NFL

20 Reasons Why The Dallas Cowboys Keep Blowing It In The Playoffs

Darren Ryding - July 4, 2024

NFL

20 Reasons Why The Dallas Cowboys Keep Blowing It In The Playoffs

Darren Ryding - July 4, 2024

The Dallas Cowboys are one of the most successful overall sports franchises in American professional sports. They became synonymous with winning and even earned the nickname, “America’s Team.” But recent years haven’t been kind to the Cowboys, with their last Super Bowl title arriving in 1995. This is a travesty for one of the NFL’s grandest franchises and it’s not getting any better as they keep blowing it in the playoffs.

After their most recent Divisional Round playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers, let’s look at why Dallas continues wasting golden opportunities to end their drought. We’ve seen problems on the field and in the front office. These combine to create something rotten in the state of Texas. Their fans will find this very painful while everybody else will enjoy it. Check out the reasons why the Cowboys keep blowing it in the playoffs below.

Weak Mentality

The Cowboys went 5-11 in postseason games in their last 16 playoff games culminating in 2022. Meanwhile, the last time they made it past the Divisional Game was in 1995. This is an atrocious record for the most lucrative franchise in the U.S. They’re also historically one of the most successful regular-season teams, and this drives up fan expectations about their abilities.

The problem is that the pressure keeps increasing because they keep losing. This puts a lot of strain on the players because they must overcome a losing mentality. The bloated, creaking giant is blowing it yearly because no coach can fix this. This is partly due to Jerry Jones’s approach, but it’s a more intrinsic issue (via Sports Illustrated).

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Coaching Woes

The Cowboys are the richest as well as one of the most successful sports franchises on the planet. This means it should be easy for them to attract the best coaches out there. However, their past hires make up a rogue’s gallery of some of the worst in the business. Jerry Jones has failed to find the right replacement to follow up on the ‘Boys’ Super Bowl glory years.

Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer had short Super Bowl-winning tenures with Landry’s team. But then we saw Dave Campo, Chan Gailey, and a bunch of other subpar candidates take the job. Mike McCarthy has a Super Bowl win on his resume but it’s almost more impressive that he only won one during his time with Aaron Rodgers (via Bleacher Report). He’s failed to propel the Cowboys to any meaningful playoff success as of this writing.

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Fan Impatience

It’s almost 30 years since the Cowboys won their last Super Bowl title. That means two generations of fans have never seen their team lift a Vince Lombardi Trophy. It’s not surprising that they often become frustrated and lose their tempers with the team. Unfortunately, this is a Catch-22 situation for the fans and the players.

Their supporters spend lots of money and want their team to do well. But they underperform and keep blowing it in the postseason. Then the fans react by placing even more pressure on their favorite players. Inevitably these stars crumble and fail to deliver. It’s an endless cycle of misery that the rest of the NFL loves (via NBC).

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Dysfunctional Front Office

The Cowboys’ front office is up there with the most dysfunctional places in Texas. Jerry Jones treats the franchise like his personal fiefdom and doesn’t understand why they don’t win anything. However, they keep making dumb decisions and that’s part of why they’re blowing it every season.

In 2022, they signed Brett Maher as their kicker despite his clear inadequacies. This lack of foresight cost them in the playoffs because he committed some high-profile errors. These are little details that other franchises wouldn’t have a problem with. But Jones and his staff wreak havoc in every facet of the organization (via Fansided).

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Bloated Contracts

Some of the Cowboys are earning far too much money without delivering on the playing field. Ezekiel Elliot is one of the most obvious because he signed a six-year, $90 million extension in 2019. This is a ludicrous amount of money considering his lack of influence in the playoffs. Zeke doesn’t do enough to warrant that outlay.

Meanwhile, they pay Dak Prescott as if he’s the second coming of Roger Staubach. Prescott had his worst season in 2022 as he threw a staggering 17 interceptions. If his name was Carson Wentz or Jameis Winston, we’d most likely be labeling him a bust. But he’ll stay in Dallas because they can’t afford to trade him (via Fansided).

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Penalty Woes

Penalties became one of the trademarks of Mike McCarthy’s reign in charge of the Cowboys. They gave more away yards over a year-and-a-half period than any other NFL franchise. But to his credit, it appeared that they resolved this serious issue and went five games without conceding the same numbers. McCarthy claimed this was the product of good coaching in 2022.

Then they gave away a costly seven penalties for 50 yards. This sapped the momentum the team had built up and had a profound impact on the game’s outcome. This was arguably worse than their repeatedly bad playcalling at the end of the game. Dallas keeps blowing it in the postseason because they don’t do the little things right (via NFL Penalties).

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Commercial Obsession

Legendary Dallas QB Troy Aikman shredded the franchise after their loss against San Francisco in the 2022 postseason. It infuriated them that they lost another divisional game. Aikman thinks that the front office isn’t prioritizing the on-field product but cares more about milking the fans for cash.

“It seems like all these decisions are made to increase revenue, which is great,” Aikman told Sports Illustrated. “But then it’s less time on the field for players, and then it’s less time here, and the product begins to erode a little bit, and I think we’ve got to be really, really careful about that and I’ve been saying that for a while.”

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Underperforming Stars

One key reason why the Cowboys keep blowing it every year is that their stars fail to deliver. Dak Prescott threw two interceptions with just 206 passing yards against the rival San Francisco 49ers in 2022. However, he wasn’t the only culprit despite making high-profile mistakes. Ezekiel Elliot had an anonymous game and few players delivered on the day.

This is typical of the Cowboys in the postseason. We’ve seen Tony Romo make garbage decisions and other players fail to step up. Perhaps the pressure of playing for ‘America’s Team’ is too great or there’s a problem with the locker room. Whatever the culture is, it’s rolled on for a couple of decades now (via Fox Sports).

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Peaking Too Soon

Another reason why the Cowboys keep blowing it in the postseason is that they peak too soon in the season. We saw this in 2007 and 2022 because they had great regular seasons but fell flat. The sample size beyond this isn’t very big because they don’t get to the playoffs very often these days.

Dallas ran out of gas at the end of the 2022 regular season with a humiliating defeat against Washington. But they picked themselves up and hammered the Bucs in the Wild Card Game. However, they weren’t able to do this again against San Francisco. It was just another game too far for the franchise (via Bleacher Report).

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Smarter Rivals

The Niners defeated the Cowboys in the 2022 Divisional Game without a franchise quarterback. Kyle Shanahan deserves immense credit because he overcame a massive loss on opening day. Trey Lance suffered a season-ending injury and this threw Jimmy G. into the mix. Then his injury meant that Brock Purdy played. Shanahan transformed Purdy into one of the year’s best stories.

However, this also shows that the Cowboys’ rivals play smarter than them. Mike McCarthy cost his team by failing to remember that two-point conversions exist. They also made an appalling trick play call at the end of the game. They suffered a loss to San Francisco the previous year too because they lacked the ability to win (via USA Today Sports).

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Aikman’s Replacement

The reality is that the Cowboys haven’t had a great quarterback since Troy Aikman. He wasn’t the most talented signal-caller in their history but he provided consistency and stability. This was exactly what they required during one of their most successful periods. Aikman’s Cowboys won three Super Bowls and he sealed his Hall of Fame status.

It took them a few years to settle on Tony Romo as his eventual replacement. He had flashes of brilliance but never reached the levels that they expected. Now there is a danger that they’re repeating this with Dak Prescott. He’s also a very good quarterback but bad luck and poor play have signaled he may not be the answer (via Outkick).

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Meltdowns

There’s nothing new about the Cowboys’ recent meltdowns. Statistically, the likes of the Browns and the Jaguars throw away more leads than Dallas. However, those teams usually operate in a different hemisphere. ‘America’s Team’ expects to be there at the business end of the postseason while Cleveland is happy to have a winning season.

There’s no excuse for the Cowboys blowing it every season because they make life difficult for themselves. This is a cultural issue because no other team does this. They’ve had strong rosters over the years and should be doing better. Instead, they have one of the worst playoff records in the NFL (via The Athletic).

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Bad Play Calling

One man came out of the Cowboys’ 2022 loss against the Niners with credit in the bank. Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn gameplanned superbly and kept Dallas in the game. The former Falcons head coach showed the world that his trauma was healing. However, Mike McCarthy and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore received a lot of criticism.

Perhaps Moore was more interested in interviewing with the Panthers than leading the Cowboys to victory. The team’s playcalling at the end of the game effectively handed a victory to San Francisco. Honestly, it was one of the most frustrating and garbage trick plays anybody has ever seen in a postseason game (via USA Today Sports).

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Not That Good

The Cowboys think that they have a right to be in the postseason but that’s why they keep blowing it. Their heightened sense of self-importance isn’t helping them. ‘America’s Team’ believes it’s better than the likes of the Jets or Lions. But their recent record means that they belong in the same category.

At least that’s what their legendary QB Troy Aikman says. He told Sports Illustrated: “If you don’t do anything in the postseason, then you’re really at the end of the day, no different than the Jacksonville Jaguars or the New York Jets that didn’t get in” (via Bleacher Report). This is a fact that Dallas’ front office must contend with.

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Weak Selection

Hindsight is a great thing but some people think that the Cowboys should have stuck with Cooper Rush in 2022. The backup came in for the injured Dak Prescott and played consistently for the franchise. However, most analysts said that it was farcical to think that the former Chippewas star should replace Prescott (via Sportskeeda).

Then Prescott returned and went on a career-high interception streak. He also failed to win in the playoffs again after they made it to the Divisional Round. Perhaps Rush wouldn’t have done any better but a glance at Brock Purdy’s success with the Niners shows that nothing is a given. Weak selection could be another reason why the Cowboys keep blowing it.

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The Prescott Conundrum

Many fans think that Dak Prescott is the Cowboys’ best quarterback for a generation. However, that’s not saying much considering some of the quarterbacks they had on their roster in recent years. There’s no denying that Prescott has had his moments but his poor forms cost them dearly (via NBC Sports).

Nobody can blame him for the brutal broken ankle injury in 2020 that wrote off his season. However, the former fourth-round pick threw a career-record number of interceptions in 2022. The worst aspect of his 17 interceptions was that they came during an injury-shortened season. That’s why some people were calling for Cooper Rush to replace him.

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Lack Of Preparation

In 2020, the Cowboys players almost had an internal revolt against McCarthy’s coaching staff. That’s because they felt like they weren’t preparing properly for games. The head coach also made a brazen statement about his interview for the job. He openly admitted that he lied about his preparation for the new season.

“Well, I need to confess: I told Jerry that I watched every play of the 2019 season, but I wanted the job,” McCarthy said (via Insider). “I haven’t watched every play of the season, but you do what you gotta do, right?” It’s no wonder that they’re blowing it in the playoffs if that’s his attitude.

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Bad Luck

Sometimes it’s impossible to overcome bad luck. The Cowboys experienced a lost year in 2020 after Prescott’s season-ending injury. They went through a succession of quarterbacks as they tried to salvage something but failed. Nobody prepares for the type of bad luck they suffered that year (via The Guardian).

2016 was another example of Prescott enduring bad luck. He had a great game against the Packers after they made it to the Divisional Round. They held the No.1 seed but couldn’t stop Aaron Rodgers in overtime. He threw for 302 yards with three touchdowns but a late Packer field goal clinched another playoff defeat for the Cowboys.

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Tony Romo

Romo is emblematic of the Cowboys’ problems over the past couple of decades. It’s easy to cast him as a statistical success because he holds many Dallas records. But he also went 2-4 in playoff appearances across 14 seasons. That’s atrocious and it’s bizarre that the franchise never moved on from him.

The four-time Pro Bowler was also directly culpable in some of their defeats. No fans will forget that failed snap in the 2007 Wild Card Game against the Seahawks. Romo was a great quarterback but he shows the mental weaknesses of Dallas’s front office. They wanted the new Troy Aikman and it terrified them to try another option (via Whiskey Riff).

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Jerry Jones

The main reason why the Cowboys continue to fail every season is their owner Jerry Jones. No, the polarizing owner isn’t on the field when they are blowing it in the playoffs. But he is the most hands-on owner in the NFL and that’s hurting his franchise. This isn’t new because he’s been breaking ‘America’s Team since he took over in 1989.

From firing Tom Landry to retaining Jason Garrett, the list continues. Meanwhile, he has no moral compass as he showed when he signed Greg Hardy and kept Ezekiel Elliot. The franchise has become a reflection of its owner because it has a lot of money but it won’t have a legacy to show for it (via Bleacher Report).

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20 Reasons Why The Dallas Cowboys Keep Blowing It In The Playoffs

20 Reasons Why The Dallas Cowboys Keep Blowing It In The Playoffs

Weak Mentality

Coaching Woes

Fan Impatience

Dysfunctional Front Office

Bloated Contracts

Penalty Woes

Commercial Obsession

Underperforming Stars

Peaking Too Soon

Smarter Rivals

Aikman’s Replacement

Meltdowns

Bad Play Calling

Not That Good

Weak Selection

The Prescott Conundrum

Lack Of Preparation

Bad Luck

Tony Romo

Jerry Jones

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