As a Cowboys fan who tries hard to be objective here is the “Dak problem”:

1. We don’t run the ball well
2. We don’t protect the passer well
3. Because we do neither of the above mentioned things well, we cannot run effective play action or routes that take more than 2ish seconds to develop.
4. This means our WRs have little to zero time to create separation in their routes, forcing Dak to make the vast majority of his throws into tiny windows.
5. His defense being beat to all hell means he has to be near perfect in order for the Cowboys to win against playoff level competition.

There are VERY few QB’s that could consistently perform at a high level given these circumstances, maybe none.

I’m not blaming Dak’s previous playoff performances on any of this, he’s had his well documented failures on the big stage. But this year isn’t just a Dak thing, although he could definitely be better, it’s a roster construction thing. We expected two rookie OL to walk in and be better than league average starters right away and neither of them are. Combine that with subpar play from Steele and Martin declining bc Father Time is undefeated and our O-line is average to poor.