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It was 30 years ago when Jimmy Johnson yelled out these famous words inside the San Francisco 49ers‘ venue that became beloved in Dallas and NFL history lore: “How ’bout them Cowboys?!”
Looks like the admin of the 49ers’ Twitter account clearly remembered that famous four-word rallying cry — and gave it this remix after the NFC Divisional playoff matchup on Sunday, January 22:
San Francisco played its style of football by winning the turnover battle and turning to its ground game to surpass the Cowboys 19-12 at Levi’s Stadium. And in the process, took a dig at the Johnson quote during the week of the anniversary of the Cowboys’ NFC title game win at Candlestick Park.
The 49ers’ Twitter account wasn’t the only one that trolled the Cowboys. So did 49ers on NBC Sports Bay Area on social media after the game, as they responded to a past viral clip of Dallas fans chanting “We want Niners!” after the playoff win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Takeaways From Divisional Round Win
The 49ers pivoted to a familiar stronghold of their 2022 season: Defense.
The No. 1 ranked unit during the regular season — operating during a period their coaching mastermind DeMeco Ryans is juggling NFL head coaching interviews — ended up with two takeaways on the evening. The first one came at the 5:51 mark of the first quarter, with Deommodore Lenoir jumping to the sky for his pick:
Lenoir has now delivered his second straight interception in the postseason. But “The Hyena” snatched his latest takeaway with an important fan at his game: His high school football coach from Lenoir’s high school Bishop Mora Salesian in Los Angeles Devah Thomas.
The 49ers weren’t through yet with their takeaway party. San Francisco grabbed a crucial pick inside the red zone with the game tied at six and Dallas driving. Safety Jimmie Ward jumped the route by CeeDee Lamb and the ball flew into the hands of inside linebacker Fred Warner.
The 49ers went on to allow 282 total yards facing a high-powered Cowboys offense — far different than the 425 Dallas racked up against the Bucs during Super Wild Card Weekend. The Niners additionally held Dallas to just 76 rushing yards, now their fourth lowest output in that category this season.
Offensively, the 49ers weren’t the most explosive with 312 total yards. But, the versatility of Christian McCaffrey and the power running of Elijah Mitchell came in handy toward the end with both backs helping lift the Niners to 113 ground-based yards. Mitchell, last season’s leading rusher, led the way with 14 carries for 51 yards while McCaffrey scored the lone touchdown for S.F. on a 2-yarder that was set up by pull blocks.
But the most crucial and acrobatic catch came from George Kittle, whose high-concentration juggling grab helped eventually set up that McCaffrey score.
Lastly, Brock Purdy continued his unbeaten run as a starter by going 19-of-29 for 214 yards and averaged 7.4 yards per completion.
Kyle Shanahan Sounds Off on Next Challenge: Top Seeded Philadelphia
So now for the final Sunday of January is the heavyweight matchup of the NFC’s top two seeds: The 49ers and the No. 1 seed Philadelphia Eagles.
Philadelphia eased its way to the NFC Championship game with a 38-7 romp of the rival New York Giants. San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan immediately sounded off on the game that will decide the NFC representative for Super Bowl 57 — and sounded un-surprised that the Eagles are the next challenge for his team.
“They’ve been as good as anyone since the beginning of this year all the way to right now. You’d looked at the beginning of the year, you’d thought Philly would be the last team right here. And that’s the way it’s ended up,” Shanahan told reporters.
The approach is a simple one as Shanahan described: “We’re going to go down there and hopefully we have a good week of practice. Looking forward to the challenge.”
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