In 'Super Bowl or nothing' season, Cowboys left once again with nothing



Play.

The Cowboys had poor execution on the final play.

Rex Ryan says the officials did everything right and blamed the Cowboys for their loss to the 49ers. 1:45

12:00 PM

With the Dallas Cowboys down six points in the final 2 minutes of the game, it was up to the quarterback, who had twice in the final 2 minutes. That's all he wanted.

Four days before the wild-card meeting against the San Francisco 49ers, the quarterback said he didn't know why people had labeled the word "pressure" a bad thing. I think it creates high expectations and high standards, and they usually create high results.

The Cowboys thought they would get at least one throw to the end zone after a chaotic and questionable ending to their game against the San Francisco 49ers, but the quarterback could not deliver.

When you play for the Dallas Cowboys, you understand that it's Super Bowl or nothing. The team we have, the camaraderie, the full team, talent, great unity, great coaches, we definitely underachieved. It sucks. Point blank.

The Cowboys were 5-5 over the last 11 games and lost in the first-round of the playoffs.

For the 26th straight season, the Cowboys did not win a Super Bowl. The Cowboys have gone 11 straight playoff appearances without reaching the playoffs, breaking a tie with the Kansas City Chiefs. The Cowboys have been eliminated from the playoffs for the seventh time in the past 11 years.

It looked like this would be a different year. They beat the Minnesota Vikings on Halloween night, despite not having quarterback Yello.

They went 5-5 the rest of the way.

Jerry Jones said he was satisfied that a lot of people gave what they could to get here. We've got a team that all year would be disappointing and then turn around and show. We needed to show this game. No matter how good we looked on paper, we needed to make this happen against a solid San Francisco team. I'm really upset for our fans. They deserved to see this team advance.

The Cowboys thought they could make a run in the playoffs. They were as healthy as they had been all year. Only wide receiver Michael Gallup and linebacker Keanu Neal were missing on Sunday. In the final four games of the season, he had 13 touchdown passes and no turnovers. Last week, two players were named first-team All-Pros.

"This is one of the best groups of players that I've been around," Jones said.

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They lost a wild-card playoff game for the first time. Their leading receiver, CeeDee Lamb, did not catch a pass until the fourth quarter. The highest scoring offense in the league scored seven points in the first three quarters. San Francisco's running game made the defense weak.

They did not add up to the success they thought they would.

Some wonder if McCarthy's future should be in question.

"I don't want to talk about that at this time," Jones said. No discussion about anything.

McCarthy talked to Jones after the game.

McCarthy said he didn't have any concerns about his future. I'm proud to be here. I'm proud of my football team.

Dan and Kellen Moore are getting interviews with head coach-needy teams, so they could be gone. There are several key free agents and several key decisions that will need to be made regarding high-priced talent.

McCarthy said that the guys have been going strong since February. I'm proud of the way this group has come together and how much has gone into the culture in the locker room. I'm proud of that. I know they are. This is a game we expected to win. We will start the journey for next year when the time comes. A lot has been accomplished. We've done a lot of good with the personnel changes, the coaching changes, and so forth.

The biggest reason for hope is that he has not missed a game since he broke his ankle, but his $40 million contract has increased the pressure on him to perform. He played well at times during the season. At times, he was walking.

He was both against San Francisco.

It all ended on Sunday.

It's difficult to accept. It is definitely difficult to accept, said Prescott. The men in that locker room, what we've created, the camaraderie that we have, everything that we've worked for, knowing we had a chance. I don't know if I've had a better chance or a better full team than this. It's hard to accept that a team won't be the same every year, some of those guys won't be back. It's hard for me to accept right now.