SANTA CLARA, Calif. – From the opening kickoff, Dallas' special teams unit was out of sync and proved to be detrimental in a 30-24 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
An illegal formation penalty on the opening kickoff brought KaVontae Turpin's return to the Cowboys' 30 yard line back five yards to the 25. Dallas would go on to punt a few plays later to continue their struggles on drives to start halves offensively.
And yet, that was just the beginning of the struggles for John Fassel's unit.
Another illegal formation, a Brandon Aubrey kick short of the landing zone and an illegal forward pass on a kickoff return followed for the Cowboys. The second illegal formation penalty gave San Francisco starting field position at their own 35, and the drive resulted in a 44 yard Anders Carlson field goal. It was an uncharacteristic start for a special teams unit that doesn't see a lot of flags thrown against them.
"It's extremely frustrating when we don't do our job correctly," C.J. Goodwin said after the game. "We're not a penalty team on special teams… but we're going to play aggressive… we'll fix it on the next one."
Following that, Brandon Aubrey sent a kickoff short of the landing zone to start the second half, leading to the 49ers starting a drive from their own 40 yard line. Isaac Guerendo would go on to score a four-yard rushing touchdown 5 plays and 60 yards later.
On the ensuing kickoff, KaVontae Turpin threw an illegal forward pass to C.J. Goodwin, which pushed the Cowboys back to their own 16 yard line, and Dak Prescott threw his eighth interception of the season three plays later.
"I thought I threw it back, me and C.J. worked on it every day in practice," Turpin said of the play. "They said it was a forward pass and we had to live with it."
All of that combined results in 10 49ers points and a Cowboys turnover, none of which helped Dallas' case tonight. It was a frustrating night for a special teams unit that is prideful of their performances.
"We take pride in our special teams unit, I feel like they just weren't letting us play, it was frustrating on both ends." Turpin said.
Bryan Anger was the lone bright spot on special teams tonight for Dallas. Anger averaged 48.5 yards on his four punts, three of which set the 49ers inside their own 20.
