Brock Purdy learned this in the first half Sunday, struggling to get comfortable and establish a rhythm in the passing game, finishing the first two quarters 12 of 19 for 129 yards. I spent an entire point on San Francisco's defense, but Dallas' group is pretty solid, too. The Kyle Shanahan rushing attack remains fierce.And although there was much more to this weekend than Prescott's struggles, it's deserved criticism for a quarterback who isn't elevating a team many see as good enough to legitimately contend for a title. Prescott's name and the debate over his inability to lift the Cowboys to the NFC Championship Game will be prominently featured across the circuit of sports-talk shows Monday, if not longer. He didn't, completing 62% of his passes for 206 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions and one long connection with Lamb that was wasted when Mike McCarthy decided to punt on fourth-and-5 from San Francisco's 40, taking a delay of game to kick from the 49ers' 45. 1 defense in the NFL, the Cowboys needed their star quarterback to play like one. That was far from the whole story, of course, but in a game in which Dallas faced the No. San Francisco took both of its Prescott interceptions and produced six points from them, building almost all of its eventual winning margin. Prescott made a couple of errors that ended Dallas drives and put the 49ers in position to score. What we learned Sunday is that we were wrong. It was also an encouraging sign that, when the stakes were at their highest, he could possibly overcome crushing mistakes made in previous games. We spent the entire week marveling over Prescott's Super Wild Card Weekend performance, which was one of his best showings of his career. Dak Prescott falls back to earth at worst time.He's proven to be an excellent coordinator who has this defense playing at an elite level at the perfect time of year. Defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans is attracting a lot of attention for head coaching openings for good reason. Each accounted for a turnover caused by pressure, and Ebukam was responsible for San Francisco's lone sack. San Francisco's defense harassed Prescott all game, recording 17 combined pressures between Samson Ebukam (seven), Nick Bosa (six) and Arik Armstead (four). CeeDee Lamb found success (10 catches for 117 yards), but Dallas struggled to get anything going on the ground, finishing with 76 yards produced by a group that sorely missed Tony Pollard after he exited with an ugly ankle injury. The low-scoring affair didn't produce a ton of fireworks, but there were highlights sprinkled throughout the game, starting with Deommodore Lenoir's perfectly timed interception of Prescott, leading to the 49ers' first points of the game. San Francisco forced two Dak Prescott turnovers and held Dallas under 300 yards of total offense while also denying the Cowboys on 10 of 15 third-down attempts. As they've said for decades, defense wins championships, and San Francisco's top-ranked unit stood tall Sunday.
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