One of the classic non-divisional rivalries in the NFL takes place on Sunday evening as the Dallas Cowboys (12-5) welcome the San Francisco 49ers (10-7) to AT&T Stadium in the wild card round.
Rebounding from an injury-plagued season it was a slow start for Kyle Shanahan and his team, starting the season 3-5 and 0-3 in the NFC West.
The turning point for the 49ers came in week 10 with the 31-10 annihilation of the Los Angeles Rams, which was the start of a 7-2 end to the season. Those only defeats came in Seattle and Tennessee, whilst they won in both Cincinnati and LA.
That week 18 27-24 overtime victory over the Rams saw them come from an 0-17 deficit.
Overtime in the final week of regular season won’t help going into the wild card round but Dallas themselves didn’t rest many of their stars in beating divisional rivals Philadelphia Eagles. It did mean tthey moved into the Number 3 seed as the expense of the Rams.
Whilst the Cowboys do have a high-powered offence, which put up 51 against the Eagles, 56 against Washington and 27 at New Orleans down the stretch, it’s been a while since they’ve faced a defence as talented as San Francisco.
Not only are they talented individually, they have been playing very well in recent weeks. They have the ability to confuse, sack and force interceptions from Dak Prescott.
Whilst I am confident of the visitor winning this team based on their defence, I have to admit they aren’t the most impressive on offence. Not a Jimmy Garoppolo fan myself but they have been rushing the ball excellently of late.
A good ground game, some playaction and some takeaways will be the recipe to a San Fran win in the wild card round.
Pick: San Francisco 49ers +3 is 10/11
