For the fifth consecutive year, the San Francisco 49ers will be taking on the Dallas Cowboys, this time in front of the nation on Sunday Night Football. Both teams come into this game desperate for a win as the San Francisco 49ers are currently fourth in the NFC West at 3-4, while Dallas sits at 3-3 and 3rd in the NFC East. Both teams will be without key guys as the Cowboys are missing Micah Parsons and the 49ers are missing Christian McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk.
The 49ers have won three straight games against Dallas, two of which occurred in the playoffs. Their last matchup resulted in a 32-point win for San Fran. Due to a couple of factors, this matchup will probably be closer than their 2023 matchup. Regardless, this is a must-win game for the San Francisco 49ers given how tough their schedule is after their Week 9 bye.
San Francisco 49ers Offensive Gameplan
On the surface, San Francisco’s offensive game plan should be pretty simple. Going up against a bottom-five rushing defense in football should enable them to run the football at will. With Deebo Samuel still questionable to play and George Kittle being banged up, it should give them all the more reason to run the football. However, even if the Cowboys’ run defense is bad this year, this San Francisco 49ers offense is one that Dallas should be very familiar with.
They’ve seen San Francisco’s zone run concepts for the last four seasons and could be inclined to sell out against it. After all, they don’t have Micah Parsons in this game and thus don’t have anyone on the defensive line that demands that same level of attention. Dallas has blitzed heavily in their last two games without Micah Parsons, and if they watched tape on San Fran this year, they would see the San Francisco 49ers struggle at picking up blitzes.
The Cowboys in particular should look at Kansas City’s game plan from just a week ago to find an answer to slow down this 49ers offense. The Chiefs blitzed and played man-to-man coverage and had success in rattling Brock Purdy. The issue for Dallas is they don’t have the same personnel that KC has. They don’t have a Chris Jones to eat up double teams and keep their linebackers free. That is why even if they’re very familiar with the San Francisco 49ers, they still shouldn’t have much success stopping the run.
San Francisco’s Defensive Gameplan
The 49ers have had a ton of success stopping the Cowboys offense in their last three meetings, holding them to just 13 points per game. Much of that has to do with their pass defense. The 49ers have been able to confuse Dak Prescott with their coverages and force him into mistakes. Out of all the teams he has faced, the Kyle Shanahan 49ers are the team that gives Prescott the most problems, as he has a TD-INT ratio of 3:6 and a passer rating of 60.3 over his last three games against them.
The Cowboys have also struggled to get CeeDee Lamb going in two of the last three games, with his only big outing coming in the 19-12 divisional round loss in 2023. It’s not hard to imagine what the Niners will do against Lamb this time around. They’ll most likely bracket him with a safety over the top to make sure he doesn’t spring loose for any huge gains. The San Francisco 49ers also have the edge at the line of scrimmage. Their two edge rushers, Nick Bosa and Leonard Floyd, should each have big days against Dallas’ offensive tackles.
If there is one edge the Cowboys definitively hold over the 49ers this year, it’s on special teams. The Niners have been one of the worst special teams units in the league while Dallas has been one of the best. Perhaps Dallas can hope for a big play from their return specialist, Kavontae Turpin, to swing the momentum in their favor.
Final Thoughts
Despite the inconsistencies and weaknesses of the San Francisco 49ers, they should still come out on top against Dallas. They have the advantage in personnel and should have the advantage in coaching. San Francisco will be in serious trouble if they drop this game.
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