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IRVING, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys played in January the same way they played most of December. That's not a good thing.

	Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman, who wasn't sacked at all in two regular-season meetings with Arizona, was dropped four times and pressure all day Saturday.

The Cowboys, who hoped they had turned things around with an impressive first half in their season finale, gave their worst playoff performance since 1991 in a 20-7 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in an NFC wild-card game Saturday.

Most of the problems were on offense, just as they had been in the last month when Dallas lost twice, barely beat a bad Philadelphia team at home and then looked good when the starters played the last game against Washington.

The Cowboys hoped their success against the Redskins would carry over into the playoffs. Instead, they retreated to their woeful ways.

"It looked similar to the mistakes we made in December, and you can't allow that to happen, you can't be that kind of offense," coach Chan Gailey said.

It all began with Troy Aikman, who had trouble finding open receivers and often didn't complete passes when they were. Some of the mistakes were his, but there also were plenty of drops. The line was plenty to blame, too, as it couldn't hold off a Cardinals defense it had dominated twice before this year.

		Saturday, Jan. 2 Look at two key stats. The Cowboys' longest run Saturday against Arizona was by Sherman Williams. Their longest reception came from Patrick Jeffers. That shows how playoff intensity caught up with Dallas. The Cowboys struggled just to get in the playoffs, and they were very tired Saturday. There were dropped passes throughout the game, and a number of mental mistakes as Dallas failed to convert in third-and-short and fourth-and-short situations. This was a team that has a lot of age, and it must now address a lot of questions about the future.

"From an offensive standpoint, I think you could place blame and criticism at all positions," said Aikman, who was 22-for-49 for 191 yards and a late touchdown. He was sacked four times, after taking nine all season, and threw three interceptions, compared to five in 10 regular-season games.

"We just didn't go out and execute the way we're capable of. We couldn't seem to get anything going. And when we did, we failed to convert to keep drives going."

Dallas had no trouble moving the ball in the first two meetings, beating Arizona 38-10 in the season opener and taking a 28-0 lead before holding on for a 35-28 victory Nov. 15.

This time, Dallas went more than 56 minutes before scoring.

The Cowboys had several other chances, though, with Richie Cunningham missing a 36-yard field goal in the first quarter, and Emmitt Smith getting stopped on fourth-and-1 from the Cardinals 7 midway through the second quarter.

Dallas was down just 7-0 at the time, then an Arizona field goal just before halftime made it 10-0.

"I felt fine about where we were at halftime," Gailey said. "I really thought that we'd go out and play well, and I told them that."

But by the time the Cowboys got the ball in the third quarter, they were down 17-0 and were forced to try throwing their way back into the game, and Aikman just wasn't able to do it.

"You get to a point where it no longer matters if you complete a 4-yard pass," Aikman said. "Would I say I was pressing early? No. As we got into late in the third quarter and the fourth, yes."

Dallas reached the Arizona 20 midway through the fourth quarter, but turned the ball over on downs. A big punt return by Deion Sanders set up a 6-yard touchdown pass to Billy Davis with 3:33 left, but it was too late.

"On offense you've got to have cohesiveness, and we never had it," guard Nate Newton said. "If you don't push them over the edge, they get their confidence."

It was surprising to see so much inconsistency from a veteran team led by several guys who own three Super Bowl rings. It was just as surprising that a team playing its first postseason game since 1982 had so much poise.

Aikman said one thing had nothing to do with the other.

"Not to take anything away from Arizona," he said, "but if we had played that way against a lot of other teams we would've lost."