Sure teams have. Look at how quickly the Cowboys would fall behind last year before making a 4th quarter run to make the game close.
http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2013/4/6/4189832/dallas-cowboys-demarcus-ware-interview-2013-record
You can see at that link that the Cowboys had a propensity to fall behind week by week (23-0 and 28-3 pop out) and then were forced to pass to make it a close game. There are terrific skill talents on the team, but nothing consistant that shows an improvement over 8-8.
If you want to use rookies that were just drafted as "improving" the roster, be my guest. I'll be happy to do the same thing with our draft class and improving the secondary in particular.
I am glad you feel the Cowboys are deeper and better, but looking at it objectively you are bringing back the same cast, a year older, and counting on the contributions of unproven rookies. Your D system has changed and nobody knows how that will work out, yet.
Right now I certainly take our coaches (Shanahans vs Garret/Calahan on O in particular and the read option vs Kiffin) and Haslett has shown the ability to slow down the Cowboys in 5 of the 6 games he has faced the Cowboys while DC for the Commanders. The gameplan in week 17 was brilliant and Callahan/Garret had no adjustment to counter it, which led to Romo's blunder late in the game.
I expect, as always, 2 very good close games. I also really like our chances in those games, because the Commanders are the better team.
What? Defenses don't want to punish Tom Brady? How the hell do you think the Giants won those 2 Superbowls?
You have to have watched the Cowboys to have a better understanding of what happened to us last season. The constant juggling of the OL, and the signing and starting of our 4th C the week the season started led to a lot of offensive miscommunications early in the season. At the same time, if you look at the turnover numbers on offense, you can see where the unit had difficulty with adjustments, leading to a lot of passing game turnovers in those early games. These were mostly either blown protections or blown site adjustments by the receivers (primarily Dez and Ogletree). Dez straightened out by the midpoint of the season, and KO is no longer on the team.
Our defense kept us in games, though, yes, we were playing from behind often because of the slow offensive starts and the turnovers. As injuries accumulated up the middle (DT, ILB, ILB, S, S and then Demarcus Ware playing hobbled), our defense gradually became porous just as our offense sorted out its OL issues and started playing well. We had a solid 5 game stretch where we were putting our best football together, but unraveled in week 16 and 17.
We played a lot better football later in games as Romo and Garrett did a better with adjustments, especially later in the season when Dez faced a string of waker DBs and was absolutely on fire.
We're unlikely to have multiple sustained injuries to starters who play the same positions this season. Both in terms of the overall number of injuries and in terms of the position groups that were decimated. It's possible that we do, but we're more likely to regress to the mean, which means our adequate second string players will be getting snaps instead of guys like Eric Frampton and Brady Poppinga coming in off the street and playing significant snaps that week. With a normal injury distribution last season, I don't think there's any way you guys win that game in week 17, on your own field. I know you had your share of injuries, too, and I don't consider them an excuse for losing, but I do think having those players back on the field weighs heavily when comparing how the teams are likely to play this coming season.
As for the rookies, yeah, I think Frederick is pretty clearly an upgrade over Ryan Cook--a player who was going to be a Dolphins camp casualty the week before we made him our starter. I'll take Terrence Williams over Kevin Ogletree, too, and so would most, I think. The same goes with Gavin Escobar over John Phillips. You guys have your own players you've added, though you were short your most important pick. I like what you did at S (both picks).
As for coaching, you certainly have more skins on the wall than we do, so that's an area where I can readily understand you preferring your group to ours. I don't, though. I think Shanahan made one of the worst coaching decisions I've ever seen keeping your injured franchise on the field in that playoff game. We'll see how much it affects you guys down the line (glad to hear RGIII is looking good so far, for what that's worth, btw). Also, he looks like a human rat, which I find really disconcerting. I'll admit that's not a very good argument. I'll just say that I prefer the way we're building our team from top to bottom and leave it at that. We're a better team, deeper, and with a full complement of future picks and a recent track record of making good coaching decisions. You have a rookie phenom QB and a potent running offense. We'll see which one of us ends up being more successful.