It’s honestly sad the state of Dallas is in these days when the playoffs roll around. Despite getting a championship performance from their defense, the Cowboys lost 19-12 to the 49ers in another Divisional round playoff game.
This loss has to be attributed to one thing and one thing only: the Cowboys offense. Well, more specifically, Dak Prescott and his inability to win meaningful, big-time games.
With this loss, the Cowboys have now failed to reach the NFC Championship game for the 27th consecutive season, which is the 3rd longest active streak for a team that has won the Super Bowl in the modern era (1967-) of the NFL.
Only the Cowboys archrival Washington Commanders, a team that has had notoriously bad ownership and management since its 1991 Super Bowl win, has a longer streak (30 years) without an NFC Conference Championship game appearance. Clearly, this is not a list the Cowboys want to even be near, let alone close to surpassing the Commanders for the longest streak.
Yet, that’s the way it’s going to be for at least another season as Jerry Jones’ 1990’s pact with the Devil for those Super Bowl wins has reaped another year from his existence. Still, all of the optics (if you disregard the 27-year NFC Championship drought talk) surrounding this game pointed towards a hard-fought, narrow Cowboys victory.
Sure, the 49ers had the best defense in the league in the regular season, but the Cowboys own was not far off and proved that they are a match for anyone with their performance last night. Meanwhile, the 49ers offense was being led by Brock Purdy, who despite playing out of his mind these last few weeks, is still a 7th round pick making his 8th career start.
Dak Prescott, who has 7 years’ worth of NFL experience and is coming off his best ever playoff game performance, and the Cowboys #1 scoring offense should have been able to score more than just one touchdown against the 49ers.
But that clearly wasn’t to be as Dak Prescott had an absolute stinker of a game with 23/37 completions for 206 yards, 1 TD, and 2 INTs, with both interceptions directly leading to the 49ers scoring points on the ensuing possession.
I don’t know what else to say about Prescott at this point as it’s clear he is not the QB that can lead Dallas to victory under hostile conditions, which is the prerequisite for a Super Bowl-caliber QB.
Yes, it’s true that the Cowboys running game ceased to exist after Tony Pollard (6 CAR, 22 yards) sadly went down early with a fibula break and Ezekiel Elliot (10 CAR, 26 yards) was worse than useless, and going against defenders like Nick Bosa (2 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 QB hit), Fred Warner (9 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 PD), Dre Greenlaw (6 tackles, 1 PD), Jimmie Ward (7 tackles, 1 TFL, 2 PD), Talano Hufanga (5 tackles), Charvarius Ward (6 tackles, 1 PD), Samson Ebukam (2 tackles, 1 sack, 2 PD), Arik Armstead (3 tackles), etc. that the 49ers possess is always difficult.
Still, during Dallas and Jerry Jones’ glory days, Troy Aikman and the Cowboys offense was able to overcome the great San Francisco, Washington, Buffalo, and Green Bay defense through sheer grit and determination to form the great Cowboys dynasty of the 90s.
Comparatively, in Prescott’s seven years as a starter, he has failed to win any and all of the Cowboys meaningful playoff games, such as the 2016 Divisional game vs. the Packers, the 2018 Divisional game vs. the Rams, the 2021 Wild Card game vs. the 49ers, and now this year’s Divisional game vs. the 49ers.
In truth, the only thing Prescott was good at last night was turning the ball over and missing easy reads as he not only should have been picked off three times (with Dre Greenlaw dropping an easy Pick 6 that would have wrapped the game up sooner), but he also missed T.Y. Hilton (1 REC, 15 yards), CeeDee Lamb (10 REC, 117 yards), and others on numerous occasions that could have resulted in touchdowns.
And that’s a great shame for the Cowboys fans as this year’s defense legitimately looked like a championship-caliber unit.
Against a very good 49ers offense, the Cowboys defense, led by Micah Parsons (4 tackles, 1 PD, 1 QB hit), DeMarcus Lawrence (6 tackles, 1 sack, 2 TFL, 2 QB hits), Trevon Diggs (4 tackles), Leighton Vander Esche (11 tackles), DaRon Bland (11 tackles, 1 PD), and Anthony Barr (5 tackles, 1 PD), racked up 82 tackles, 2 sacks, 4 TFL, 3 PD, 4 QB hits, and kept the 49ers rushing attack to just 113 yards (that’s not a lot by 49ers standards).
That’s simply fantastic against an offense that is designed to wear down the opposing defense until it breaks, which didn’t happen yesterday and was the reason why 49ers kicker Robbie Gould accounted for the most points in the game with 13 (4 FGs, 1 PAT).
I hope Jerry and the Cowboys are able to keep this unit relatively together, but that doesn’t seem possible with 15+ starters (on both sides of the ball) all set to hit the free agent market.
As for Brock Purdy, he had a pretty good game considering all the circumstances.
Cowboys DC Dan Quinn did everything he could to rattle the young QB by showing different coverages, foreign and feign blitzes, and lining up Micah Parsons everywhere on the defensive front to create chaos, which worked some of the time as Purdy had a pedestrian 19/29 completions for 214 yards.
However, despite his age and inexperience, Purdy showed that nothing can faze him as he expertly held onto the ball, distrusted it when called upon to George Kittle (5 REC, 95 yards), Jauan Jennings (2 REC, 26 yards), Brandon Aiyuk (2 REC, 26 yards), and Deebo Samuel (4 REC, 45 yards), and then allowed the running attack of Deebo (4 CAR, 11 yards), Christian McCaffrey (10 CAR, 35 yards, 1 TD) , and Elijah Mitchell (14 CAR, 51 yards) to punish the Cowboys defense with a late, game-winning TD.
This was easily the biggest challenge that Purdy has faced yet…and he passed.
It’s going to be extremely difficult against the Eagles as they not only have an arguably better defense than the Cowboys, but they also have homefield advantage with a raucous, ruthless Philly crowd waiting to pounce upon Purdy.
Though, if anyone can coach a young, inexperienced, forgotten QB to success, it’s Kyle Shanahan as that man is a legitimate football genius….as long as he’s not in a Super Bowl (i.e.: 2016 Falcons collapse, 2020 49ers collapse).
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