The San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys are two of the most successful franchises in the NFL, having both won five Super Bowls; Watch Sunday Night Football, live on Sky Sports NFL early on Monday morning, with kick-off at 1.20am
Saturday 7 October 2023 18:22, UK
The San Francisco 49ers (4-0) and Dallas Cowboys (3-1), two of the best teams in the NFL this season, meet this Sunday night to continue a fierce rivalry that stretches back over four decades and plenty of playoff drama...
Christian McCaffrey ran in the go-ahead touchdown as the 49ers secured a 19-12 win over the Cowboys in the divisional round of the playoffs last year, booking them a third NFC Championship appearance in four years.
Kicker Robbie Gould accounted for the remaining 12 points with four successful field goals, while then rookie quarterback Brock Purdy completed 19 of 29 passes for 214 yards. George Kittle also had himself a day, claiming five catches for 95 yards - including an incredible one-handed circus grab off his helmet to help set up McCaffrey's crucial score.
It was the second year running that Dallas would choke on the big stage against San Francisco, with QB Dak Prescott going 23-of-37 passing for 206 yards, one touchdown - to briefly earn them a 6-3 lead - and two first-half interceptions.
The game would end in rather farcical circumstances too as, with Dallas trailing by seven and backed up at their own 24-year line with six seconds to play, running back Ezekiel Elliott lined up at centre for a trick play and was promptly blown up by the Niners defence.
Yes they did. The two teams clashed in the wild card round of the playoffs, in Dallas this time, with the Niners withstanding a late Cowboys comeback to triumph 23-17.
Deebo Samuel was the star of the show for San Francisco, tallying 110 yards from scrimmage, with 72 of those coming on the ground, including a 26-yard touchdown immediately off the back of a Prescott interception in the third quarter which stretched the Niners' lead to 16.
Dallas came back fighting in the final quarter, Prescott cutting the deficit to six with eight minutes left after scoring on a five-yard run shortly after then 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo tossed up an interception.
The Cowboys would get the opportunity to tie the game, or even win it, when getting the back one last time with 32 seconds left and Prescott had seemingly put them in position for a final Hail Mary attempt or two from the 49ers' 41-yard line.
But instead, with 14 seconds to play, the Cowboys called a QB run to try and sneak some more yardage before a final shot for the end zone, but they couldn't clock the ball in time after Prescott's 17-yard scamper and so time ran out to crush their playoff hopes
The dynamic between these two NFL juggernauts wasn't always this way, with the Cowboys crushing the 49ers' spirits on more than one occasion in the 1990s as the two teams met in three-straight NFL Championship games.
In fact, on all three occasions, the winner of those contests, covering the 1992 to 1994 seasons, would also go on to lift the Vince Lombardi Trophy, leaving many to label those titanic tussles as the de-facto Super Bowl.
Dallas won the first two, firstly getting the better of No 1 seeded 49ers on their home turf at Candlestick Park, emerging 30-20 winners. Twelve months on and the Cowboys even more emphatically dispatched San Francisco, this time at home, sitting on their perch as the top seeds in the conference against the second-placed Niners. Even with their Hall of Fame QB Troy Aikman being knocked out of the game with a concussion, the Cowboys won 38-21.
Another year and another NFC Championship clash later, the 49ers finally got the better of their fearsome foes, winning 38-28 at home on their way to a then record-setting fifth Super Bowl success which led quarterback Steve Young to proclaim he finally got rid of 'the monkey on my back' after having never yet reached the promised land himself.
The 90s playoff meetings between the teams weren't the first of their kind, as San Francisco's dynasty - five Super Bowl wins spanning 13 years - started with the spectacle of what is still considered one of the greatest NFL catches of all time - so much so it is simply labelled 'The Catch'.
In the 1981 NFC Championship game, the 49ers secured their first ever postseason win over the Cowboys - having come undone against them three times in the 1970s - as wide receiver Dwight Clark made the most spectacular of leaping grabs in the back of the end zone.
Trailing by six, and facing 3rd-and-three at the Dallas six-yard line with 58 seconds left, Hall of Famer Joe Montana threw a high pass to the back-right of the end zone that Clark only just managed to haul in as well as keep in bounds.
The 49ers would hold on to win 28-27 before going on to best the Cincinnati Bengals for the first of their Super Bowl triumphs.
Though Sunday's clash is just a regular season affair, it still comes with huge playoff importance, given the way things have played out in the NFC over the past couple of years.
These two teams will no doubt make the playoffs again and it would be no surprise were they to match their 90s streak of three-straight postseason clashes.
But who will finish as the higher seed and earn that all-important home advantage should that eventuality play out?
"It's a huge game this weekend. A consequential and potentially monumental game as it relates to the final seeding in the NFC," said Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio.
"It's Cowboys at 49ers, the two best teams in the NFC, playing one time this year and with the very good chance that they'll meet again in the postseason. The outcome of this game goes a long way to determining where that game will be.
"There's layers and levels of intrigue and relevance to this game on Sunday night. Cowboys-49ers, the rivalry has been restored."
Watch the Dallas Cowboys at the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday Night Football, live on Sky Sports NFL early on Monday morning, with kick-off at 1.20am.
