FRISCO, TX — For the second time in three week, the Dallas Cowboys are licking their wounds and trying to heal for an upcoming opponent. This time, however, it was a humiliating blowout loss and at the hands of their most recent Boogeyman, namely the San Francisco 49ers, in a 42-10 rout at Levi's Stadium in primetime.
With the Cowboys' offense unable to sustain drives, the time of possession tilted wildly toward the 49ers and, eventually, that caused the dam to break. Prior to allowing the aforementioned 42 points, the defense had allowed an average of only 10.3 points per game — a league best.
It's the second-most allowed in the McCarthy era in Dallas.
"I'm bummed," said defensive coordinator Dan Quinn. "You get your ass kicked, you only have a couple choices in the fight. You can pout about it or get back up and get rocking again. And I certainly know that's what we're gonna do."
Though the loss was roundly demoralizing, Quinn says there are no fractures in the locker room.
"There's no fingerpointing with our group," he said. "In fact, the fingers are being pointed in the direction that they need to — let's work on this, let's work on that. I admire that about our group. I've been on other teams where there was fingerpointing and blame, but that's not this group.
"Extremely disappointed, but I also know what we're made of, and we're not gonna let this game beat us twice."
Quinn's band of currently unmerry men kept the Cowboys in the contest for as long as they could, but the 49ers started to walk away at the end of the first half on a 38-yard touchdown to George Kittle, on a trick play that used Deebo Samuel as misdirection before a toss back to Brock Purdy led to the throw deep down the right side of the field.
Up next will be a matchup with another explosive offense by way of the Los Angeles Chargers, led by former longtime Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
"We've got a very good Chargers team on the way, and we've got plenty of things to work out to get rocking again," said Quinn. "So, yeah, we're bummed. We wanted a really good kick-ass performance for our guys, but it didn't go that way."
