How the Dallas Cowboys playoff failure shocked Troy Aikman, ruined his vacations plans

The irony of the conversation and the occasion wasn’t lost on three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Troy Aikman, who was at the George Bush Library on Tuesday celebrating Dallas being recognized as the No. 1 city for sports business.

Aikman expounded on the success of North Texas in hosting Super Bowls, Final Fours and the upcoming World Cup.

And while lauding Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for the foresight in building AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Aikman admitted that “everything Jerry talked about and bringing to North Texas and what an asset that that stadium would be, really has come to fruition. Everything’s paid off and looking forward to when we get another Super Bowl and hopefully our Cowboys will be in it.”

Aikman knew then that he had set himself up for dreaded transition to discussion of the Cowboys’ season-ending playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers and the now 29-year gap since the last Super Bowl title (following the 1995 season).

Aikman said he was shocked as anyone that the Cowboys ended a 12-5 season with an embarrassing loss to the Packers at home in AT&T Stadium.

As a football analyst, Aikman’s season ended last weekend and had planned to be in San Francisco to watch the Cowboys face the 49ers in this weekend’s NFC title game.

But that was before the Cowboys lost to the seventh-seeded Packers in the wild-card round. The 49ers beat the Packers and will now face the Detroit Lions for the right to go to the Super Bowl.

“Shocked, yeah,” Aikman said. “I really anticipated Dallas would be playing in the championship game and figured that it would be in San Francisco, so I was planning on going to the game. Didn’t book a vacation after my season. And so I really liked this team all year long. I thought they were really talented. It’s just the same old story, and I don’t mean that as a criticism.

“It’s just when I’m asked about the Cowboys as to why they have struggled: They’ve put together some really great regular seasons, and they just have not, for whatever reasons, played their best football when the games matter most. That’s what you have to do. And that’s the key to winning in the postseason and then getting to the Super Bowl. So what the answer to that is I’m not sure.”

The Cowboys have won just five playoff games since Aikman led the franchise after three Super Bowl titles in the 1990s.

And they are 2-5 in the playoffs with quarterback Dak Prescott at the helm over the last eight seasons, including two one-and-done postseason journeys at AT&T Stadium as the higher seed in the past three seasons.

Aikman still supports Prescott but acknowledges the natural concerns about him and the Cowboys because of their lack of playoff success.

Prescott had an MVP-caliber season in 2023 with a league-high 36 touchdowns but played one of his worst games against the Packers, keyed by two first-half interception as the the Cowboys fell behind 27-0.

“I do know that we all draw on our past experiences, and when we don’t have great experiences, those then become hard to overcome,” Aikman said. “And I think that’s the challenge for Dak. The question for him and the team isn’t so much what happens in the regular season now. It’s how are they going to play and how is he going to play once you get into the postseason? That makes for a long year when that’s the way it works.

“But I still believe in Dak. Until you do it, there’s always those criticisms.”

Aikman said he is not surprised that Jones stayed the course with coach Mike McCarthy after contemplating making a coaching change in the aftermath of the disappointing loss.

But Aikman said there will be no do-overs next season if McCarthy and the Cowboys don’t win.

He is in the last year of his contract and will not get an extension before the 2024 season.

“They had a solid year. They had a really good year,” Aikman said. “The way that they were playing at the end of the year, they positioned themselves to be the No. 2 seed. If you make a change, then you’re basically making a change for the same reason you made changes back a few years ago when you brought Mike in and you’re bringing in then somebody who you believe is going to get you over the top.

“You don’t know the answer to that until once again, you get back to January. ... It just seems to make the most sense for those guys to come back and without a new contract. There’s obviously then some urgency on their part as well.”