Dallas Cowboys Plagued by 'Weird Number' While Trailing San Francisco 49ers
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The date circled in red for Dallas Cowboys fans has arrived ... and Cowboys Nation is presently seeing red.
The Cowboys hit the road for a prime-time showdown against the San Francisco 49ers, the team that has knocked Dallas out of the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. ... and the expectation was that the Cowboys could muster up the numbers to make this thing competitive.
After all, this Week 5 Sunday night matchup is highlighted by the Cowboys No. 1-ranked defense vs. the No. 3-ranked offense in San Francisco. But ...
The Cowboys simply cannot manage to accomplish anything consistently here on offense as they trail the undefeated San Francisco club at halftime, and that's where an irritatingly ironic number comes into play.
Under head coach Mike McCarthy, Dallas has a consistent track record of being an offensive team that is a threat to score 30 points at most any time. And indeed, coming into this matchup, the Cowboys' scoring average was ... 34 points per game.
So what's so irritating? What's so ironic?
The Cowboys, by trailing at the half here by a score of 21-7, have now in the last 10 quarters vs. the 49ers scored a grand total of ... 36 points. That's right. Total.
This hasn't been about turnovers or about quarterback Brock Purdy not throwing an interception yet this year or about Dak Prescott being a "turnover machine'' himself. It has been about a 49ers offense that ranks third in the league in scoring at 31.3 points per game ... and about a Cowboys team that on both sides of the ball - yes, even on defense, where the Cowboys coming in sat atop the league in points allowed per game at 10.3 - simply not being able to hang.
This first half in The Bay has been a true road test between two of the top teams in the conference ... and the Cowboys are failing the test ... with a big red "mid-30s'' scribbled across the page.
