Except Aikman didn't. That's the problem: we remember the great performances and forget the, um, forgettable ones.
His post-season stats basically look like his regular-season stats. There are great games and stinkers in there.
- He started the '94 NFCCG with a pick-six. Yes, we remember the team roaring back later, but they had the ball down 10 points with 5 minutes left and he took a couple killer sacks in that drive (exactly what people blame Dak for in the PHI game).
- He was horrible in the 1996 playoff game against CAR. Yeah, he was missing pieces, but that's exactly the point: the team wasn't good enough and QBs don't have mystical powers to overcome that.
- He was awful again in the '98 playoff game.
- He didn't do much of anything in the SB against the Steelers. The offense really struggled that game, with only one TD drive apart from the short-field TDs after the Brown interceptions.
Aikman was a great QB. But he didn't "improve as the games became more important." We remember the good games and forget the bad games and build a mythology around these guys that today's guy can never live up to unless the team wins it all.