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Patrick’s POV: Despite playoff exit, arrow pointing up for Cowboys

A wild season for the Cowboys came to a disappointing end in Los Angeles but Dallas has one of the youngest teams in the NFL and bright future ahead of them
Credit: WFAA

DALLAS — The Dallas Cowboys came up short in their NFC Divisional Round playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams and now their focus shifts to the offseason. The coming weeks will be a time to reflect on the positives and negatives of a roller coaster season.

More: 'They played better than us': 5 reasons the Cowboys got ousted from the playoffs

While writers and fans will spend the time discussing the what-could-have-beens, the Cowboys’ front office will now be tasked with evaluating every spot on this team and will need to put in a plan to reclaim their division title and try to take the team to the next level in 2019.

So, looking at what transpired over the 2018 NFL season, should fans feel a sense of accomplishment?

There is a mentality that it is Super Bowl or bust in terms of gauging a successful season. That would mean that 31 teams would walk away feeling that their season was wasteful, but, as with all things, there must be context.

For example, for a team starting a rookie quarterback, winning a Super Bowl isn’t feasible as no rookie QB has ever won a Super Bowl, let alone played in the big game. The goal for a team developing a QB should be progress.

For the Dallas Cowboys, there were high hopes that this team could return as division champions after a one-year hiatus from the postseason. Dak Prescott was coming into his third season as a starter, Ezekiel Elliott didn’t have a suspension looming over his head all year, and they thought they had a good plan in place by surrounding their two young leaders with young wide receivers and tight ends as the season began. The offense was to be tied together by an elite offensive line.

Defensively, Tank Lawrence was coming off of a career year. Randy Gregory was expected to give a boost to the pass rush, plus the hope of growth by second-year end Taco Charlton was a selling point. Many names on the defense provided excitement as Dallas ended up with one of the best units in the game.

The man leading the charge was current defensive back and play-caller Kris Richard, who brought so much enthusiasm and energy with him from Seattle to the defensive side of the ball. With Richard in the fold, players like Byron Jones and Jaylon Smith came into their own and Dallas found a first round gem in linebacker Leighton Vander Esch.

Related: 273 rushing yards? What happened to the Hot Boyz?

Dallas started slowly and found themselves 3-5 and trailing Washington in the division. The question marks seemed as daunting as they were glaring. Fast forward to the Tennessee game, after the bye week, and it was doom and gloom around the Metroplex. The offense was sputtering along and it put a lot of stress on a defense to carry the load for the entire team.

Miraculously, however, Dallas was able to salvage the season when they traded their first-round draft pick to the Oakland Raiders for the services of wide receiver Amari Cooper. The offense opened up down the stretch with the acquisition of Cooper, along with the hiring of Marc Colombo to coach an uncharacteristically unstable offensive line that was missing its leader in center Travis Frederick.

With Dallas able to ditch the wide receiver by committee approach, and go back to their traditional blocking schemes, they saw an immediate impact beginning with a Week 10 win at Philadelphia. With the positive changes applied, the team was able to follow through with a remarkable turnaround all the way to an NFC East title.

Over the last 10 games of the season for the Cowboys, they were able to win eight of them. During the regular season, Dallas finished 7-1 to claim their third division title in five years. Again, context matters and within the context of what happened during the season, it’s hard to see the comeback as anything but a success.

The Cowboys didn’t make it to the Super Bowl but there were unequivocally positive steps for a very young football team. Dallas was the only playoff team to make it to the postseason without a starter over the age of 30 in 31 years. By season’s end, the Cowboys had the second-youngest roster in the NFL with an average age of 26, according to Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk.

While missing out on a conference championship appearance for the 23rd straight year is disappointing to say the least, when you factor in the experience gained by this young team within the crucible of an NFL season where the Cowboys came out on top more often than not, this team ultimately showed what we all hoped it would. The arrow is pointing up in Dallas.

What the young players gained from this season cannot be understated. The focus now is to re-group, re-tool and do it again next season, hopefully with an extra win or three sprinkled in for good measure.

Do you think the Cowboys will learn from their 2018 season and finally take the next step or are they doomed to repeat their mistakes? Share your thoughts on the future for the Cowboys with Patrick on Twitter @DraftCowboys

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