There are reasons for hope AND reasons for pessimism

Being a Cowboys fan these days is for many of us a combination of feelings. Hope for the future and what may happen in this year’s playoffs coupled with the pain of the last 27 years where we have seen this team be 4-9 in the playoffs, never even winning a divisional round playoff game.

So as we go into the first back to back playoff season in 15 years on the heels of the first back to back 12 win seasons in 30 years, we can have some hope. But the dark clouds of the past cannot be ignored. Here’s a look at reasons for hope and reasons for pessimism.

REASONS FOR HOPE

• First back to back 12 win seasons in 30 years and first back to back playoff seasons in 15 years. That’s an accomplishment for an organization that has been consistently inconsistent.
• The drafts the last few years under Will McClay have been productive as opposed to 12-15 years ago when drafts where a nightmare. This team is fairly young, with several key players still developing.
• The NFC is wide open this year. Other than Brady, no other NFC QB for any other NFC team has won more than one playoff game.
• The NFL is highly unpredictable. Just when you think you know how this is going to go, strange things happen.

REASONS FOR PESSIMISM

• The guy in charge of all this is an 80 year old stubborn billionaire who cannot admit his mistakes and apparently doesn’t want to win bad enough to do whatever it takes to win. If he did he would have made changes at the top. He’s the one constant the last 27 years.
• This organization won 31 playoff games in its first 36 seasons. We have won 4 playoff games in the last 27. That’s hard to believe.
• The Cowboys have lost 8 straight road playoff games. The last road playoff win was in the 1992 NFC championship game at SF, when Jimmy Johnson stood up and shouted, “How about them Cowboys!” Jimmy was the last HC to win a road playoff game.
• We knew last Jan when we lost to the Niners at home this team needed to improve its run defense. Did the front office address that?

So as we head to Tampa this coming Monday, I have some hope and some pessimism. It’s hard not to when you look at the owner’s box and remember the last 27 seasons of playoff futility. These last 27 years have been painful. And that’s a pain that is not easily blocked out and forgotten.

I hope Cowboys fans can understand both sides of hope and pessimism this January. Both are understandable. Only winning multiple playoff games can erase the pessimism of the past. Let’s go Cowboys!