How would you feel about an 11-5 no playoffs season?

[The Natural]

Except this is not the average year, no one expected the NFC south to be terribad and the west to be as good as it is.

yea, what? Everybody and their mama knew the NFC west would once again be the most competitive division in the conference.

 

[BigStar]

Huh?

You mean backup?

Toxy cotin Romo?

 

[Bungarian]

I will take 11-5 and no playoffs. Does anyone think we can go far in the playoffs with this defense?

If you keep most of the talent on offense and look to build the defense in the offseason then that is a lot better than the last few years.

 

[BigStar]

11-5 without consistent pressure on the opposing QB would be a miracle in some ways.

Similar to BP taking QC to the playoffs with a D filled with smoke and mirrors? Following season (6-10).

 

[ChooChoo73]

I would have Been wrong about how good our record was going to be this season. I also would feel the same as we do after 8-8. We did not win games late in the year knowing those games would have put us in the playoffs.

 

[CowboyGil]

I'm not much of a thread starter but I really am interested in the responses.

Obviously nobody is going to be happy about missing the playoffs. That's not the point of this thread. I'm talking about how you would feel about the state of the team and it's immediate future.

Let's say the Cowboys win 2 of the next 3 games. Beat the Eagles, lose to the Colts, beat the Commanders. Or whatever way you want to do it. But they lose the tiebreakers for the division and wild card. They sit at home at 11-5. This is a pretty rare happening in the NFL.

What's your reaction? Is this the same team that can't close the deal and just misses the playoffs? Like every other year in recent memory? The record doesn't matter, all that matters is they came up short again?

Or was it just a flukey season, the team went 5-2 down the stretch, clear progress has been made and this is merely a case of some bad luck? No 11-5 team should ever be sitting at home watching a 7-9 division winner? This was a clear step forward towards 2015?

I say 11-5 and no playoffs. You say?

I ask because I really don't know.

This. The NFL should re-structure the playoffs like the NBA. Top 6 teams would get in. Period. No bias towards sub .500 division winners
I'd be more excited about the future with an 11-5 record than missing with a team that's not quite ready to win it all.

 

[KingintheNorth]

I felt a playoff win, not just appearance, was necessary for Garrett to earn a new contract. I just think this team with Romo should be able to win a playoff game and if Garrett isn't able to do that, we need to go get a coach who can.

Now saying that, going 11-5 and not making the playoffs is incredibly unlucky. If that were to happen, and Garrett was brought back, I'd be disappointed that the organization is happy with "almost". Regardless of who the HC is, this will be an interesting off-season with the Murray and Dez contract situations, as well as the desperate need to go out and improve this defense.

 

[kevm3]

Sign Garrett for one year and see if he can make the playoffs the next year. 11-5 definitely shows improvement, but ultimately the goal of football teams is to win the superbowl. You can't make the superbowl if you can't get into the playoffs. Consider it a sort of 'head coach franchise'. Let's see if he can duplicate his success and make the playoffs the next year. If not, time to move on.

 

[KingintheNorth]

I would not hate a 1-year deal (in this scenario). I think it's fair but I would understand why Garrett (and his fans) wouldn't like it. To me it says, we still think you are improving but not ready to reward you without tangible results.

 

[Verdict]

IMO the team will have taken a step forward.. You can't deny that.

How they took their step forward has more to do with just imposing our will in the run game and I believe schematically we still don't get game day advantages from our coaches.


If we break the bank on Murray and Dez that will likely weaken our overall roster and I think we have to have an amazing roster to ever get to where we want to be with this coach.


So im for keeping Jason Garrett but if Jim Harbaugh or another upgrade were to become available then Dallas should make the move and upgrade.

Jim Harbaugh would be the "Mother of All Disasters" after a short time in Dallas.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

Except this is not the average year, no one expected the NFC south to be terribad and the west to be as good as it is.

perhaps not but he didn't have us ready for the Commanders, if we don't make it, that will be the one that hurts and costs us

 

[TellerMorrow34]

This is a real weird situation for me.

On the one hand I'd probably feel even worse about being 11-5 with no playoffs than I did with 8-8 and no playoffs. At 8-8 I didn't feel like we even deserved to be in the playoffs anyway.

At 11-5 I can't say I would feel that we didn't deserve to be. That's just a record that you expect to see from a team in the playoffs. That or higher obviously but generally if you tell someone their team is going to go 11-5 that year then they're going to be thinking about what their team might be able to do in the post season.

So from that standpoint I'll be even more bummed then I was the last 3 years now.


But I also see improvement in this team. People can twist things to anything they want about soft schedule and blah blah blah. Teams have to play who they're scheduled to play. If you get lucky and get a team early who later in the year plays 10x better...oh well. That crap happens. I'm not going to be like "Well but" cause that's just flat out stupid. Period.

This defense still really sucks. It can't pressure the QB consistently to save it's life. The secondary outside of O-Scan can't cover my freaking kids on a football field. They're awful. That said they're still better than they have been the last couple of years. We're not giving up historical amounts of yards, we're not giving up a history making 40 first downs in a game.

They're bad, really bad, but they're not historically bad like they had been.


The O-line play has dramatically improved. It's much, much, much better and I expect it to continue to get better. This has allowed our running game to flourish and the fact that the team is finally sticking to the run, like they need to, has been a huge step in the correct direction.

I haven't seen this team just flat out quit in a game like I felt I've seen a few times over the last couple of years. I just felt like there were times when this team, outside of a couple of guys, just flat out quit and it was pathetic to see. I don't feel like this team has that problem any longer.


So there is a lot of room to continue to improve but I'm seeing a lot of improvement in some areas that makes me excited about going forward. So I'll be more bummed about missing the playoffs just because I believe we would truly deserve to be in them but I'll take this season as some steps in the right direction.

 

[tomsanders921]

Disappointed.

What that means is there are a lot of bad teams in the league this year which is why there are a group of teams with such great records.

As of now there are only 2 teams we have beat this year with winning records (seahawks and texans). That loss to the skins keeps looking worse and worse.

 

[Hostile]

Similar to BP taking QC to the playoffs with a D filled with smoke and mirrors? Following season (6-10).

Very.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Realistically, we have to win out. Green Bay is in and Detroit has a very good possibility of going 11-5 or 12-4. Two of Detroits losses are to AFC teams and neither Seattle nor Dallas are common opponents. Their remaining opponents are Minn., Chicago and GB. They would have to lose two of the reaming three and I don't really see that. They have the Tie Breaker situations and puts them in. You figure that's a Wild Card there. Cards are already in and Seattle has San Fran, Az and StL. left. They have the toughest road on paper but Az is QBless, San Fran is sliding and StL doesn't have a great QB so it's possible that they could win out. If Seattle drops any one of those games and ends up at 11-5, we have the tie breaker head to head. They have to win out to make the playoffs IMO. We could drop a game and end at 11-5 but we really need to beat Philly either way you look at it. If we lose to Philly, that would mean that all of our losses are in the Conference. That doesn't favor us but it's not the end of the world either. If Seattle wins out, then we have to win out to get in. That means that we are Division winners. We have to win out to realistically have a really good shot at making the playoffs.

My earlier statement of being 11-5 and pretty much getting in was probably wrong. My apologies.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Anyone disappointed in a 11-5 season with no playoffs should be disappointed in the playoff structure and not the team.

11-5 is a great season.

That is a great answer.

 

[BoysFan4ever]

I would think damn they should have never let garbage teams beat them like the Skins. They should have had a better home record.

They should never have signed Weeden.

Stuff like that.

 

[8FOR!3]

I'll be upset that we lost a game or two that we could've/should've won and I'll be pissed that we missed the playoffs, but I'll be happy with the direction of the team. I've never been one to call for Garrett's head or anything. Those two 8 and 8 teams weren't far off from being 11-5. The differences is a couple of plays here and there in tight games. Like the Peyton/Romo game that went down to the wire, that could've gone either way.

 

[therock1982]

id feel like a wasted a good season

 

[cowboys2233]

I'm not much of a thread starter but I really am interested in the responses.

Obviously nobody is going to be happy about missing the playoffs. That's not the point of this thread. I'm talking about how you would feel about the state of the team and it's immediate future.

Let's say the Cowboys win 2 of the next 3 games. Beat the Eagles, lose to the Colts, beat the Commanders. Or whatever way you want to do it. But they lose the tiebreakers for the division and wild card. They sit at home at 11-5. This is a pretty rare happening in the NFL.

What's your reaction? Is this the same team that can't close the deal and just misses the playoffs? Like every other year in recent memory? The record doesn't matter, all that matters is they came up short again?

Or was it just a flukey season, the team went 5-2 down the stretch, clear progress has been made and this is merely a case of some bad luck? No 11-5 team should ever be sitting at home watching a 7-9 division winner? This was a clear step forward towards 2015?

I say 11-5 and no playoffs. You say?

I ask because I really don't know.

Eh, there is so much parity in the NFL now, you never know what's going to happen from one year to the next. We have a chance to do something THIS year, we have no idea what will happen next year. So no, if we go 11-5 and don't make the playoffs, I will be very, very sad. The fact that some components of our team seem to be improving will be very little consolation.

Prediction: We either win out and go 12-4 or we lose 2 of 3 and go 10 and 6. I pick the former.