltimore’s overtime win against Pittsburgh, but they have little room for error with games remaining against conference front-runners Indianapolis and New England.

Jets: Rex Ryan’s biggest problem when he and his brothers moved to Toronto with their mother as kids was figuring out how to ice skate. Yep, there was a time when the New York Jets coach zipped across the ice on blades. Well, sort of. “I never knew how to skate,” Ryan said with a grin. “Some would argue I still can’t skate. You have to play hockey or you weren’t going to play any sport, really, so I learned how to play hockey.” Ryan, whose parents were divorced, lived in Toronto with his twin brother Rob and older brother Jim from the ages of 3 until 15. That’s when their mother, Doris, decided they should move in with their father, Buddy, who was then a coach on the Minnesota Vikings’ staff. Rex Ryan is heading back to the city where he spent his formative years Thursday when the Jets take on the Buffalo Bills at the Rogers Centre.

Associated Press