Professor

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...t/5453948.html

IRVING — No NFC championship game at home, no shot at a record sixth Super Bowl.

That 13-3 regular season? The NFL-record 12 Pro Bowlers? All wasted.

The Dallas Cowboys woke up to those cold realities Monday, a day after being eliminated by the New York Giants, a team they'd already beaten twice.

"For it to fall apart like it did is mindboggling," tight end Jason Witten said. "You don't know what to do now."

Trying to figure out how it happened was the first step.

"I think we clinched so early we got a little complacent," said receiver Patrick Crayton, his point backed up by a 1-3 finish.

"We made too many mental errors," said special teams captain Keith Davis, pointing to 11 penalties against the Giants.

"We just didn't make enough big plays," veteran linebacker Greg Ellis said.

Then there was coach Wade Phillips' take: "After looking at the tape, I feel like the best team lost the game."

Phillips offered all sorts of nuggets to try masking the pain of both the loss and the elimination, from stressing Dallas' statistical success against New York (only 57 yards allowed in the second half) to the Cowboys making the final eight for the first time since 1996.

OK, so it was a bye that got Dallas into the second weekend, not an actual postseason victory. But Phillips wasn't interested in those deflating facts, nor the tidbit that the Cowboys just tied the NFL playoff futility mark by dropping its sixth straight game.

"The arrow is pointing up on this team," he said.

Any explanation for Tony Romo and the offense nose-diving from 32.5 points while going 12-1 all the way down to 12.2 points the rest of the way?

"Maybe we raised the level so high we couldn't keep it up," Phillips said.

__________________