Aikman: Cowboys Missed Their Best Shot

Troy Aikman knows about winning games in a Cowboys uniform, and winning big games.

Aikman, of course, won three Super Bowls for the Cowboys in four seasons and was a big part of the original Triplets and a big part of the glory years of the Cowboys franchise.

In a new article in Sports Illustrated, Aikman talks a lot about his newer career of being the lead broadcaster on FOX but he also talked about the heartbreaking ending to the Cowboys' season on Sunday in Green Bay.

Aikman said he thinks this was the Cowboys' big shot to do something special, and it's not far-fetched considering they were playing just as well as anyone in football and were playing with as much confidence as anyone in football.

While acknowledging how good the Cowboys were this season — probably the best they've been since his playing days — Aikman also pointed out that he doesn't see things getting better for the Cowboys any time soon, mainly because of the age of Tony Romo and his window of success closing.

Aikman said the following when asked about the Cowboys prospects for the near future after such a great year:

It seems that Dez will be back, I'm not so sure about DeMarco Murray and Tony will be 35 next year. I know what that's like. It was a challenge for him physically this year and he played great. So many things had to happen for them to have the kind of year they did this year. Not just for Dallas, for any team...The Cowboys have to prove for me that they can develop talent and do all the things that someone like Seattle has done. They were very healthy this year. There were teams I was on as a player that were very talented teams and for whatever reason they could not win the games they had to win to ultimately achieve what they wanted to do. This was an opportunity for a Dallas team that was playing as well as anyone in football and had as much confidence as anyone and they came up short. Does that mean they can get back? Yes, they have a chance. But this had the makings of a really special year and it had a great feel to it. Since I retired, this was the first time that I have seen a Cowboys team have the makings of being able to go all the way and they came up short.