SANTA CLARA, Calif. – One dominant quarter against Dallas proved to be enough for the San Francisco 49ers to head into their bye week on a high note.
Brock Purdy bounced back from a shaky first half to lead three touchdown drives in the third quarter and the Niners narrowly avoided another fourth-quarter collapse with a late defensive stand that sealed a 30-24 victory Sunday night.
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“We're a confident team," left tackle Trent Williams said. “We know that we haven't played up to our standard that many times in these first eight games. I don't think that we were looking at this game to draw some newfound confidence. I just think that when we can run the ball effectively and not turn it over, the results today are what we can expect.”
The Niners (4-4) bounced back from a loss last week in a Super Bowl rematch against Kansas City with a strong performance against the Cowboys (3-4) that they hope will set them up for another big push in the second half of the season.
San Francisco went 16-2 following its Week 9 bye week the past two seasons to make it to the NFC title game in 2022 and the Super Bowl last season.
Purdy had a TD run and threw a TD pass during the 21-0 third-quarter blitz that turned a 10-6 halftime deficit into a 27-10 lead.
But San Francisco had to hold on late after Dak Prescott threw two TD passes to CeeDee Lamb to cut the deficit to six. Prescott had a chance to complete the comeback, but threw four straight incomplete passes after getting the ball back with 3:05 left in the fourth quarter.
“I was frustrated. We made it a game when it didn't need to be," linebacker Fred Warner said. "We put ourselves in that situation so we had to get ourselves out. It was about going out there and finishing the game and we did that.”
San Francisco took control in the third quarter, driving 60 yards after the opening kick of the half to score on rookie Isaac Guerendo's 4-yard run.
Deommodore Lenoir's interception that set up San Francisco in Dallas territory, leading to Purdy's 2-yard touchdown pass to George Kittle, who finished with six catches for 128 yards.
The Niners then drove 75 yards for another TD when Purdy scored on a sneak from 2 yards out.
“I saw the rest of our team was clicking and I just had to do my job,” Purdy said. “Third quarter, I came out and kept it simple, but also played aggressive.”
Purdy bounced back from a three-interception performance last week against the Chiefs to go 18 for 26 for 260 yards against Dallas.
The Cowboys returned from their bye and didn't look a whole lot better for most of the game than they did in a 47-9 loss at home to Detroit two weeks ago.
Prescott threw two interceptions for a third straight game — the first Cowboys quarterback to do that in 32 years — and struggled to generate any consistent offense until the fourth quarter.
The defense struggled to slow San Francisco down at all outside of when the Niners committed penalties or Purdy was off-target on a few passes. It added up to another loss that will increase the outside pressure on coach Mike McCarthy, who is in the final year of his contract.
“As coaches and players we can learn from this,” McCarthy said. “We’re 3-4, that’s the facts of this deal. I’m disappointed. We obviously felt we were going to come in here and do what we needed to do to get the win and we came up short.”
Prescott finished 25 for 38 for 243 yards. Lamb caught 13 passes for 146 yards.
Injuries
49ers: RB Jordan Mason went to the locker room in the first half after re-injuring his shoulder that forced him to miss most of the secodn half two weeks ago against Seattle. ... LB Dee Winters left the game in the second half with a concussion. ... WR Deebo Samuel (ribs) left in the fourth quarter.
Up next
Cowboys: At Atlanta on Sunday.
49ers: At Tampa Bay on Nov. 10.
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