A side note: As a guy in his late teens/early 20’s, I saw every play of that fateful “the catch” game when Montana threw the ball away, way above Dwight Clark’s head. And never has a player defied physics like that play when he somehow caught the ball. That play is by far the worst play in Cowboys history and still makes me sick to watch. So yeah I abhor the 49ers.
Back to Sunday night. The game should be another close one and we will see how well Dak performs as well as the first glimpse at seeing our starting five O-line play together for the first time this season.
On the defensive side, I’m only looking at one thing. Can we stop the run? The Achilles heel of the past 28 seasons, esp in big games is our inability to stop the run, esp when it’s crunch time. The Seattle Romo fumble loss and Dez catch loss come to mind when we would have had time for one more possession in Seattle and three more in Green Bay IF our defense could actually make a critical stop, but I digress.
Stopping Christian M sun will decide the game. If we stop the run and keep the score low, then Dak can play a conservative game, not having to take huge chances because we got behind.
But in the big picture, this is just another game. Winning Sunday makes me nervous that we’ll win the wrong game, meaning I’d rather lose Sun and beat them in Jan since it’s difficult to beat a great team twice in a season.
We have been Octobers paper champion before and it means nothing. We have had a great regular season record going into the playoffs and it means very little. What does matter, whether we win the East or secure a wild card birth is being the hot team the last month of the season and being the team no one wants to play in Jan. Stopping the run when the game is on the line will decide Sundays matchup as well as if we become the team no one wants to play in Jan. If we can’t stop the run Sunday, then it will feel like just another season and “business as usual” which doesn’t bode well come Jan.
