NFL

NFL Divisional Round: What happened in the last regular season game between the Cowboys and 49ers?

With two teams who don’t face each other every season, it is difficult to have a rivalry. But the Cowboys and 49ers manage to pull it off.

JOHN G. MABANGLOEFE

There are several elements working against the idea of a rivalry between the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers. The first and most salient is that owing to the NFL’s rotation division schedules, they do not face each other every season.

Another is that for two historically successful teams like these, their success has rarely overlapped. When the Cowboys were dominant in the 70′s, the 49ers were a mid-table team. When the 49ers took over in the 80s, Dallas fell into the abyss of mediocrity. The years of boom and bust seemed to rotate between the two, rarely leaving them both chasing the same title.

More important is the rivalry that they have shared in the post season rather than the regular season, and in fact, through the 1990s, that seemed to be the running theme. The teams regularly met in the playoffs and the winner would go on to the Super Bowl.

While the rivalry may have dipped in the last few years, it is still regarded as one of the best rivalries in the NFL.

The last time that these two teams faced each other was last January in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, where the 49ers sent the Cowboys packing, handing them a 23-17 loss.

Prior to this meeting, the previous clash was in 2020, when the Cowboys eliminated the 49ers from playoff contention, shutting them down 41-33 late in the regular season.

Currently the rivalry record stands at 19 wins for the Cowboys, 18 wins for the 49ers, and one tie. There have been several players over the years who have won championships with both teams, including defensive end Charles Haley, linebacker Ken Norton Jr. and cornerback Deion Sanders.

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