The '90s team, winning 3 SBs in four years, has really skewed expectations. Doing such a thing is incredibly rare and unlikely, especially in today's league. What any team should aspire to looks more like the Cowboys of the '70s or the Patriots of today. Build a solid team, balance competing and rebuilding so that you're always (or almost always) in the playoff mix. Some years, the breaks will go against you and you'll lose to a lesser team. Some years, a better team will just flat out beat you. But occasionally, the stars will align and you'll go all the way.
The Landry Cowboys went to the playoffs 17 times in 18 years. The Patiots have made it 12 of the last 14 years. That's the only sound recipe for winning Super Bowls.
This has been a great season, well beyond my expectations. If we lose Sunday, well, I still got to watch 120 minutes more of Cowboys football than I did the last few years. No matter what happens, I see the signs that this group is building a team to compete continuously. It's not perfect: they're still too willing to trade up in the draft, among other things. And managing the QB transition will be a huge challenge that may go wrong. But they're moving in the right direction and that's good enough for me right now.
