The more things change, the more they stay the same. From 1970 to now, the 49ers and Cowboys have met 8 times in the playoffs. Six of them NFC Championship games.
- 1970 NFC Championship Game – Cowboys 17-10
- 1971 NFC Championship Game – Cowboys 14-3
- 1972 NFC Divisional playoffs – Cowboys 30-28 (fuuuuck)
- 1981 NFC Championship Game – 49ers 28 -27 (huzzzzzzah!!)
- 1992 NFC Championship Game – Cowboys 30-20
- 1993 NFC Championship Game – Cowboys 26-17
- 1994 NFC Championship Game – 49ers 38-28
- 2021 NFC Wild Card playoffs – 49ers 23-17
- 2022 NFC Divisional playoffs – ?????
Dallas holds a 5-3 advantage, but the 49ers have won the last 2 meetings. Sure, the gap is 17 seasons, but 2-0 is 2-0. Dallas even holds a one game lead overall at 19-18-1. So, time to even this shit up.
I think Dallas is pretty much a paper tiger, but they do have, at times, a pretty solid pass rush. They don’t get a lot of sacks, but they do get sustained pressure most of the time. But this is the same team we played on the road last year, and took to the woodshed. With Jimmy G at the helm.
So, if the Niners can pay a clean game I think we take this one as well. As usual, Dallas has a ton of play-makers. Pollard and Elliott had 1,800 yards between them, CeeDee Lamb has ~1,400 yard receiving, Micah Parsons has 13.5 sacks, and DeRon Bland has 5 picks.
Which leaves Dak Prescott. He’s had a season of injuries and inconsistency. He missed 5 games with a thumb injury and still threw a league-high 15 picks to go with 23 TDs. Still and all, Prescott looked pretty sharp last night. And if not for the FOUR missed extra points, the game would have been further out of reach.
Keep the pressure up, and Dak makes mistakes. You can say that about most, but it is especially true with Prescott. The weather should be fine by Sunday. Bring it on.

Here’s the playoff schedule. From the first game to the last . . .
Saturday, Jan. 21
- (4) Jaguars at (1) Chiefs (-8.5), 1:30 pm (NBC) – Chiefs kick off their playoffs with what could be a closer game than I originally thought. Lawrence is playing pretty well, even though he came out throwing picks up the wazoo. They’ll prolly cover but not win. KC on to the AFCCG. Especially if Lawrence goes off on another interception-fest.
- (6) Giants at (1) Eagles (-7.5), 5:15 pm (Fox) – Like the Niners and Seattle, Philly looks to beat the Giants 3x. I don’t know. The Giants, and Daniel Jones, especially, looked pretty good last weekend. Philly is in for a tough game. I think the Giants pull off the upset.
Sunday, Jan. 22
- (3) Bengals at (2) Bills (-5), 12:00 noon (CBS) – The rematch of the game that never was. The Damar Hamlin recovery has been fantastic, and the Bills have been through the wringer with it, but this is now gonna be the shootout that everyone thinks it will be. I think the Bills prevail, but I’m not nearly as confident as I was before the Bills struggled mightily against a depleted Dolphins team that made a boatload of mistakes early and should have been buried by the half.
- (5) Cowboys at (2) 49ers (-4), 3:30 pm (Fox) – Here we are again. The Niners played these guys a year ago yesterday, and beat them as Dallas called a QB draw on with 14 seconds left without any timeouts, and couldn’t spike the ball in time to run another play from our 23. Oooops. Don;t think it will be as close this time. Niners win going away.
Too bad Dallas will have to fly halfway across country to get their asses handed to them. Purdy is so much better than JimmyG that it’s not even close. Purdy actually executes Shanny’s offense. Shanny must have dusted off the part of his playbook that was bolted shut since he’s been in SF. Didn’t quite understand why the playcalls in first half vs. Seattle were 2:1 pass:run. That needs to balance more to run against Dallas in first half, IMO…