1 Good Quarter and 3 Average Ones Is All It Takes To Beat The 2024 Cowboys
49ers and Cowboys is one of the great and historic rivalries in the NFL, but it hasn’t be that of late with San Francisco winning 4 of the last 5. The 49ers 30-24 Sunday Night win continued their recent dominance of their old NFC rival with a fourth straight victory. Despite the win it didn’t start off looking like the 49ers would maintain their streak, as once again their offense struggled to get out of its own way with penalties and mistakes for a large portion of the game.
The unit that carried San Francisco early on was its defense, a unit that has been under a fair amount of scrutiny in 2024, holding the Cowboys to 10 first half points, until their offense woke up and blew the game wide open in the 3rd quarter. Over the course of 60 minutes the 49ers pass defense held 2023 MVP runner-up Dak Prescott to only 243 yards passing along with 2 interceptions. A yardage total that got boosted largely by some late touchdown drives in a desperate comeback attempt when the 49ers coverage became more a little to passive.
The 49ers defense for most of the first three quarters and late in the 4th was at it’s best when it was aggressive. Particularly when blitzing, which is a new development for a 49ers defense that typically does not blitz a lot - their 51 attempts rank 31st in the NFL - largely because they are bad at it, allowing 0.19 EPA per pass on those play, the 4th highest mark in the league. However on Sunday, they blitzed Prescott 4 times (insert small size complaints here) and allowed only 5 yards and an EPA/DB of -0.74. While blitzing will never be a huge part of the 49ers defensive arsenal, it becoming a viable change up will pay dividends later down the road as they match up with tougher opponents, particularly repeat ones.
While the defenses’ success against Prescott and the Cowboys passing attacking was excellent, the area of their game that made the biggest impact was in run defense. A 49ers run defense that ranks outside of the Top-20 in most metrics and was a primary factor in losses to the Rams, Cardinals and Chiefs, held the Cowboys to 56 yards on 19 carries. The Cowboys only had 5 successful runs on early downs, routinely putting their offense in poor down and distances, allowing San Francisco’s talent pass rush and secondary to tee off.
Now about that sleepy offense. It may have started slow and asked its defense to keep them in the game far more than you would like, it more than pulled its own weight in the 2nd half. QB Brock Purdy who started the game much like he finished last weeks game, with questionable decisions and spotty accuracy, settled in as the game went on and began to make throws with his usual timing and accuracy.
He also continued to display that he is a threat with his legs, racking up almost 60 yards on the ground, including on of his best ad-lib plays of the season on a broken swing screen.
A big reason Purdy was able to settle in as a passer in the 2nd half was play of TE George Kittle. Kittle was a nightmare for a Cowboys defense that played a heavy amount on man coverage Sunday Night. Kittle ripped off multiple chunk plays, finishing with 128 yards receiving on 6 catches through the air.
He was also lights out as a blocker (per usual) opening up multiple big runs in the run game.
Speaking of the run game, despite the loss of starter Jordan Mason early in the game, the 49ers were able to put up 223 yards on the ground. In no small part due to the contributions of rookie RB Isaac Guerendo, whose juice as a zone runner was on full display to the tune of 85 yards on 14 attempts.
The 49ers season has been anything but ideal to through 8 weeks. Mired in contract disputes and injuries the NFC Super Bowl favorites have gotten out to a sluggish start but they now sit tied for first in the division at 4-4, with a bye week to get healthy and reinforcements on the way. With star RB Christian McCaffery slated for a Week 10 return, they could be poised for their classic post bye hot stretch to jump start their season.