With ‘Pick Nick’ and terrible D, Cowboys-49ers hit franchise lows in marquee meeting
This matchup always matters, even in the oddest campaign in NFL history.
Dallas-San Francisco, Cowboys-49ers, resonates in any era in an any stadium. These clubs represent NFL royalty, storied franchises and makers of milestone moments, fueled by some of the most spirited, fanatical backers in sports.
Even Sunday’s affair in Texas had intrigue, though most of it of the blundering face-plant variety. Neither club had its starting quarterback in the lineup and both had mass player losses on the defensive side. Both sides have been identified with gaffes this confounding season more than achievement.
The NFL feels different and suffers a bit when these clubs struggle. Fitting for the times, the Cowboys somehow still have a shot at making the playoffs after defeating the only outfit more beleaguered and battered than them.
Dallas prevailed 41-33 and now stands at a hardly ferocious 5-9. The locker room was jubilant, reflective of the team’s first winning streak of the season. The Cowboys have won all of two straight.
The 49ers continue to slowly bleed out. They’re down to their last pint. They are the NFL’s displaced team, forced to reside, practice and play “home games” in Arizona due to COVID-19 concerns raging throughout Santa Clara County.
San Francisco came into this one with 28 players on the injured list, tops in the league in a statistic no franchise wants a part of. At a limp-to-the-finish 5-9, the 49ers’ playoff hopes are done, a fork in their collective ear holes. The final two games are against Arizona and Seattle, with the goal to avoid the NFC West cellar.
San Francisco has lost six of seven games and went 1-3 against the NFC East this season, a group that will not include a single winning team. Washington leads that pack at 6-8.
49ers linebacker Fred Warner nailed it after Sunday’s effort when he said, “We can talk about COVID and injuries, all that has a factor, but we gotta play complementary football. You hear the frustration in my voice. I hate losing. We’ve got to change something. You can’t do the same things over and over again and expect different results”
In an image that captures the COVID-19 campaign, the Cowboys had fans in their sparkling stadium Sunday while the 49ers have not been able to practice or play at home since November.
The place wasn’t full, per COVID-19 limited-seating protocols, but at least there was no piped-in fake crowd noise. There appeared to be the sounds of genuine giddiness in Dallas from our vantage point. It all spoke of how divided and different the season is.
This meeting didn’t remind anyone of the Roger Staubach-led rally to defeat the 49ers in the 1972 playoffs at Candlestick Park, nor any of the showdowns in the the first half of the 1990s, when both towered over the rest of the NFL fray with quarterbacks named Troy Aikman and Steve Young.
Dick Nolan coached the 49ers in the early 1970s and his son Mike coached the 49ers from 2005-08. Mike Nolan is now the defensive coordinator in Dallas, at least for the rest of this week, presumably. Lost seasons equate to lost jobs in this profession. Dallas has surrendered points at a historically bad pace. Heads will roll.
Back to quarterback play. Of the two clubs, Dallas has the better franchise quarterback in Dak Prescott, provided he returns to health next season after being lost for the season with a shattered ankle. The 49ers are not elite at quarterback. That was clear even when Jimmy Garoppolo was at his best in leading a Super Bowl drive last season. He is solid, but solid doesn’t win championships.
With Garoppolo out due to injury, Nick Mullens had a chance to show something, to seize his chance. He has offered glimpses of promise but also moments of despair to the tune of 15 turnovers in eight starts. Mullens has thrown an interception in six consecutive games, thus earning “Pick Nick” mentions across social media.
The 49ers have questions at the No. 1 position in this sport. They do have a receiver to behold in receiver Brandon Aiyuk, the one-time Sierra College of Placer County burner who has scored seven times this season.
Receiver play has also defined a lot of these Dallas-San Francisco meetings: Ron Sellers with the Staubach winner to take the 1972 NFC Championship, a decade in which Dallas reached five Super Bowls, Dwight Clark soaring for Joe Montana’s throw for “The Catch” in 1982 to ignite four Super Bowl victories that decade, and Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice counter-dueling in the early-to-mid 1990s when Dallas won three Super Bowls and the 49ers one.
There were flashes of Aiyuk here, but little drama otherwise with Mullens’ 49ers offense and quarterback Andy Dalton and the Cowboys offense. Kudos to those who didn’t throw their remote at the TV or Christmas tree.
San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan has kept his team competitive with both hands tied behind his back, amid the injuries. He said Sunday that this has been his most frustrating year as a coach, saying, “We’ve dealt with a lot of crap this year but I wouldn’t say it’s too much to overcome. We would have overcome it today without the turnovers. If you play good football, you have a chance to win every week, regardless of our circumstances.”
The 49ers have lost the ability to play good football amid a lousy season.
This story was originally published December 20, 2020 at 2:57 PM.