The San Francisco 49ers look to close out their two-step of long-term rivals with a 2-0 record, trying to follow up a win over the Las Vegas Raiders with a road win against the Dallas Cowboys.
Sunday will renew the iconic NFL rivalry, with Week 10 marking the first matchup between the two teams since the 49ers topped the Cowboys in a Week 8 Sunday Night Football game in 2024.
A win on Sunday would mark the 49ers’ first five-game winning streak against Dallas (including playoffs) for the first time
since San Francisco won six in a row from 1981 through 1990. If San Francisco hopes to extend the streak, these are the three numbers to know:
8/4/26
Targets/receptions/yards. Keenan Allen finished Week 9 with four receptions on eight targets for 26 yards.
Keenan Allen will likely do something that doesn’t happen often in the NFL: play back-to-back weeks against the same opponent. Which means we have a rare window into just how Allen will do in his 49ers debut by looking at how he fared against Dallas.
With Allen acquired on Tuesday, it’s hard to imagine he’d play more than 36 snaps, as he did against Dallas last week, but he has two things working in his favor that he didn’t have in Week 9: he’s obviously the 49ers’ No. 1 receiver, and he has Brock Purdy as his quarterback.
While Allen is the Colts’ leader in targets, he shared passes with new Chief Josh Downs. And while Demarcus Robinson plays his second game from injury, it’s safe to assume Allen will be WR1 while he’s on the field in Dallas.
I don’t think I really need to get into how Purdy is an upgrade over Jones.
It’s certainly a unique week for Allen to face the same opponent twice in as many weeks, but I am sure he won’t complain about another chance against the poor Dallas defense.
26.2
Points per game. The Cowboys defense has allowed 26.2 points per game, seventh-worst in the league.
For the fifth time this season, the 49ers face a defense in the bottom 10 in scoring through nine weeks. Last week, they faced the worst scoring defense in the league, the Las Vegas Raiders. The 49ers’ previous four matchups against bottom-10 scoring defenses are as follows:
- Week 2 versus Miami (23rd-ranked scoring defense) – 35 points
- Week 3 versus Arizona (31st) – 36
- Week 6 versus Washington (24th) – 23
- Week 8 versus Las Vegas (32nd) – 38
That’s an average of 33 points per game in four games against bottom-10 defense. Not too bad for the 49ers’ high-powered offense. Unfortunately, 33 points might not be enough against a high-powered Dallas offense, which has scored 33 or more points in three of its eight games, including two of its last three.
49.5
Scoring percentage. The Cowboys offense scores on 49.5 percent of drives, the third-best percentage in the league.
And the 49ers haven’t really faced an offense like the one the Cowboys will offer. Just like it was against scoring defenses, last week was the most recent example of the 49ers facing a team like Dallas.
The Raiders are the only other top-ten team by scoring percentage San Francisco has faced this season. Entering Week 10, the Raiders offense has scored on 45.4 percent of its drives. The 49ers held them to significantly less than that last week, allowing the Raiders to score a touchdown on two of nine drives.
But outside of Las Vegas, the 49ers have exclusively faced below-average scoring offenses. Prior to the Raiders, the 49ers’ previous seven games were against offenses that entered Week 10 with a touchdown percentage less than the league average of 38.9.
Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb will certainly give the 49ers defense a test on Sunday, but San Francisco handled the pretest that was Las Vegas pretty well. Sunday will be the toughest regular-season test of the season for the 49ers offense.
