SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Throughout the season, the Dallas Cowboys had been buoyed by an ideal protection and needed to reside with whichever model of their quarterback, Dak Prescott, that confirmed up on recreation days.
He might gash defenses rapidly like he did towards the Buccaneers within the wild-card spherical, when he threw for 305 yards and 4 touchdowns. Or Prescott might look confused and make poor choices, like when he completed with 128 passing yards, one landing and one interception within the regular-season finale towards the Commanders.
On Sunday, the Cowboys bought the latter model of Prescott, as they misplaced to the San Francisco 49ers, 19-12, at Levi’s Stadium within the divisional spherical of the playoffs. The recreation featured dominant defensive play and the 49ers goaded Prescott into two pricey first-half interceptions.
Turnovers had been a problem for Prescott all season. Despite lacking 5 video games with an injured thumb, Prescott completed the common season tied for the league lead in interceptions with 15. After Sunday’s loss, he referred to as his interception whole, the best of his seven-year profession, “ridiculous” and promised that the quantity would by no means be that prime once more.
“It hurts. I’m disappointed in my play, disappointed for the guys in the locker room,” Prescott mentioned after ending with 206 yards passing, a landing and two interceptions.
While Prescott and the Cowboys’ offense struggled, lots of their errors had been pressured due to nice performs by the 49ers’ protection. One got here on the Cowboys’ second possession of the sport as Prescott tried to search out Michael Gallup for a go that was picked off by Deommodore Lenoir. The throw got here when Gallup had stopped working his route with Lenoir standing at his facet. As Lenoir noticed Prescott’s throw sail brief, it shocked him and his “hyena senses” kicked in, he mentioned. The turnover resulted in a subject objective from Robbie Gould that gave the 49ers a 3-0 lead.
Dallas retaliated with a lengthy scoring drive that culminated with Prescott’s 4-yard landing go to tight finish Dalton Schultz. Then the miscues continued for the Cowboys’ kicker, Brett Maher.
Maher set an N.F.L. file within the Cowboys’ win over the Buccaneers by lacking 4 extra-point makes an attempt. Typically, that many missed kicks would imply the tip of a kicker’s tenure with a group. Despite including one other kicker to the roster forward of Sunday’s recreation, the Cowboys caught with Maher, who had missed simply three further factors within the common season.
As Maher ready to kick the additional level after Dallas’s solely landing of the sport, Cowboys followers stopped swinging their blue and white towels and appeared to carry their collective breath. The kick was blocked by 49ers defensive finish Samson Ebukam. The block saved the Cowboys’ lead inside a subject objective at 6-3. In the second half, Maher made his two subject objective makes an attempt, the one factors Dallas scored the remainder of the way in which.
Another key turnover got here on an interception by linebacker Fred Warner within the second quarter. On a protection with many stars and the potential defensive participant of the 12 months in defensive finish Joey Bosa, Warner may be an important. Throughout the sport, Warner did nearly every thing: stopping runners within the backfield; working stride for stride with CeeDee Lamb, the Cowboys’ finest receiver, for a go deflection; and securing an interception. Warner was a significant reason for the Cowboys’ offensive struggles in a second half by which they’d just one drive that lasted greater than six performs.
The 49ers appeared like they had been going to place the sport away as they moved downfield within the fourth quarter main by 16-12. They ran practically eight minutes off the clock, however the Cowboys’ protection held them to a subject objective, maintaining the group’s deficit inside one rating with simply over three minutes to go. Two incomplete passes and a sack adopted on Dallas’s subsequent possession. The Cowboys bought the ball as soon as extra with 45 seconds left however had been pinned on their very own 6-yard line. On the ultimate play of the sport, the Cowboys used an odd offensive formation that had working again Ezekiel Elliot snapping the ball to Prescott. The play ended swiftly, with the receiver being tackled instantly earlier than he might begin a sequence of desperation laterals.
“Yeah very strange, I don’t know if they, if they plan to be in that situation obviously, but it didn’t work very well,” Warner mentioned.
Warner and the 49ers’ protection had appeared weak within the weeks main as much as this recreation, permitting 34 factors to the Raiders backup quarterback in Week 17, and giving up 23 factors to the Seahawks within the wild-card spherical. They had been video games that the defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans beforehand mentioned fell beneath the group’s commonplace.
On Sunday, Warner mentioned the 49ers’ protection performed to its potential.
“For the most part it felt like us, man,” Warner mentioned. “Obviously we know that we got to play big-time football in the playoffs have a chance to win this next game.”
For the 49ers, it was the primary recreation by which the rookie quarterback Brock Purdy, the final decide within the 2022 draft, appeared flustered. The Cowboys’ go rush constantly pressured Purdy, who was sacked twice. He missed a number of throws, together with just a few that ought to have been intercepted had they not been dropped. Purdy mentioned after the sport that his play irritated him.
“There’s times in the game where it’s like, man, I want to be better. I want to capitalize on third downs, and finish when we get in the red zone,” mentioned Purdy, who completed with 214 passing yards and no touchdowns. “But at the same time, man, it’s the N.F.L. It’s not easy to do on your own. And so, for me, it’s like man I got to do my part.”
But the group’s star-studded supporting forged and Coach Kyle Shanahan’s play-calling did simply sufficient towards a Cowboys protection that made the 49ers wrestle to realize yards in methods they hadn’t on their 10-game profitable streak to shut the common season. Running again Christian McCaffrey scored the 49ers’ solely landing within the third quarter, whereas the remainder of the scoring got here from 4 subject targets from Gould.
The 49ers will make their second straight look in an N.F.C. championship recreation and their third within the final 4 seasons once they face the top-seeded Philadelphia Eagles subsequent Sunday.
Jerry Jones, the Cowboys’ proprietor and common supervisor, instructed reporters after the sport that he thought the group had a bonus within the recreation at quarterback, however Prescott’s struggles took it away.
“I thought this team with Dak at quarterback I thought we had a chance to get to and compete at the top level in this tournament,” Jones mentioned. “I really did. That was our edge here tonight — I thought.”
The loss added to a prolonged record of painful playoff disappointments for Dallas, which has simply 5 postseason victories since final profitable the Super Bowl within the 1995 season. The Cowboys have zero convention championship appearances since then.
Discussion about this post