Did you enjoy your slopfest, America? Is everyone happy?
Sunday night was the manifestation of when nostalgia faces reality. The 90s legacy brand matchup between the 49ers and Cowboys is no longer a rivalry, let alone a battle of titans. Despite a chasmic gap in quality, both teams served up their own smorgasbords of dysfunction.
That is not to equate this 49ers team with the visitors. Dallas is terrible.
They had a pathetic offseason approach, and without Micah Parsons, Demarcus Lawrence, DaRon Bland and Brandin Cooks, they are aimless.
But San Francisco, once again, showed itself to be unserious. They let that team threaten them at the end of this game by leaving open the only threat Dallas had, in CeeDee Lamb, for back-to-back touchdowns. They out-gained the Cowboys 469 to 292 and if Kavontae Turpin caught one ball down the sideline, they might have lost.
Aside from one single (third) quarter of borderline flawless football, the 49ers were a mess of almost great drives turned into sad stallouts. Their nine penalties for 73 yards are concrete indictments. But their one glorious quarter, and an opponent that is even less serious than they are, meant that 49ers will go into the bye at 4-4.
Great, monumental. You beat a Cowboys team trotting out Ezekiel Elliott and Dalvin Cook like it's 2019. They ran with their fullback on a 3rd-and-5 on the first series like they thought they'd pull the wool over anyone's eyes. They are quite literally the butt of America's joke. This is a team the 49ers should rightly have beaten by three touchdowns.
The 49ers cannot just beat teams by the nature of their quality. The defense is prone to interior runs, strong offensive lines, and second-half collapses. The offense loves to hold and miss blocks or get crushed at all the worst possible times. There is too much youth and inexperience to believe that all of this will just somehow click into perfect sync all of a sudden.
Maybe the bye week is the salve for their errors. Sure. Watch some film, get a real practice or two in, and return reinvigorated. That absolutely can't hurt.
The real hope is that Christian McCaffrey returns and saves the day. If you're getting even half the player he was last year, that's a monumental upgrade for this offense. Even if he's just a third-down receiver, or a slot receiver, that could help solve their red zone struggles.
Isaac Guerendo's emergence is a genuine boon, too. He can take some of the load of McCaffrey and might *whispers* just be a better option then Jordan Mason.
But even McCaffrey doesn't solve the offensive line missing assignments. He doesn't solve Brock Purdy missing reads and missing throws in ways he never did before this season (though he'd certainly give Purdy a safety valve). He doesn't solve the fact that their second half of the season is grueling.
It starts with the Buccaneers on the road (granted, without Chris Godwin and Mike Evans), the Seahawks at home, then the Packers and Bills on the road, the Bears and surging Rams at home, the rebounding Dolphins in Miami, the Lions at home, then a trip to Arizona to end it.
It's doable, sure.
But until this team makes a compelling argument that it can actually avoid short-circuiting on a regular basis, their sales pitch rings hollow. The chance is there. The opportunity is there. Being 4-4, as ugly and downright stupid as some of this season has been, gives them a chance to redeem themselves. We will see who they are and who they have when they emerge from this bye.
Maybe it's with McCaffrey and Jauan Jennings and a better version of Deebo Samuel and a shiny new piece acquired at the trade deadline. We'll see. Just let them prove it before you buy in.