It’s one thing to play armchair quarterback when scrutinizing the Cowboys’ 2018 season and prescribing a fix. It’s another thing when the guy in the armchair actually is a quarterback – the most decorated in franchise history.

Three-time Super Bowl champion, Hall of Famer, and current FOX analyst Troy Aikman spoke this week to KTCK 96.7 FM/1310 AM The Ticket, and unsurprisingly, the conversation turned to the Dallas air attack.

“When teams are able to slow down Ezekiel Elliott, [the Cowboys] just haven’t really had an answer in being able to beat people throwing the football,” Aikman said. “If you say, ‘What does it look like in the big picture?’ Then, yeah, you can say, ‘Run Dak [Prescott] a little bit more, let’s get a little creative with some of the jet sweeps and some of the window dressing that we see from the Rams, Saints, and Chiefs.’ But at the end of the day, you have to be able to beat people throwing the football if that’s what’s required. And the Cowboys simply have not been able to do that consistently.

“In addition to that, for a team that does commit to running the football…” Aikman went on, “Every team comes in and tries to stop Ezekiel Elliott, so you get a lot of favorable looks with your wide receivers. [The Cowboys] haven’t been able to take advantage of that with big plays. And it didn’t improve much when Amari Cooper got on board. They were 30th in the league before Amari Cooper joined the team, and then they were 24th after he joined the team. So it wasn’t like this dramatic increase in big plays down the field, which ultimately leads to points.”

Images of deep shots not taken and replays of open targets missed with inaccurate throws are often what fans tend to remember when forming an opinion of a quarterback. The Cowboys had plenty of those in 2018. But there’s also mathematical evidence that suggests Prescott has been not only better than many of the naysayers, but he’s actually among the league’s best in what he brings to the field.

Wins aren’t based on who has the better metrics, though, and no amount of number-crunching changes the fact that the Cowboys simply didn’t score enough points to get themselves to the conference title game.

So if Prescott isn’t the problem – and Aikman himself is on record as calling Prescott “everything you’d want him to be”– what is? Cowboys fans and much of the league certainly have an idea, as the coaching carousel watch continues in Dallas.

Aikman offered his own thoughts on amping up the team’s offensive firepower for the 2019 campaign.

“To me,” Aikman said, “You continue to get playmakers around Dak and you work on – Ezekiel Elliott is an amazing player. I can’t be more impressed with the way he runs the football, but the emphasis in the offseason, in my opinion, has to be on, ‘How do we improve on this passing game to when the running game shuts down, we can beat people.’ Because when the running game is going, then it’s easy. It’s easier for the play-caller, it’s easier for the quarterback, it’s easier for everybody. That’s the area, in my opinion, that has to be better.”