A Week 5 win wouldn’t offset the pain plenty of Cowboys feel from losing to the 49ers in two straight postseasons, but it nonetheless is one of the bigger regular season games they’ve had in a while.
The Cowboys will head to Levi’s Stadium this week to face San Francisco on Sunday Night Football. Much like other meetings in recent years, the sides enter the matchup as two of the NFL’s top teams, with the Niners undefeated and the Cowboys sitting at 3-1.
Of course, there’s a little more juice in this matchup for Dallas, which has seen its last two campaigns end at the hands of the 49ers. Quarterback Dak Prescott even went as far as calling it one of the most important regular season games for them in recent memory – particularly from a morale standpoint.
Regardless of past history, it’s an opportunity for the Cowboys to prove that they truly belong among the league’s elite at this juncture. That clearly is not lost on Jerry Jones.
“I look at it as we know they’re one of, if not the team that is playing the best right now,” the Cowboys owner and general manager said of the 49ers in his weekly appearance on Shan & RJ. “They’re solid in their personnel, so they’re one of the best teams. A win against them would be inspiring, it would be substantive, so it’s just what it is. We are going to have to go by them beginning Sunday, and if we have aspirations, I think we’ll have to go by them again later in the year.”
Jones’ praise of the 49ers then became more effusive.
“Make no mistake about it, they’re a tremendous team. Outstanding defense, and will challenge us as much as anybody that, frankly, we’ve been challenged with this year or any other year. They’ve certainly got that, frankly, we need to worry about execution and worry about ourselves and not so much what they are. Because they are right now probably the most likely team to go win the Super Bowl. But in order for them to get there, they’ve got to go by us, hopefully two times if that’s the way it falls in the playoffs and we’re in the playoffs, of course.
“But the bottom line is you’re playing the best. You don’t need the game to tell you you’re playing the best, but you need the game to show you how you stack up against the best.”