Gotta say, the Cowboys were right there, they could have made the playoffs in just Jimmy Johnson's 2nd year, Emmitt's rookie year.
However, you are certainly correct to say that Babe Laufenburg was a complete disgrace as a starting quarterback. He was the locker-room comedian as a backup but those back to back disgraceful displays wiped the smile off Cowboy Nation for an entire offseason.
His QB rating in game #15 was 8.8. He threw four INT's. In game #15 it was 38.6. In both cases, a INT was returned for a TD. In #16 he threw to Deion's side and guess what.
In both games the Cowboy defense played well. They held both teams to under 100 yards in passing, and 10 points or less scoring. This was despite a time of possession gap over 10 minutes. 21 combined points were scored by opponent defenses and special teams.