Cowboys and 49ers both look to overcome poor starts to their season when they clash in week 8
If you had said heading into week eight of the NFL season that both the Dallas Cowboys and 49ers would only have three wins each, you would have been called insane. Both teams finished 12-5 last season, and finished as the two top teams in the NFC. This year however, their seasons aren’t going as expected. Heading into their week eight matchup against each other, the 49ers hold a 3-4 record and the Cowboys hold a 3-3 record. Yikes.
While both teams have looked like shells of their former selves this season, a large part of it has to do with their unfortunate injury situation. The Dallas Cowboys have been without All-Pro CB DaRon Bland all year, and been without WR Brandin Cooks, DE DeMarcus Lawrence, and DE Micah Parsons since their week four win against the New York Giants.
The San Francisco 49ers may be the only team in the NFL that has had it worse than the Cowboys when it comes to injuries. They’ve been without Madden-cover athlete Christian McCaffrey this entire year (talk about fueling the Madden curse conspiracy), and have been without LB Dre Greenlaw, DT Javon Hargrave, DE Yetur Gross-Matos, S Talanoa Hufanga, and WR Jauan Jennings for several games this season. To make matters worse for the 49ers, star WR Brandon Aiyuk suffered a torn ACL in their loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
The 49ers have undoubtedly owned the Cowboys over the last several seasons. Their previous matchup was a blowout, when they defeated Dallas 42-10 in week five last season. They also notably eliminated the Cowboys in back-to-back playoff matchups, ending the seasons of two 12-5 teams that Cowboys fans were very confident in.
While this isn’t the matchup that the NFL was anticipating when scheduling them as the Sunday Night Football matchup in Week 8, this storied rivalry should feature another high-pressure game. It could be argued that these games are “must-wins” for both teams, as they enter a brutal stretch of their season.