Cowboys vs. 49ers recap (2024)

The NFL divisional playoffs wrapped up Sunday night with the 49ers outlasting the Cowboys, 19-12. San Francisco advances to the NFC Championship Game where it will face the Eagles.

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• Final stats and boxscore (49ers def. Cowboys 19-12)
• Complete NFL postseason scores and schedule
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(Photo: USA Today)

Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard broke his left leg and suffered a high ankle sprain in Sunday’s divisional-round loss to the San Francisco 49ers, according to multiple reports. Here’s what you need to know:

• Pollard sustained the injuries on a tackle with 1:24 left in the second quarter when he was rolled up after an 8-yard catch.
• Trainers helped Pollard to the sideline and he wore an air cast on his left leg while being carted to the X-ray room.
• Dallas ruled out Pollard for the remainder of the game, and he left Levi’s Stadium on crutches later Sunday night.

Read more here.

The Cowboys’ season ended in a somewhat predictable way Sunday. The Cowboys fell on the road to what we can only surmise is a superior football team. The 49ers have ended consecutive 12-win Dallas seasons and march to another NFC Championship Game — their seventh since the Cowboys last attended one. We can discuss the places the two franchises hold in the hierarchy of all-time NFL heavyweights, but in modern times, let there be no question which one holds the upper hand between Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers and Mike McCarthy’s Cowboys.

Often when these discussions are had — two teams measured against each other in a certain era — we talk about how Troy Aikman just outplayed Brett Favre at those most important moments. If you want a team that beats another continuously in this sport, it should be examined from the perspective of which team has the better quarterback. This game is all about he who has the ball in his hands at moments of truth. … The player who decides the fate of his team when it matters most.

We have seen this before. The Eli Manning vs. Tony Romo narratives of a decade past were built on this. You can tell me that your guy is better than their guy, but he had a chance at legacy-building moments to prove it, and sadly did not. Does your guy show why he is the man in the moments when it is all decided?

These are never-ending discussions about the caliber of the Cowboys at the QB position and they will never end until this organization can navigate past its decades-long roadblocks at the divisional round.

On Sunday, Dak Prescott had his moments. He had many of them. He just couldn’t get it done again. While it is certainly harsh to blame it all on him, it really doesn’t matter. After playing arguably his best ever, Prescott followed up against a better opponent in a tougher place on a short week and did not come close to outplaying a rookie quarterback who was never supposed to step on the field this year. But, in any blind taste test, Brock Purdy would be voted the better quarterback in this game.

Read more here.

The 49ers of this era have been perennial league leaders in yards after the catch. That’s their style. But YAC was hard to come by in Sunday’s 19-12 NFC divisional-round playoff win over the Cowboys. This was a throwback type of battle; one of those bruising, defense-driven affairs that was a hallmark of postseasons in the 1980s and 1990s — fittingly, when the rivalry between Dallas and San Francisco was at its peak.

This was a night during which nothing would come easily, during which YAC would be replaced by YDC — yards during the catch — on perhaps the game’s pivotal play.

It’s fair to call George Kittle’s effort late in the third quarter “The 9-Yard Catch.” That’s the distance it required the 49ers’ tight end to secure the football on a reception that ultimately netted 30 yards and served as a key cog in the team’s go-ahead, 91-yard touchdown drive. Kittle first touched quarterback Brock Purdy’s dart at the 49ers’ 39-yard line. He then juggled it while moving at close to full speed for the next 9 yards before finally securing it at the 49ers’ 48-yard line.

“That was crazy,” 49ers’ defensive end Nick Bosa said. “I was pretty confident he had it. Then, he bobbled it twice and I got all nervous. But that was a huge play.”

It all seemed to develop in cinematic motion, slowly enough for Bosa’s emotions to evolve over each torturous bobble — all the way through the particularly harrowing ending, when Dallas cornerback Trevon Diggs nearly pulverized Kittle from a blindside angle.

Read more here.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Not a clue.”

Robbie Gould is a no-nonsense veteran, the kind of guy who’s dedicated himself to scientific things like wind direction and barometric pressure and how humidity affects the flight of a football. But the 40-year-old kicker badly wanted to avoid jinxing his long — and still growing — postseason field goal streak following Sunday’s 19-12 win over the Cowboys.

And who can blame him for being superstitious on a day that was all about special teams weirdness, including during pre-game warmups?

Read more here.

Standing outside the visiting locker room doors at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday night, Jerry Jones said the word “sick” five times. That’s how he described his emotions after Dallas’ latest divisional-round playoff loss.

The Cowboys had their chances. They entered the fourth quarter tied with the San Francisco 49ers. But a defense that was impressive most of the day ran out of gas. And quarterback Dak Prescott failed to make enough plays late to overcome his two first-half interceptions.

For the second consecutive season, the Cowboys had their postseason ended by the 49ers, 19-12. Dallas’ streak of falling short of the NFC Championship Game now stretches to 27 seasons.

“It didn’t surprise me at all, the game and how it went,” Jones said while walking out of the stadium. “I was just begging for a chance to get back to where we were the year before with the ball. I thought we had that chance. Eerie the way the thing kind of matched up at the end between the two years.”

Read more here.

The San Francisco 49ers advanced to the NFC Championship Game for the second season in a row after beating the Cowboys 19-12 in a divisional-round game. The 49ers face the Philadelphia Eagles with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. Here’s what you need to know:

• Christian McCaffrey gave the 49ers a 16-9 lead early in the fourth quarter to cap a 10-play, 91-yard drive that featured a spectacular grab from George Kittle.
• The Cowboys pulled within four after Brett Maher, who missed four extra-point attempts in the wild-card round, connected on his second field goal of the game.
• Robbie Gould’s fourth field goal of the game put San Francisco back up by seven with just over three minutes to play.
• The Cowboys got the ball back with 45 seconds to play but the San Francisco defense held and secured the 49ers victory.

Read more here.

49ers QB Brock Purdy is the first rookie to win a divisional round start since 2009 (Mark Sanchez) and just the fifth rookie to do it in NFL postseason history.

Rookie QBs to Win Divisional Round Playoff Start - NFL History

• 2022 Brock Purdy: 49ers vs. Cowboys
• 2009 Mark Sanchez: Jets at Chargers
• 2008 Joe Flacco: Ravens at Titans
• 2004 Ben Roethlisberger: Steelers vs. Jets
• 1999 Shaun King, Buccaneers vs. Washington

The Cowboys appeared to spread their linemen across field for the final snap in hopes of executing a multiple-lateral play.

Instead, Kavonte Turpin was taken down before he could make a move and the game is over. 49ers win 19-12 and advance to the NFC Championship Game for the third time in the last four seasons.

Thanks in large part to their physical run game, the 49ers drive 64 yards and milk 7:59 off the clock before extending their lead to 19-12 on a 28-yard FG by Robbie Gould.

San Francisco has now rushed for 71 yards in the second half at 4.2 yards per rush after rushing for 27 yards at 2.5 per carry in the first half.

Christian McCaffrey’s go-ahead 2-yard TD rush gives him a touchdown in each of his last eight games.

It’s the longest streak by a 49ers player since Terrell Owens had a nine-game streak in 1998.