The San Francisco 49ers played far from perfect but did just enough to escape with a 30-24 win at home against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. This win gets the 49ers back to an even 4-4 record, placing them in a logjam with the 4-4 Seahawks and Cardinals for first place in the NFC West. As for the Cowboys, they fall to 3-4 and are in a deep hole with the Eagles improving to 5-2 and the Commanders improving to 6-2.
Dallas controlled much of the first half, leading 10-6 at the break, but couldn’t overcome an avalanche of offense from the San Francisco 49ers in the third quarter. The 49ers outscored Dallas 21-0 in the third and limited the Cowboys to just 16 third quarter yards at one point. Despite trailing 27-10, the Cowboys still made this a game at the end. The San Francisco 49ers should be thankful that their bye week is upon them now because it couldn’t have come at a better time given how they looked these past two weeks.
The San Francisco 49ers Balanced Offensive Attack
This was a game of two halves for the San Francisco 49ers on offense. In the first half, while they had success moving the football, their drives stalled out primarily due to penalties. The Niners also had to deal with Cowboys Defensive Coordinator Mike Zimmer giving them unconventional looks on defense. For most of the game, Zimmer had 5-6 down lineman at the line of scrimmage to stop San Francisco’s run game and would play man coverage on the backend. They essentially dared the San Francisco 49ers and Brock Purdy to beat them.
At first, that strategy had some success, culminating in Jordan Mason leaving the game in the second quarter with a shoulder injury. However, as the game went on, the 49ers adjusted and made the Cowboys pay for their aggressive defense. They hit several big plays in the passing game to George Kittle and Deebo Samuel. Kittle especially had a dominant day, finishing with 128 receiving yards and a touchdown while also making history.
The Niners offensive line also played phenomenally well. The Cowboys badly missed DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons in this game. They couldn’t get any pressure on Brock Purdy all night. The offensive line also did a good job at opening up holes for backup Isaac Guerendo to run through and creating escape lanes for Brock Purdy. Speaking of which, he was a lot better tonight than he was last week. He played clean football, made a couple of nice throws, and made a ton of plays with his legs, finishing with 56 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
Despite Dallas’ insistence on stopping the run, they got worn down over time and ultimately cracked in the second half. They gave up over 220 rushing yards on over six yards per carry, with Guerendo taking the lion’s share of the touches in the second half. Overall, this was a bounce-back performance from the San Francisco 49ers offense in almost every way. They protected Purdy, they ran the ball well and made plays when they had to.
CeeDee Lamb Fireworks
With the way the 49ers covered CeeDee Lamb this game, they were lucky he didn’t go for 200 yards. The Niners had no answers for him in coverage, and it nearly cost them the game. For the first three quarters, the San Francisco 49ers defense played well. Nick Bosa was getting constant pressure on Dak Prescott, and forcing him into bad mistakes, resulting in two interceptions. However, once the fourth quarter began, the Cowboys started gashing the 49ers defense.
Prescott had more time and Lamb was able to attack San Francisco’s soft zones and exploit them. In the end, he finished with a staggering 13 receptions for 146 receiving yards and two touchdowns that almost led to a catastrophic meltdown for San Francisco. The Cowboys would get one more chance to win the game with three minutes left but ultimately couldn’t do anything with it, going four-and-out.
If there is one thing the Niners defense did well last night it was stopping the run. They held the Cowboys to just 56 yards rushing on less than three yards per carry. The Cowboys were the league’s worst rushing offense coming into this game and San Francisco didn’t play down to their competition in that aspect. They controlled the line of scrimmage on defense and forced Dallas to become one-dimensional, which helped to get their pass rush going all game.
Final Thoughts
The San Francisco 49ers needed this win badly, and thankfully for them, they got it. It wasn’t a pretty win, and they cannot allow themselves to get shredded on defense in the fourth quarter again like they did last night. Better teams coming up on their schedule like the Buccaneers and Packers will expose that. The San Francisco 49ers are on bye for Week 9 while the Cowboys will take on the Atlanta Falcons in a must-win game for them.
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