Former Cowboys Player: 'Not Fair' to Blame Dak Prescott, Tony Romo for Playoff Losses

Amid the Dallas Cowboys' continued playoff failures, a former Cowboys player defended quarterback Dak Prescott this week.

According to ESPN's Todd Archer, an anonymous former player who was teammates with both Prescott and previous Cowboys starting quarterback Tony Romo suggested Thursday that the entire team has to bear the burden of Dallas' playoff shortcomings, saying: "It's not fair to put it all on Dak or Tony. Everyone needed to get it done."

Following the Cowboys' shocking 48-32 loss to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Wild Card Round of the playoffs last week, the organization has now gone 28 straight seasons without making it past the Divisional Round.

After going 12-5, winning the NFC East and clinching the No. 2 playoff seed in the NFC, expectations were high for Dallas entering the 2023 postseason.

However, the Cowboys had no answers for Green Bay's high-flying offense last weekend, surrendering 415 total yards and 48 points.

Prescott threw for 403 yards and three touchdowns, but much of that came when the result of the game was essentially already decided. Prescott also threw a pair of interceptions, including a pick-six to Darnell Savage.

During the regular season, Prescott enjoyed the best statistical campaign of his career, completing 69.5 percent of his passes for 4,516 yards, 36 touchdowns and nine interceptions en route to second-team All-Pro honors.

With Prescott coming into his own, there was hope that things would be different for the Cowboys come playoff time, but they once again came up short on the big stage.

During Prescott's eight-year run as the Cowboys' starting quarterback, Dallas has made it to the playoffs five times, but it has never gotten beyond the Divisional Round.

As a result, Prescott has a career playoff record of 2-5, and he is saddled with the label of being a playoff choke artist.

This is nothing new for the Cowboys, as they went through similar postseason struggles during Romo's tenure as the starting quarterback.

Over his 10 seasons as the Cowboys' primary starting quarterback, Romo made six playoff starts and went just 2-4.

Like Prescott, Romo was a solid regular-season quarterback, as he went 78-49, was named to four Pro Bowls and threw for 34,183 yards, 248 touchdowns and 117 interceptions in 156 career games and 127 starts.

No Cowboys quarterback has come close to replicating the playoff success enjoyed by Hall of Famer Troy Aikman, who led Dallas to three Super Bowl wins in four seasons from 1992 through 1995.

Of course, Aikman had the benefit of a stacked team around him, as he played alongside five other Hall of Fame players in Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, Larry Allen, Deion Sanders and Charles Haley, plus a Hall of Fame coach in Jimmy Johnson.

Romo and Prescott have both had talented teams around them as well, but their lack of playoff success suggests that their teammates have not risen to the occasion in big games, unlike the Cowboys teams of the early-to-mid 1990s.