The start of the 2010-2011 NFL season has left some of the typical league giants questioning if the post season can still be considered a reality. The Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings and Indianapolis Colts, some of the best teams in recent seasons, are currently swimming around mediocrity. The most disappointing and shocking of these performances has come from the Cowboys, a favorite team to many people.

“America’s Team” has had far from the season that most people expected them to have. Coming into the season, Dallas was supposed to be a Super Bowl contender. However, losses to the division rival Washington Redskins followed by an unexpected home field loss to the Chicago Bears left the Cowboys with a dismal record of 0-2.

This poor start was something Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was not going to tolerate going into week three, given his aspirations of playing for the Super Bowl in his own stadium. The last time the Cowboys started a season 0-2 was in 2001, when rookie draft pick Quincy Carter took over for Hall-of-Famer Troy Aikman at quarterback.

However, Cowboy die hard fans and optimists alike will likely cite the 1993 season, when the Cowboys also started out losing their first two games. Dallas eventually turned their season around and ended up beating the Buffalo Bills 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII to win the second of three Super Bowls in the decade.

In week three, the Cowboys showed traces of the team that reached the NFC divisional playoffs last year, and even of the 1993 Super Bowl team. However, after coming out of a bye week, the Cowboys have potentially put the nail in the coffin before the midpoint of the season with Sunday’s 34-27 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

The loss not only puts Dallas at the bottom of the NFC East, but has killed the morale of both the fans and the team. The heart and soul of the Dallas defense, veteran Keith Brooking, had nothing else to say except, “I’m in disbelief.” The feeling of disappointment got only worse with wins from the Redskins and Giants, making the conference record 2-0.

The Cowboys should be less concerned with other teams and more concerned with their own performance. Major problems exist on both sides of the ball, the most noticeable coming from offense and defense penalties. The team has a severe lack of discipline, and that lack was very apparent when they played the Titans. The Cowboys were penalized a season-tying 12 times for a season high 133 penalty yards. David Buehler has made the unsuccessful transformation to field goal specialist in the wake of Nick Folk’s release. Buehler missed crucial field goals in both of the the first two games, as well as another 44-yard attempt to take the lead in the 3rd quarter against the Titans, leaving him an unsatisfactory three of five on the season.

In other words, the Cowboys are far from the team many thought they were going to be. Serious changes will need to be addressed in order to save the 2010-11 season in Dallas. As the weeks go on we will see if this team will be able to recover and compete in the NFC East, and in a long shot, possibly the playoffs.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, 367 teams have started a season 1-3 since 1933. Only 8.4 percent of those teams made the playoffs, making the aspirations of playing in the Super Bowl in the new Cowboys stadium very slim.