Aston Villa squandered a chance to win all three points against Newcastle on Friday night by conceding an equaliser in injury time with just seconds left on the clock.
They have won just one of their last five league games and the optimism of qualifying for Europe has been gradually fading away.
They are sitting in ninth in the league table on 41 points and Sherwood indicated that they have reached a comfortable stage of the season where not much is left to play for them.
He insisted that qualifying for Europe was always going to be beyond them, but in the absence of Grealish, it looks even more unlikely at the moment.
The former Aston Villa boss believes a win at Newcastle would have flattered them as the performance was poor and a point is all that they deserved.
Sherwood said on Premier League TV after the game: “To be fair to Aston Villa, they are in the comfort zone.
“They did so well at the beginning of the season and yes, they are still there and they still could push for a Europa League or Champions League spot.
“But if I look at that, it is beyond them. I think it is too soon for them especially without Jack Grealish.
“They haven’t got the creativity, that person who can drop his shoulders and see the pass.
“If they were to win this game, they would have been in a false position because they would have got away with it.
“Overall, they possibly deserved a draw just about but they are getting away with it, absolutely.
“That was a poor performance by Aston Villa tonight.”
Aston Villa will be in action at home next weekend when they will host Tottenham Hotspur.
