25 years after the Cowboys’ last NFC Championship Game appearance, it’s official: Dallas is a postseason afterthought

This is the anniversary you don’t celebrate.

This is the point of the conversation where you quickly change the topic on the belief that people will go along because it’s considered rude to dwell on your shortcomings.

This is the embarrassing moment you ignore in the hope everyone else does the same.

Green Bay faces Tampa Bay on Sunday in the NFC Championship Game. The Packers were the opponent the last time the Cowboys made it this deep into the postseason.

That was 25 years ago.

The Cowboys beat the Packers 38-27 on Jan. 14, 1996. Two weeks later Dallas defeated Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XXX before descending into its long, blue period.

Sunday marks Green Bay’s eighth trip to the conference title game since that loss to the Cowboys. Dallas still hasn’t returned. It joins Washington and Detroit as the only teams in the conference not to appear in the NFC Championship Game in the last 25 years.

Every other team in the conference has been at least twice.

Need more? Dallas has a postseason record of 4-10 since its last Super Bowl title. There are 10 teams in the conference — 10 — that have won at least twice as many playoff games in that span.

Seattle and Philadelphia have won as many playoffs games as the Cowboys have played since that win over the Steelers long, long ago. Green Bay has five more postseason wins (19) than games played by the Cowboys.

Chew on that along with your cheese curds as you enjoy the game between the Packers and Bucs.

The Cowboys haven’t been horrible. Far from it. Look at the regular-season record over the last 15 years, and Green Bay, Seattle and New Orleans are the only teams in the conference with more victories.

This team continually puts itself in the mix during the regular season only to quickly disappear. Which leads to another issue.

Mike McCarthy is the franchise’s sixth head coach since it last found itself standing in late January. He hasn’t been around long enough to take the team to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. It turns out only one coach has done that in the last 25 years.

It wasn’t Jason Garrett. It wasn’t Wade Phillips. It wasn’t even the revered Bill Parcells.

It was Chan Gailey.

This is a root issue that doesn’t receive enough attention. A big part of the reason the Cowboys have been unable to advance past the divisional round is they don’t go to the playoffs year in and year out. It’s harder to build on success or break through when you take every other year off.

Remember when the franchise was known as “Next Year’s Champions?’'

The Cowboys have fallen into a pattern of becoming “Next Year’s Wild Card Team.’'

Well, at least they were until missing the playoffs in two straight and three of the last four seasons.

Dallas has gone to the playoffs on back-to-back seasons only twice during this blue period — ’06-07 and ’98-99. The Cowboys have an 0-4 record to show for it.

The other side of the equation is when the team finished with the best record in the conference. The Cowboys were 13-3 in ’07 and ’16, needing only one home win to advance to the championship game. Dallas lost both times.

With two different quarterbacks.

Dallas doesn’t strike when the iron is hot. It doesn’t continually insert itself into the postseason equation. That’s a quick summation of why the last 25 years have been so unfulfilling for the organization and its fans.

Think back five years ago when rookies Ezekiel Elliott, Dak Prescott and others burst onto the scene. A strong, young foundation was in place, ready to strike. The arrow, as owner Jerry Jones likes to say, was pointing up.

That nucleus has yielded a 33-31 regular-season record with one playoff win in the last four seasons.

This franchise has left too many opportunities for success on the table in recent years. It’s fallen victim to the tougher schedule that follows winning, to the vagaries of injuries and circumstance that every team must handle.

Every season is a stand-alone proposition. You never get the sense the Cowboys are building toward something better.

You just wait for the other shoe to drop.

Can we agree a team isn’t a true contender when it strings together back-to-back playoff appearances only once a decade? Can we acknowledge the Cowboys are a postseason afterthought until proven otherwise?

On another note, it’s only a few hours until the game between Green Bay and Tampa Bay kicks off.

Enjoy.

Catch David Moore and Robert Wilonsky as they co-host Intentional Grounding on The Ticket (KTCK-AM 1310 and 96.7 FM) every Wednesday night starting at 7 o’clock through the Super Bowl.

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NFC Championship Game drought

The Cowboys are one of just three franchises to fail to advance to the NFC Championship Game in the last 25 years. Every franchise to play in the game has done so at least twice.

Postseason success

The Cowboys have won only four playoff games since last appearing in the NFC Championship Game.

While you were gone

There have been 13 franchises collect a title since the Cowboys last hoisted the trophy in Super Bowl XXX.

Super Bowl appearances

There have been 20 franchises appear in the Super Bowl since the Cowboys’ last trip.

*If Buffalo beats Kansas City on Sunday, this number rises to 21 franchises.

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