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Cowboys’ playoff matchup: Where does 49ers offense pose biggest questions for Dallas defense?

There is only so much time in the week and I had to make a call. Instead of spending time marveling at the brilliant way that Dan Quinn, Micah Parsons and friends stopped the Tom Brady offense in its tracks Monday, we are forced to look to Sunday because of the enormity of the occasion.

Brady has accomplished more than any quarterback. Individual, team, regular season, postseason, it doesn’t matter. He is the leader on every leaderboard and we tip our cap to him. But his offense in 2022 cannot hold a candle to the offense the Cowboys face next. Three quarterbacks have made at least two starts each for the 49ers and there is little indication it matters. San Francisco is an offensive machine and it plays a style you don’t see in mass volume often. I have grown to respect this offense since 2019 because the 49ers have made three deep playoff runs and each time they are underestimated and undervalued. They proved everyone wrong with very close title runs to end their own Super Bowl drought. If you think 1995 has been a long wait, the 49ers will tell you they have waited since 1994 for a parade. But, unlike the Cowboys, they have been close many times since.

They have been to the NFL “Final Four” in 1997, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2019 and 2021. You can decide if being that close six times would make your drought better or worse, but they have plenty of silver and bronze medals. They should have won the 2012 Super Bowl and they could have easily won the 2019 Super Bowl. In 2021, they dropped a Matthew Stafford fair catch-level interception that would have put them in last February’s final game. They have won 14 playoff games since their last Lombardi Trophy while Dallas has won five. If you want to feel really bad, consider this: Kyle Shanahan has won as many playoff games in San Francisco since 2019 as the Cowboys have won since 1995.

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

It starts with Dak Prescott, but who else does the Cowboys need to step up vs. the 49ers?

People will shrug and tell you Shanahan isn’t as great as you say — with a record of 52-46 in his only coaching gig. I mean, wasn’t he the OC in that 28-3 Super Bowl? But, if you allow him two years to get the 49ers up to the level his rebuild required and check his record since the beginning of Year 3, he is 42-24 in the regular season and 5-2 in three playoff trips. That will hold up against almost anyone and with Garoppolo as his QB1. Again, can you win in the NFL without a top-half-of-the-NFL quarterback? Not long term, because Shanahan went all in on Trey Lance to verify his thoughts of sustainability, but Shanahan seems to be the best guy for the job if you need to try.

Instead of looking hard at that Tampa Bay performance (I might circle back to that gem in the long offseason), I wanted to elaborate a bit about the 49ers offense. Since I claim it is one of the most unique in the sport (Baltimore is right there, too), I better explain why and what Quinn (the other member of the 28-3 coaching staff in this story) has to do to stop it .

First, the tale of the tape:

There is not a hint of red on either side of the ledger. The Cowboys are excellent at almost everything defensively and the 49ers are even better across the board offensively. This feels like a true clash of the titans.

The best thing about the 49ers is their run game, but they oddly are a team that has the most explosive offense in the NFL since Week 12. It is hard to fathom how they can be both a team that doesn’t risk the ball through the air much, but also finds explosive plays everywhere.

How does their offense work?

The 49ers run game is predicated on being varied and creative in how it goes about its business. Only four teams run the ball more than the 49ers, but you probably won’t find a team that runs it in as many different ways. Like most teams, the 49ers probably run more outside zone than anything else, but inside zone is a regular feature and then the man/gap blocking family with man, power and counters making up about 30 percent of their plan. They will figure out what troubles you and continue to hammer that until you have had enough.

Brian Baldinger made one of my favorite videos breaking down this run game prior to the 2020 season and I highly recommend it. It is 15 minutes of great football teaching.

They have great personnel to do all of this — the key to any offensive scheme, of course — but, don’t mistake how every concept is built from the others. They make a linebacker’s head spin.

The QB component is what sets them apart. You can tell me about your offense if you have Josh Allen or Mahomes, but let’s hear about what you do when you have a trio of starters.

With Brock Purdy, you have a guy who has been the quarterback in December. He entered the fray Dec. 4 when Garoppolo went down. He has started against Tampa Bay, Seattle, Washington, Las Vegas and Arizona, before a playoff start against Seattle last week. He has not lost and he has not really been pushed too hard to save for their close call at Las Vegas. In his four home starts, he won by a combined 88 points. Shanahan is considered a genius by some because he seems to have discovered how to run a successful offense that is not leveraged on high-level QB play. In fact, he has shown to some level that he can win with a number of QBs. Including the six wins with Purdy, he has won 15 games without his QB1 starting. If we stack up the 32 coaches by the number of wins they get without their QB1, he would do very well.

But again, how do you use a seventh-round rookie and a starter you tried to discard and still finish top 10 in most every metric (top 5 in plenty of them)?

They attempted a huge amount of play-action passes with Purdy and even ramped it up more in the wild-card round. We have seen how Purdy has a real knack for extending plays and finding a much higher success rate than Garoppolo and it isn’t very close. Garoppolo had the directive to get the ball out quickly and smartly. With Purdy, there is a belief that the old Shanahan staple of a bootleg off the outside zone allows him to take a couple moments to let his guys win vertically, and then slice up the defense.

The 49ers are a 21-personnel team which makes them a rare fullback-heavy team. Kyle Juszczyk is one of a kind and a mandatory part of what they do. They have been at the top of the league in 21 personnel since Shanahan took the job. They also lead the league in motion and shifts in pre-snap every year with new man Christian McCaffrey doing a ton of those shifts and motions. He is being used as an incredible moving chess piece and you already knew they had a great one in Deebo Samuel. They are also among the league leaders in tightest formations every year. They use bunches and quick-game like almost nobody — save for Miami, who has Shanahan disciple Mike McDaniel as his head coach and running the offense.

They devastate you in screens, but you don’t know who. Is it a running back screen or tight end or wide receiver? It doesn’t matter, the 49ers run them all. Heck, they will run a fullback screen if you aren’t paying attention. They want their quick game and subterfuge to cause broken tackles. And because of the narrowness of their offense, they break to the sidelines and have as many big plays with guys heading down the boundaries as anyone in the league. But, they often start with crosses.

This offense is the absolute master of yards after the catch (YAC). That is the key. That starts with broken tackles, but that doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because they choose players in Samuel, McCaffrey, Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle who are great at doing it. They know, maybe better than anyone, exactly what type of player best fits their recipe. That is why the McCaffrey trade looks like a stroke of absolute genius. It took an offense that was already a problem and made it better.

The downfield offense is pretty much all in-breakers that are deep-ins and deep crossers. Look at any tape — they are everywhere. NFL’s Next Gen tells us that unsurprisingly, they are No. 1 in the league in each of the past five years at this. The only teams close? Their cousins ​​in Miami and Baltimore. Of course!

Samuel and Aiyuk are both high-level receivers. They are not twins, but their gifts are similar and their disposition is, too. The 49ers know what they look for in a player and they keep shopping until they find it. Samuel is a special player and is paid as such. But, don’t sleep on Aiyuk. He is having his best year.

Juan Jennings is a big receiver who loves to dig out defensive backs, but his ankle may prevent him from playing a big role. Ray-Ray McCloud is another speed demon who doesn’t play a big role, but it only takes a touch or two for him to cause issues.

Offensive line? San Francisco has a first-team All-Pro in Trent Williams and if you could pick one player to try to slow down Parsons, he might be your choice. He is a player who gives up about one sack a year in the past five seasons and if Parsons gets home even once, it will be a news story because of how good Williams is. The other tackle is Mike McGlinchey who is solid, but not elite. Inside they are fine, but they usually get the ball out before you can hurt them too badly.

Why did I tell you all of this? Because I want you to know what Quinn and this defense have on their plate. They have been awesome this year, but since they didn’t play Miami, Baltimore or San Francisco, they really haven’t played a team with a style like this. Not only do the 49ers have the style, they have darn near perfected it.

This is Quinn’s best challenge yet. The same is true with Parsons. The 49ers will immediately try to use Parsons’ speed and aggressiveness against him with ambushes designed specifically to slow him down. Will it work? I have learned not to bet against Parsons, but this one is a big test.

The Cowboys defense can stay alive with three big and possibly obvious objectives:

1. Takeaways: Dallas has to figure out how to get one takeaway per half. Best done by hitting the QB, but perhaps the Cowboys can get the ball out down the field or pick off a few. The Cowboys are great at getting the ball and the Niners are great at protecting it. This would be a great game for DeMarcus Lawrence to step forward and take his career to a place it has never gone.

2. Force field goals in the red zone: This is a spot where the 49ers have struggled. They are more run-heavy in the red zone. If Dallas can force kicks, it gives itself a chance. If it allows touchdowns at a higher than 50 percent rate on red zone visits, this gets tough.

3. Tackle: This is easily the most important one. Teams that make business decisions against the 49ers get blown out. The Cowboys must realize this game is going to hurt and the 49ers design plays to make guys tackle who don’t like to tackle. I won’t name any names, but Mr. Diggs, they will be looking for you in space often. If this defense wants to play on, it will be because it is all determined to tackle as if every play may decide the Cowboys’ season (because it might).

I don’t mean to paint this opponent out to be a world-beater, but after studying them again (and many times over these five years), I am convinced the 49ers are a very well-coached team that rarely puts out stinkers when it matters most. They don’t beat themselves. They demand you step up and beat them.

What does Quinn see and what will he try? I can’t wait to find out.

(Top photo of Christian McCaffrey: Michael Owens / Getty Images)

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