One strong quarter against Dallas was enough for the San Francisco 49ers to head into their bye week feeling good.
Brock Purdy recovered from a difficult first half to lead three touchdown drives in the third quarter. The Niners just managed to avoid another collapse in the fourth quarter with a key defensive play that secured a 30-24 win on Sunday night.
“We’re a confident team,” left tackle Trent Williams said. “We know that we haven’t played up to our standard that many times in these first eight games. I don’t think that we were looking at this game to draw some newfound confidence.
I just think that when we can run the ball effectively and not turn it over, the results today are what we can expect.”
The Niners (4-4) bounced back from a loss last week in a Super Bowl rematch against Kansas City, hoping this strong performance against the Cowboys (3-4) will help them push for a better second half of the season.
San Francisco has a record of 16-2 following its Week 9 bye in the past two seasons, reaching the NFC title game in 2022 and the Super Bowl last season.
Purdy had a touchdown run and threw a touchdown pass during a 21-0 run in the third quarter that changed a 10-6 halftime deficit into a 27-10 lead.
However, San Francisco had to hang on late after Dak Prescott threw two touchdown passes to CeeDee Lamb, cutting the lead to six. Prescott had a chance to tie the game, but he threw four straight incomplete passes after getting the ball back with 3:05 left in the fourth quarter.
“I was frustrated. We made it a game when it didn’t need to be,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “We put ourselves in that situation, so we had to get ourselves out. It was about going out there and finishing the game, and we did that.”
San Francisco took charge in the third quarter, moving 60 yards after the half’s opening kick to score on rookie Isaac Guerendo’s 4-yard run.
Deommodore Lenoir’s interception put San Francisco in Dallas territory, leading to Purdy’s 2-yard touchdown pass to George Kittle, who had six catches for 128 yards.
The Niners then covered 75 yards for another touchdown when Purdy scored on a 2-yard sneak.
“I saw the rest of our team was clicking, and I just had to do my job,” Purdy said. “In the third quarter, I came out and kept it simple, but also played aggressive.”
Purdy bounced back from a three-interception game against the Chiefs, completing 18 of 26 passes for 260 yards against Dallas.
The Cowboys returned from their bye week and didn’t seem much improved compared to their 47-9 loss at home to Detroit two weeks ago.
Prescott threw two interceptions for the third straight game, making him the first Cowboys quarterback in 32 years to do so, and he struggled to create any consistent offense until the fourth quarter.
The defense found it hard to slow down San Francisco except when the Niners committed penalties or when Purdy missed some passes. This loss increases the pressure on coach Mike McCarthy, who is in the final year of his contract.
“As coaches and players we can learn from this,” McCarthy said. “We’re 3-4, that’s the facts of this deal. I’m disappointed. We obviously felt we were going to come in here and do what we needed to do to get the win, and we came up short.”
Prescott completed 25 of 38 passes for 243 yards, while Lamb caught 13 passes for 146 yards.
