Troy Aikman mentions that some NFL coaches see the Cowboys roster as overrated

Everyone is trying to find the answer. The question is somewhat complicated, though. Why are the Dallas Cowboys playing so poorly this season?

As we approach the midway point of December, the Cowboys have yet to beat a team with a winning record and currently have a losing record. This isn’t what anybody expected.

Were we unrealistic with what we thought this team could accomplish? While every fan base hopes for their team to win the Super Bowl, it didn’t seem ridiculous to assume that this Cowboys roster, the one that battled to get all the way to the Divisional Round of the playoffs last season, wouldn’t be even better this season. It made sense.

The Cowboys added Randall Cobb, and what’s more is that they’ve gotten stellar play from Michael Gallup.

The Cowboys added Robert Quinn and he’s been amazing, and they’ve also gotten legitimate play from midseason acquisition Michael Bennett. The math is all there. So why are we all doing our Christmas shopping with frowns on our faces?

Did the world overrate the Cowboys roster?

The 2019 Cowboys are a group of players that are managing to play down to their opponents and not pay the proper levels of attention in the moments that matter most. They are having some successes but ultimately opening up doors for losing moments.

Just because there is success doesn’t mean that the team is good the way we’ve always associated that phrase to mean. The Cowboys have talent, they just might not have discipline. Or heart. Or fight. Or whatever other cliche you want to call it.

Cowboys legend, HOFer, and FOX analyst Troy Aikman said during his weekly appearance on 1310 The Ticket that he’s asked around this season and that there are people in the NFL who do believe what we’ve all feared... that the Cowboys are in fact overrated.

“Here locally, I listen the various shows, I certainly read the newspaper, and the discussion is… is this team really as talented as what everyone thought coming into the season? And I’ve reached out to a bunch of people around the league that have played the Cowboys, that have studied them on film, and there are coaches that think this is an overrated roster. But I think for the most part they believe that it’s a really talented team.”

Football, sports in general really, is a results-driven business. Maybe you don’t feel that the Cowboys are overrated, however, their 6-7 means this team is underachieving which by definition means that they are overrated in some respect.

Perhaps they bought into their own hype. Maybe they thought some of these games would be easier. Whatever the case, when there’s a legitimate pattern at play where the Cowboys are losing games to teams like the Jets and Bears, you an no longer associate them with the best in the game.

Life is rough for the Cowboys, but it is only so because they’ve made it hard on themselves. Are they good enough to undo all of the damage that they’ve done due to the fortuitous place their division has put them in?

An overrated team wouldn’t be able to. We’ll see if the Cowboys are.