The San Francisco 49ers are hitting the road for a storied rivalry game against the Dallas Cowboys this weekend, as they look to improve to 8-1 after a blowout win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
San Francisco entered the week as 1.5-point underdogs, but the lines have shifted drastically, with the 49ers now being 3.5-point favorites ahead of game day. The Cowboys do have several players injured, including cornerback Joey Porter Jr., but it looks like they’ll have star receiver George Pickens back after
he started the week with two limited practices.
Meanwhile, San Francisco could be without Deommodore Lenoir, Mike Evans, and Renardo Green, as the trio did not practice at all on Wednesday or Thursday. Evans was expected to miss another week, but losing both cornerbacks is a big deal, especially against a Cowboys offense looking to throw the ball.
So, it’s not a surprise that the game total is sky-high at 55.5 points, with oddsmakers expecting fireworks from both offenses.
San Francisco did re-sign cornerback Jack Jones to the practice squad this week after releasing him a few weeks ago. While Jones had some positive moments this season, he had really struggled before getting cut by the 49ers, and it wasn’t clear that he was going to return. But with the injuries, he could be called upon to play quickly.
“I don’t think there’s ever an understanding he’s coming back,” Morris said of re-signing Jones. “This league is, we know this league, we’ve all been in it long enough, covered it long enough, done whatever, but I do think Jack Jones handled himself the right way. He was accountable to the things that he did wrong. I was accountable to the things that I could help him out to do better, so when he left, he left on great terms. When you leave a place on great terms, you always have an opportunity to come back when something presents itself.
“So last week, an opportunity presented itself and I think him coming back with a different vibe about himself and a different perspective gives him the best chance. I think that’s the only way you can handle failure and the only way to get improvement is to have a little bit of failure. I look forward to what he can do and how he can help us if it’s possible and got a lot of confidence in what he was able to do before that too as well.”
Well, Jones will have to handle that failure quickly, as he gets a very tough matchup this weekend going up against CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. The 49ers defense has graded out well by a number of metrics this season, but they are now banged up in the secondary with Deommodore Lenoir and Renardo Green’s statuses in question.
That’s why this matchup against the Cowboys could be a tougher one than expected for the 49ers. And it gets tougher from here, as the 49ers play the Vikings, Seahawks, Giants, and Rams over their next four games. This five-game stretch will tell us a lot about San Francisco, which remains the top contender to make the Super Bowl from the NFC.
Starting that stretch off with a win would be huge, but that means some players from the secondary, be it Jones or Nate Hobbs or even Ephesians Prysock, will have to step up on Sunday.
