The Dallas Cowboys went on the road against the San Francisco 49ers for the divisional-round playoff game. The Cowboys’ amazing season came to an end on Sunday night with a final score of 12-19.
Great performance by all the players on both sides of the ball.
1st Quarter:
Quarterback Brock Purdy is out on the field first for the 49ers. A huge sack brings it to a 3rd and 19, which the 49ers did not convert. A three-and-out for this young offense to start isn’t a good sign for them.
The Cowboys come out with the ball near their own 25-yard line. Quarterback Dak Prescott converts an amazing 3rd and long play to keep the drive alive.
Another 3rd down comes up but this time Dak overthrows his target and the Cowboys are forced to punt the ball.
San Francisco’s offense enters the field on their own 20-yard line. With a 20+ yard pass to Tight End Geroge Kittle, they drive the ball past midfield.
The Cowboys’ secondary comes up with two great pass blocks to force the 49ers to punt.
Dallas is faced with a 3rd and 9 behind their own 30-yard line. Wide Receiver Michael Gallup ran a curl route while being covered and Dak Prescott decided to throw it to him which resulted in an interception.
With good field position, the 49ers get near the goal but can not score a touchdown due to how tight our cornerbacks are playing.
A field goal is made making the new score 0-3, with San Francisco in the lead.
The Cowboys are noticeably running the ball more on this drive and are picking up good yardage as the 1st quarter ends.
2nd Quarter:
As the second quarter starts, The Cowboys are faced with a 3rd and 2, Dak Prescott passes to Wide Receiver Noah Brown for a big gain.
The drive is looking good, but the offense has to convert a 4th and 1 to keep playing, which they do on a jet sweep to Wide Receiver CeeDee Lamb.
Just when Dallas looked hopeless, Dak delivers a nice bullet pass to Tight End Dalton Shultz for a touchdown.
All eyes turn to Brett Maher as he comes onto the field to kick the extra point… the kick is blocked, meaning that Maher has missed 5 of his 6 extra-point attempts this postseason.
Just over 9 minutes remain in this first half as the 49ers have possession of the ball.
The Cowboys’ defense is looking great as they have held the 49ers to only 72 yards with seven minutes left.
An unnecessary roughness call on Cornerback Daron Bland sends San Francisco all the way up to the Cowboys’ 40-yard line.
Purdy has been on his game today, however, he just can’t find an open man and this brings up 4th down. A 47-yard field goal is good which brings the score to 6-6, the game is tied.
As the 49ers kick it away, my man KaVontae Turpin gets the ball to the 35-yard line and helps the Cowboys get into good field position.
The Cowboys are stopped for a 4th and 4 as the two-minute warning occurs.
Head Coach Mike McCarthy has an important decision to make, he can either kick a long field goal with Maher or go for it and try to keep the drive alive.
McCarthy decides to go for it, and it pays off as Dak runs for a 10-yard gain. On the next play, Dak passes to Running Back Tony Pollard, but Tony twists his ankle as he falls down.
After that emotional injury, Prescott throws his second pick of the game, this time inside of the redzone. The 49ers take over with just over a minute to play.
Disaster upon disaster.
As the 49ers effortlessly get into field goal range, one second remains on the clock before halftime. Kicker Robbie Gould makes a 50-yard field goal to send everyone into halftime with a score of 6-9, the 49ers lead.
3rd Quarter:
The Cowboys get the ball first but get stopped near mid-field for 4th down. After a good punt, the 49ers’ return man fumbled the ball and the Cowboys recovered it inside the 20-yard line.
Even with this great field position, the Cowboys’ offense comes up short and has to kick a field goal. Maher redeems himself and makes the 25-yarder to tie the game at 9-9.
The Cowboys’ defense steps up again and forces the 49ers to punt. From our own 10, Dallas gets down to mid-field but must punt the ball again.
As the 49ers’ offense comes on the field, Kittle makes an amazing circus grab to help San Francisco to the Cowboys’ 40-yard line.
Purdy and Kittle have been connecting well on this drive and are knocking on the door as the 3rd quarter comes to a close.
4th Quarter:
On the first play of the final quarter, Running Back Christian McCaffrey drills it into the endzone, 9-16.
KaVontae Turpin does it again and runs the ball all the way to the 43 yard-line. Giving some hope to this Cowboys team.
This game just keeps getting more and more intense as Dallas approaches the 49ers’ redzone.
Maher is forced to kick another field goal which just squeezes inside the right post. The nailbiting score is now 12-16.
With eleven minutes left, the 49ers have the ball on their own 25.
Another big gain by the tight end, Kittle, pushes the ball to the 42. While the 49ers ate up plenty of clocks, they go on to kick a field goal and make the score 12-19.
The Cowboys get the ball and can’t even get a yard as they immediately punt away with 2:05 left.
With 45 seconds left, the Cowboys get the ball on their six-yard line. The Cowboys get near mid-field, but a booth review put the Cowboys back to the 24-yard line.
With a strange final play, the game is over, 12-19 is the final score for this game.
Hello Tony! Well another wasted season for the Cowboys. Dak Prescott just doesn’t seem to be able to play well enough when it’s most needed. Paying him like a franchise quarterback certainly seems to be a mistake. Hopefully this is McCarthy and Moore’s last hurrah in Dallas. I hope Dan Quinn stays, but after this debacle tonight, he may leave the Cowboys. Jerry and Stephen Jones have some BIG DECISIONS to make next week. I wonder if they’ll try to trade Prescott??? I wouldn’t mind that one bit.
Hey there Lawrence, I know, it’s sad the season had to end this way. I’ll tell ya what though, you totally called the whole “kicking problem” before this playoff even started. A few weeks ago you stated how our kicking will affect the team greatly and you were 100% right. Jerry does have a lot of decisions to make this offseason and hopefully, it’s the correct ones. While Dak is a great guy and a good quarterback, I am afraid he will just never have that spark to lead the team to the Super Bowl.
A great season though, and I am still proud of our boys. Always and forever, Go Cowboys!
Keep doing what you do Tony. You’re the man!!! Maybe next season the team will make the necessary changes and we’ll be right back in the playoffs. COWBOYS NATION 4 EVER!!!!!
Well not surprised at all. Disappointed, but not surprised. Same old DP, he shrinks in the big games vs good teams (even with a 7th round ROOKIE QB).
TWO BAD INTs, AND Greenlaw dropped an EASY PICK 6. Plus, almost caught for a SAFETY (although at that point would not have mattered, as the game was over).
Suggestion to the front office: It may be time to draft a QB early. I mean, is not the writing on the wall already!!!
Most of the rest of the team played hard!!! Kudos to CeeDee, DW, OO, DL.
Couldn’t agree with you more! This team IS NOT going to win the ones that matter with Prescott at the quarterback position. I hope finally McCarthy and Moore is fired. Also Fassell should be fired! Needless to say bringing Brett Maher back was a BIG BIG BIG MISTAKE!!!! What did they think was different about him this time around? He was a STINKER the first time he was in Dallas. His name is the first one I expect to see on the waiver wire today. We need to draft a QB and a RB that’s ready to play on opening day. I hope they can shop Dak, but I don’t think many teams are interested in a backup quarterback.
While Dak is to blame for the picks and poor quarterback skills of this game, I am most upset with the coaching of this team. McCarthy was all over the place and if he gave the team more time to rest before the playoffs we would have seen a “peak” Dak this postseason. Still, Dak needs a lot of work in some areas so we’ll see what happens.
How many times are we going to hear, “I must play better.” The inconvenience is stifling and frustrating for a Cowboys fan. As Sharp says “this is cowboys being cowboys” or in this case DAK being DAK. You can’t put your faith in this guy because he will find a way to disappoint you every time. Dan Quinn was masterful with his defense this game as well as all year. If I was him I am going to Jerry and saying “HEY, I HAVE DONE WHAT I CAN DO. DEFENSE WAS AWSOME THIS YEAR. I NEED HELP ON OFFENSE IF YOU WANT A SUPER BOWL.” TAKE that comment as u will. We know he will have offers. And after that what he has accomplished in dallas, he has nothing left to prove.
It’s crazy u bring in Hilton to add to the weapons on the field and DAK nearly ignores the man. Watch the replays and you will see what i am talking about. You let go of cooper, give extention to gallop, franchise Shultz, but still pretty much only receiver in the game was lamb. Gallop has been a non factor all year, Shultz had the 5 yard dump touchdown but otherwise didn’t exist. Hilton was brought in to take jerry’s money.
It is decently obvious without pollard, zek is in trouble. Off-season some restructuring of contract needs to happen to bring our STAR rb back.
Good luck KEEPING Quinn if u keep McCarthy. Hope he stays but no surprise if he ditches.
Apologies my frustration. Inconsistent in line 1, defenently in line 12.
I feel your frustration immensely Jcsandals, it’s a shame that this is how the Cowboys went out. You are 100% correct on the fact about our receivers. Dak always seemed to throw to lamb. He has 2 other amazing receivers (as you stated) and is arguably a top 3 tight end. I blame coaching a lot for this loss overall. Still proud of the team and happy to see them come this far at least.