Despite routinely earning high expectations, the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers meet this year as teams struggling in equal measure due to circumstance and genuine weaknesses.
As both look to turn their seasons around and turn them around fast, who can keep their head above water and finally earn a fourth win in Week 8? The Dallas Morning News’ columnists and beat writers make their predictions:
Tim Cowlishaw
Two compromised teams, a far cry from a 12-5 division winner and a Super Bowl overtime leader, meet in what feels a lot more like an elimination game than any sort of playoff preview. The question is whether injuries at wide receiver are enough to bring the 49ers down to Dallas’ level. A team that will have to rely heavily on George Kittle and backups still rates an advantage over a club with the league’s worst running game. Is the Dallas defense healthy enough to make this a contest? At least for a while, but not 60 minutes.
49ers 24, Cowboys 13
Damon Marx
The Cowboys have had an extra week to figure out their issues. Are the problems from poor play design by the coaches or a lack of fundamentals by the players? Distractions from fan tours at The Star in Frisco? What about all of those injuries on defense? When your bye week comes after a record home loss, people have plenty of time to pick at the carcass. We’ll start to get some answers this week. If the Cowboys don’t show a backbone against the banged-up 49ers, it could be the beginning of a downward spiral for this season.
49ers 20, Cowboys 13
David Moore
Cowboys vs. Niners, Take Four. It’s more than that if you want to go back to the first game between these franchises 64 years ago. But this is the fourth time the teams have faced each other in the last 33 months. It has not gone well for Dallas. Neither has the season. The problem: As much as the Cowboys have struggled, the Niners are the more desperate team at the moment. It’s hard to imagine San Francisco will have five losses heading into November.
49ers 24, Cowboys 20
Kevin Sherrington
The 49ers haven’t seemed so vulnerable in years with star players missing and a 3-4 record. Except for the record, that pretty much describes the Cowboys, too. Dak Prescott needs to outplay Brock Purdy, but that only happens if the offensive line does its job and provides a semblance of a running game to give Dak a chance to run play-action. This game will tell us how much of the Cowboys’ decline is injury-related and how much is something that should cost someone his job at some point.
49ers 21, Cowboys 17
Calvin Watkins
The Cowboys are such a good team coming out of a bye week under Mike McCarthy. At some point, Dallas will turn its season around and this could be it. The offense finally gets going the way it’s supposed to go. And that defense should force two turnovers. The Cowboys will win the turnover battle and they should win the game.
Cowboys 20, 49ers 14
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