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| BUF at KC | CAR at ATL | CHI at STL | CIN at PIT | GB at NO | HOU at CLE | IND at SD | MIN at JAX |
| NE at MIA | NYG at ARI | NYJ at TEN | OAK at DEN | PHI at BAL | SF at DAL | TB at DET | WAS at SEA |
Week 12 Game Recap: San Francisco 49ers 22, Dallas Cowboys 35
What you need to know
| San Francisco 49ers |
The 49ers were trying to build off of their success in the prior week against the St. Louis Rams in trying to win for the first time on the road against Dallas. Before the game 49ers coach Mike Singletary stated that the goal of the defense was to limit the production of Marion Barber. They started well on offense, getting field goal attempts on their first three drives. But, they could not keep the progress going in the second quarter as they gained a total of eight yards in the quarter. There were some problems on offense, as they were only able to come away with two touchdowns on six total trips inside the Cowboys red zone.
Shaun Hill started at quarterback and played a decent game, considering he was under consistent pressure by the Cowboy front four. His stats were padded by the two garbage time touchdown drives in the fourth quarter.
The 49ers were forced to rely on the passing game due to the ineffectiveness of Frank Gore. The offensive line was not able to provide him with room to run, and he was not involved in the passing game as the 49ers chose to throw the ball deep against the Dallas secondary.
Isaac Bruce had an excellent game, catching most everything thrown in his direction and scoring the first offensive touchdown. Bruce was able to consistently get open deep against a secondary that played in soft coverage.
| Dallas Cowboys |
Terrell Owens had his best game of the season with over 200 receiving yards. He was able to most of his damage on deep routes during the first half, and was the intended target on some of Romo's best throws. He fought through tackles after the catch and backed up his talk of wanting the ball more.
Coming off of a big win in week 11 against the Washington Redskins, the Cowboys were looking for their third win in a row going into a short week due to the annual Thanksgiving Day game. They planned on jumping out to a comfortable lead and periodically rest their starters before the next game. The plan did work to an extent as they were able to give Marion Barber some rest during the second half, but did not have the luxury of pulling Tony Romo due to the two late touchdowns by the 49ers. The game was close early as Romo had trouble connecting with his receivers, but the momentum shifted after Dallas scored their first touchdown. They pinned San Francisco deep after two consecutive sacks and blocked a punt out of the end zone for a safety and a three point lead that would change the momentum for the rest of the game.
Romo was still feeling the effects of his broken pinkie as he was only able to connect on just over half of his passes. His throwing was erratic during the first half as some throws sailed on him and some were right on target with a little zip on them.
What you ought to know
| QB Shaun Hill, Pass: 21 - 33 - 303 - 2 TD / 1 INT, Rush: 1 - 0 - 0 |
Shaun Hill had a good game statistically, throwing for over 300 yards, two touchdowns, and only one interception. He generally made good decisions with the ball, as he was facing constant pressure from the Dallas defense. The coverage forced him to roll out or hurry his passes. He was able to take advantage of the soft coverage provided to his outside receivers by either hitting them on open shorter routes or on the occasional deep ball. Hill did show some of his inexperience by failing to lead the receivers on some passes when a perfect throw could have resulted in much more yardage. The inexperience showed on his lone interception where the defensive back played the ball well, but had the pass been thrown to a different area the result would have been a touchdown. His two touchdowns came late in the fourth quarter after the game was mostly in hand and Dallas was playing in a prevent style defense.
| RB Frank Gore, Rush: 14 - 26 - 0, Rec: 1 - 6 - 0 (3 targets) |
Frank Gore found it tough going against a strong Cowboys rushing defense. The Cowboys were able to take away the threat of the run by plugging up the rushing lanes, stretching out wide rushing plays to the sidelines, and blitzing their linebackers. Gore was not used much in the second half as the 49ers only attempted two rushing plays in the entire half. He was also not much help in the passing game as he only saw three targets.
| RB Michael Robinson, Rec: 3 - 7 - 0 (3 targets) |
Used primarily as the fullback in the offense, Robinson did not have a single rushing attempt and only had three targets, all in the first half. His limited use was a direct result of the team falling behind early and having to pass the ball to try and get back in the game.
| RB DeShaun Foster, Rec: 1 - 9 - 1 (1 targets) |
Foster's only action came late in the fourth quarter when Hill found him open on a short route deep in Dallas territory. Foster converted the reception and made it easily into the end zone for the final score.
| WR Isaac Bruce, Rec: 8 - 125 - 1 (10 targets) |
Bruce was heavily involved in the offense early, targeted on two of the first four plays from scrimmage. On his second reception, he was hit hard and his helmet was knocked off. He hit the back of his head and had to leave the game to get stitched up. After only missing a few plays he returned a caught a pass along the sideline while being well covered, but wound up just short of the first down. He was able to catch passes even when well covered.
| WR Bryant Johnson, Rec: 4 - 56 - 0 (9 targets) |
Johnson teamed up with Isaac Bruce to form a good pass catching combo for Shaun Hill. Johnson was targeted five times in the opening period, but was not able to come up with any catches. Most of the passes thrown his direction were slightly off target, enabling the defensive back to recover in time to break up the pass. He was targeted three times in the end zone and almost had a touchdown, but he bobbled the pass and ended up dropping it.
| WR Dominique Zeigler, Rec: 2 - 31 - 0 (2 targets) |
The rookie Zeigler only saw limited action during the second half. He caught both passes thrown his direction, but did make a rookie mistake as he stopped running his route on a broken play and took away a potential target for his quarterback. Hill ended up throwing the ball away to avoid the sack, but if Zeigler had helped him out the result may have been different.
| WR Jason Hill, Rec: 1 - 22 - 0 (2 targets) |
Jason Hill was only able to come with one of his two targets, but he made it count as he provided the 49ers with a key first down on their final touchdown drive.
| TE Vernon Davis, Rec: 1 - 47 - 0 (2 targets) |
Davis started by getting open deep on a beautiful play in the first quarter when Shaun Hill found him in single coverage along the left sideline. Hill rolled out and hit him in stride along the sideline and Davis stepped out of bounds at the four yard line. Unfortunately they were only able to covert the excellent field position into three points.
| PK Joe Nedney 3 - 4 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 10 points |
Joe Nedney had a productive game, even though he missed his first field goal attempt, from 53 yards on the opening possession. He benefited from the inability of the offense to score touchdowns by kicking three short field goals.
| SF Rush Defense |
The 49ers made it a primary goal to shut down the Cowboys rushing attack and they were able to accomplish that goal. They limited Dallas backs to a total of 77 yards on the ground and were able to keep Dallas from getting first downs on the ground late in the game to keep the clock moving and the ball away from the offense.
| SF Pass Defense |
The pass defense had a difficult time in trying to cover the Cowboys receivers due to the lack of pass rush on Romo. Romo had time to find his receivers, and the defensive backs gave the receivers enough cushion to get open. A bad day could have worse had Romo been able to complete more than half of his pass attempts in the first half, but was having a hard time throwing good passes due to the splint on his finger.
| QB Tony Romo, Pass: 23 - 39 - 341 - 3 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 4 - -3 - 0 |
Tony Romo had a difficult time getting going as he was unable to connect with his receivers in the first quarter. He completed his first two passes, but the second completion was off target and he was helped by an excellent catch by his receiver. Romo then misfired on his next five passes before throwing his best pass of the game, and in process helped turn the game around. He connected with Terrell Owens on a deep bomb that Owens was able to take into the end zone and give the Cowboys their first lead. After that play Romo began to work the defense by mixing in short dump off passes to his backs with deep balls to his wide outs to keep the defense off balance. He still showed that the splint on his pinkie is affecting his throwing by putting up some inaccurate or wobbly passes.
| RB Marion Barber, Rush: 19 - 59 - 0, Rec: 7 - 50 - 0 (9 targets) |
The 49ers were able to take away the rushing of Marion Barber, limiting him to a meager 59 yards. Dallas was able to compensate by getting him involved in the passing game. He would often go into a pass route as the safety option for Romo, and Romo would take advantage of it by going to him when the receivers were covered.
| RB Tashard Choice, Rush: 6 - 18 - 0, Rec: 2 - 14 - 0 (3 targets) |
Choice saw action to give Marion Barber some rest in the second half and to try and keep him fresh for the Thanksgiving Day game. He would have seen more extensive action, but he fumbled a backward lateral directly into the hands of the defender. The fumble did not hurt them as they intercepted the ball on the very next play.
| WR Terrell Owens, Rec: 7 - 213 - 1 (13 targets) |
Owens was huge in this game. In addition to focusing on taking away the running game, the 49ers tried to take Terrell Owens out of the passing game. They were not successful as Tony Romo was able to connect with Owens deep on multiple plays. The first play was when Owens caught a deep pass while being well covered and broke a tackle and ran into the end zone. They were also able to connect on plays of 45 and 52 yards that gave the Cowboys excellent field position. A great day could have been even better but for two dropped passes. The first one was on a play where Owens was clearly not expecting the ball and was only able to get one hand on it. The second one could have been a catch, but he lost his concentration and ended up bobbling the ball and dropping it a couple of yards later.
| WR Roy Williams, Rec: 3 - 36 - 0 (5 targets) |
Williams got the start and saw little action until the second quarter when the Cowboy offense began to open up. Williams made some excellent catches off of throws that were slightly off target to help out the offense and keep them on the field. Two of his receptions resulted in first downs and the third one was just a yard short of the first down marker.
| WR Patrick Crayton, Rec: 2 - 16 - 1 (3 targets) |
Patrick Crayton started as Dallas began the game in a three wide receiver set. He played in the slot, where he is the most comfortable, and made the most of his limited opportunities by scoring a touchdown on one of his receptions. The touchdown pass was on a play in which he split two defenders just short of the end zone and was able to easily score.
| TE Jason Witten, Rec: 1 - 11 - 0 (4 targets) |
Jason Witten had a tough game as he was only able to come up with a reception on the first pass thrown to him. He was open, but the pass was thrown slightly off target and limited his yards after the catch. He almost came down with a reception later, but his right heel came down on the sideline on a deep pass, and later in the game he appeared to catch a pass but the ball was knocked loose on a vicious hit by the defender. After that play the Dallas medical staff looked at his jaw, but he was able to return to action.
| TE Martellus Bennett, Rec: 1 - 1 - 1 (1 targets) |
Bennett made the most of his one target as he scored on a short touchdown reception just before halftime.
| TE Tony Curtis (1 targets) |
Curtis was the intended target on a ball that was batted back toward Tony Romo in the second quarter.
| PK Nick Folk 4 - 4 FG, 3 - 3 XP, 15 points |
Nick Folk was busy, going a perfect four for four on his field goal attempts. All of the attempts were from over 40 yards.
| DAL Rush Defense |
The Cowboys rush defense took away the 49ers running game early and forced them into a one dimensional attack. Even when the niners were able to move the ball in the first half, they had no success in moving it on the ground and were forced into relying on the passing game. In the second half the niners only attempted two running plays as they were playing from more than two scores behind and decided to abandon the running game.
| DAL Pass Defense |
The Cowboys gave up over 300 yards passing, but 100 of those yards came late in the fourth quarter as the defense was playing soft due to a big lead. The front four was able to get pressure on the quarterback, sacking him four times and forcing him to hurry his passes on numerous other occasions.