San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has hyped up his team’s clash with the Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs on Sunday night.
On Super Wild Card Weekend, the 49ers defeated the Seattle Seahawks as seventh-round rookie quarterback Brock Purdy enjoyed a masterclass performance as he threw for 332 yards and three touchdowns. Later on, the Cowboys ended Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers season, winning 31-14 on Monday Night Football.
Dak Prescott threw for 305 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Cowboys to a monumental victory. It means America’s Team will travel west to face the 49ers in the Bay Area on Sunday in what is set to be a blockbuster contest.
This will be the ninth time these franchises have met in the postseason, tied for the most of any matchup in the Super Bowl era with the 49ers against the Green Bay Packers and the Cowboys against the Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams. Six of the previous ties have come in the conference title game, with the likes of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Steve Young, Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders competing in the rivalry.
Shanahan's early years were spent watching his father Mike work as offensive coordinator in San Francisco against the Cowboys in three successive NFC title games. For the 43-year-old, the chance to coach the 49ers in a huge contest against the Cowboys is thrilling.
“That's how rivalries happen,” Shanahan said. “You guys knew it from the '80s when it started out.
“I remember so much from my childhood from sixth grade to ninth grade, because I was here '92 to '94, so it was the biggest rivalry in football to me growing up. Then usually that goes away when you don't meet in the playoffs a bunch and we had a big game last year, we have a big game this year, so the more you do that, the bigger it gets again.”
The 49ers-Cowboys rivalry in the postseason stretches back to the 1970s and the contest has seen many iconic moments. Even last season, San Francisco topped America’s Team 23-17 in Dallas with quarterback Dak Prescott failing to get the snap off in time.
The two franchises met in successive NFC Championship Games as well as a Divisional Round clash between 1970 and 1972, with the Cowboys coming out on top each time. Dallas even won their first championship in 1971, overcoming the 49ers before beating the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI.
The 49ers fell away after that trilogy, but got their revenge with a late comeback to kickstart their own dynasty in the 1981 NFC title game. Joe Montana - who would win four Super Bowls in San Francisco - led the game-winning drive by passing to Dwight Clark for the iconic ‘The Catch’ to win 28-27.
The Cowboys repaid the favour as they launched their own super team, with Tom Landry’s Dallas defeating the 49ers in San Francisco to clinch their place in Super Bowl XXVII before repeating the trick in 1994. The Cowboys won three titles in four years in the 1990s, before Steve Young led the 49ers back to the top of the mountain.
Dallas travel to face the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday night.
