Another season, another disappointing ending for the Dallas Cowboys. This year it came at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers, in a home wild-card round playoff game, 23-17.
In a contest where the Cowboys had to play their best football in order to save their season, they played undisciplined and uninspired. In a win or go home situation, in a game where they had yet another chance to show they were a different version of the Cowboys than the last 25 iterations, they demonstrated that although the players and coaches were different, nothing really had changed.
The 49ers beat the Cowboys as much as the Cowboys beat themselves in a tough-to-watch playoff performance.
Winning the NFC East was fun, as was winning six straight and making Cowboys Nation believe things were different this year. In the end, though, it was the same type of issues that had plagued the Cowboys all year that got them dismissed from the playoffs. Bad penalties at the worst times and an offense that never found their rhythm cost Dallas their season.
Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from the Cowboys’ wild card loss to the 49ers.