As fans, we stress about how much the Cowboys have struggled recently against the 49ers. But with so much roster turnover each season, do the players really feel the same worry? Do those losses from previous seasons carry over to this year? If so, how do they mentally overcome the ghosts of failures past? – Ted Hoffman/Ft. Worth, TX
Nick: I really don't know if it's a mental thing. I know it is for the fans, but I'm not sure it's that way for the players, and if so, we'd never know. If you just watched the last three meetings with San Francisco, it looks a lot more like a physical thing than anything else. The 49ers are very physical team and if it's something we've seen with the Cowboys the last two years, and of course this year, they don't match up well with those teams that pride themselves on running the ball, being overly physical, getting a hat on a hat, and moving people off their blocks and off the ball. The Cowboys have been manhandled by the 49ers in the trenches during those three games. Now, I do think people tend to forget that not all of these three games have been one-sided. The 49ers took it to the Cowboys in the 2021 playoffs and won by six. The next year, I thought the Cowboys were the better team overall but the injury to Tony Pollard, which would now be called an illegal tackle, changed the whole game and they lost by a touchdown. Last year was a complete blowout. But it didn't exactly defeat them mentally and they won seven of the next eight games. So I think sometimes these things get overblown from a mental aspect. It's the physical part that has hurt this team when facing the 49ers.
Patrik: First and foremost, no, losses do not carry over to the next season ... unless ... you allow them to. In other words, it's all in how you approach the situation. If the Cowboys harp too heavily on what the 49ers did to them in the previous three outings, then it could force them to press, in my opinion, and that's something I saw when the Cowboys visited the Packers in Green Bay — wanting desperately to get the win for Mike McCarthy (all involved admitted to the after that loss). But assuming the mental approach. If they don't allow the past to invade their thoughts, then it will all come down to execution on the field, and that's something the Cowboys have been struggling to find consistency with this season. The better team doesn't always win these matchups and, quiet as it's kept, both teams being ravaged by injury leads you to wonder who is the better team right now, anyway (I mean, the 49ers are sub-.500, after all). It feels more evenly matched than ever, so ... execute ... and leave the past in the past.
