With each year the Cowboys streak of playoff failures continue, former players and coaches that helped deliver five Super Bowls to Dallas become more vocal about what's holding this team back from the Divisional Round since 2016 and NFC Championship since 1995. For a team that scored more than 50 points in two of their final three regular season games, it's easy to start with Kellen Moore's offense as the reason the Cowboys lost 23-17 to the 49ers – becoming the only home team to lose on the NFL's first Super Wild Card weekend.
The Cowboys allowed the 49ers defensive line to take over the game, an in turn took some of the game's best receivers out of it. For both Hall of Fame WR Drew Pearson and QB Troy Aikman, it was frustrating watching a defense with a weakness at cornerback hold Amari Cooper to six catches for just 64 yards and CeeDee Lamb to one catch. The Cowboys were playing without their usual third starter in Michael Gallup, but the Cowboys won six of seven regular season games they played without Gallup. Cedrick Wilson helped ease the loss of Gallup by shattering his career highs in catches, yards, and touchdowns, but was held to five catches with a long of 24 yards in the season-ending loss.
Cedrick Wilson: “It's one of those things you can't do anything about. I turned around and couldn't see Dak or the ball.” https://t.co/sPo3S7DTUt
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) January 17, 2022
It was the no-show from CeeDee Lamb that particularly got to Aikman, who started Wild Card weekend by not so subtly telling FOX viewers of Eagles-Bucs that he rather be calling the Cowboys game. Aikman had his own star WR wearing #88 for some classic matchups against the 49ers, claiming that Michael Irvin would have had ten catches by halftime against this year's SF defense.
Troy Aikman on @dfwticket on Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb only having one catch vs. the 49ers: pic.twitter.com/sdIZD8dmpx
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) January 19, 2022
Moore not being able to create easy completions to Lamb was compounded by the overuse of scheme that Aikman also mentioned, as his season-long struggle of consistently running Prescott's targets open was evident again. Head Coach Mike McCarthy did nothing to help in this regard in his biggest game with the Cowboys, but still firmly believes whoever schemes the offense moving forward should call plays. McCarthy also described his postseason meeting with Jerry Jones as “positive”, amid rumors he may be fired while his coordinators actively interview for other HC openings.
Instead of the Cowboys taking advantage of a 49ers defense that Aikman described as “scared”, McCarthy admitted his own team felt nervous going into the game, taking far too long to settle down and stage a late rally. A Cowboys team built to play from ahead and put pressure on opponents with their pass game spent the afternoon passing from behind, allowing the 49ers to stick with their running game and keep QB Jimmy Garoppolo in command.
Aikman's comments could fade into the offseason blur should Kellen Moore land a head coaching job, but there's no shortage of shared disappointment around Dallas. Even the fact that Michael Irvin never once caught ten passes in a half does little to make his comments feel anything less than painfully accurate.
There simply aren't many players, if any at all, that have proven they can win the biggest games the way the Cowboys expected Aikman or even Drew Pearson to do. While Aikman still has a platform as a national broadcaster to voice his frustrations with his former team, Pearson's comments were sought after via CBS Sports.
Pearson told the Zach Gelb show his confidence in Prescott is “wavering”, compounded by his $40 million contract. The QB market was hardly the same when Pearson last played, and the Cowboys had little choice but to extend Prescott given his body of work. Playing at a MVP level early in the year, the Cowboys looked poised to make Prescott's contract a steal as the wins piled up, but Pearson noticed the team going “downhill” after they had the NFC East won in the “first seven weeks”.
The Cowboys final record against non-divisional teams was 6-5. Their week six win at the Patriots was the only one against another playoff team, not counting the sweep of an Eagles team that spent the same five minutes in this year's postseason that the Cowboys did.
Comments like these from former players that Jerry Jones won championships with only increases the likelihood of him considering drastic changes in the offseason. With a young core in place, and team-building maestro Will McClay on a new contract, there's also merit to the Cowboys “running it back” again – a move that will rightfully be met with skepticism by Cowboys Nation.
The next round of NFL playoff games beginning on Saturday afternoon should temporarily take the Cowboys out of the media spotlight their first round exit has created. It won't take their former players and coaches off the air across all of the major networks, with free range to respond to any of Aikman or Pearson's now-viral comments.
A longer playoff bracket creating an even longer and more tumultuous offseason at The Star? Perhaps, like Packers HC Matt LaFleur, we should have seen this coming from the Cowboys all along.
Matt LaFleur says #Packers anticipated 49ers might be coming to Lambeau Field this week, so they started prep on them on bye last week. "That's just the respect we have for them."
Also lots of familiarity already: "There are certain things we know we want to do in every phase."
— Ryan Wood (@ByRyanWood) January 19, 2022
