Can Dallas Cowboys end their San Francisco 49ers hoodoo as the two NFL juggernauts clash on Sunday?

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott

The San Francisco 49ers (4-0) and Dallas Cowboys (3-1), two of the best teams in the NFL this season, meet this Sunday night to continue a fierce rivalry that dates back more than four decades and lots of playoff drama. ..

What happened during their last meeting?

Christian McCaffrey ran for the touchdown as the 49ers earned a 19-12 victory over the Cowboys in the divisional round of the playoffs last year, giving them their third NFC championship appearance in four years.

Kicker Robbie Gould scored the remaining 12 points with four field goals, while rookie quarterback Brock Purdy completed 19 of 29 passes for 214 yards. George Kittle also had a day, hauling in five catches for 95 yards – including an incredible one-handed circus grab on his helmet to help set up McCaffrey’s crucial score.

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Take a look back at the last two playoff matchups where the Dallas Cowboys finished second to the San Francisco 49ers.

It was the second year in a row that Dallas choked on the big stage against San Francisco, with quarterback Dak Prescott completing 23 of 37 passes for 206 yards, a touchdown – to briefly give them a 6-3 lead – and two first. half interceptions.

The game would also end in rather ridiculous circumstances as, with Dallas trailing by seven and backed to their own 24 line with six seconds left, running back Ezekiel Elliott lined up under center for a trap play and was quickly blown up by the Niners defense.

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Christian McCaffrey has had an explosive start to the season, having already covered 268 yards with two touchdowns.

Didn’t the Niners also beat Dallas in the playoffs the year before?

Yes, they have. The two teams met in the wild card round of the playoffs, this time in Dallas, with the Niners holding off the Cowboys’ late comeback to triumph 23-17.

Deebo Samuel was the star of the show for San Francisco, totaling 110 yards from scrimmage, with 72 of them coming on the ground, including a 26-yard touchdown run immediately following a Prescott interception in the third quarter that stretched the team’s lead. Niners. leads to 16.

Dallas came back fighting in the final quarter, with Prescott cutting the deficit to six with eight minutes left after scoring on a five-yard run shortly after 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo threw an interception.

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New England Patriots vs. Dallas Cowboys highlights from Week 4 of the NFL season.

The Cowboys would have an opportunity to tie the game, or even win it, by coming back one last time with 32 seconds left and Prescott had seemingly put them in position for one or two final Hail Mary attempts on the 41-yard line. of the 49ers. double.

But instead, with 14 seconds left, the Cowboys called a QB run to try to gain some more yardage before one last shot for the end zone, but they couldn’t time the ball in time after Prescott’s 17-yard run and so on. they came running out to dash their playoff hopes

The Cowboys dynasty dominates the 90s

The dynamic between these two NFL heavyweights hasn’t always been the same, with the Cowboys crushing the morale of the 49ers on several occasions in the 1990s as the two teams met in three straight NFL championship games .

In fact, on all three occasions, the winner of these contests, spanning the 1992 to 1994 seasons, would also go on to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy, leaving many to label these titanic bouts as the de facto Super Bowl.

Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith led Dallas to huge success under Jimmy Johnson

Dallas won the first two, first getting the better of the No. 1 seed 49ers on their home field at Candlestick Park, emerging as 30-20 winners. Twelve months later, the Cowboys knocked off San Francisco even more emphatically, this time at home, sitting on their perch as the conference’s top seed against the second-place Niners. Even though their Hall of Fame QB, Troy Aikman, was knocked out of the game with a concussion, the Cowboys won 38-21.

Another year and another NFC championship matchup later, the 49ers finally got the better of their formidable foes, winning 38-28 at home en route to a then-record fifth Super Bowl victory, leading to quarterback Steve Young to proclaim that he had finally gotten rid of it. of the “monkey on my back” when he himself has never yet reached the promised land.

A Niners dynasty was born with “The Catch!” »

The ’90s playoff meetings between the teams weren’t the first of their kind, as San Francisco’s dynasty – five Super Bowl wins over 13 years – began with the spectacle of what is still considered one of the greatest NFL catches of all time – so much so that it is simply labeled “The Catch”.

In the 1981 NFC Championship Game, the 49ers earned their first ever playoff victory against the Cowboys – after losing to them three times in the 1970s – as wide receiver Dwight Clark made the most spectacular jump shots in the back of the end zone.

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Christian McCaffrey scores four touchdowns in the San Francisco 49ers’ victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

Trailing by six and facing third-and-3 at the Dallas six-yard line with 58 seconds left, Hall of Famer Joe Montana threw a high pass to the right back of the end zone that Clark just managed to recover while as well as keep the limits.

The 49ers would hold on to win 28-27 before beating the Cincinnati Bengals for the first of their Super Bowl triumphs.

And this weekend’s meeting?

While Sunday’s matchup is just a regular-season affair, it still carries considerable playoff significance, given the way things have gone in the NFC over the past two years.

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Ahead of the new NFL season, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy says it’s an honor and he’s “very grateful” for the opportunity he was given in San Francisco.

These two teams will undoubtedly make the playoffs again and it wouldn’t be surprising if they match their streak of three straight playoff matchups from the ’90s.

But who will finish as the top seed and gain that all-important home advantage if this eventuality comes true?

“It’s a huge game this weekend. A big and potentially monumental game in terms of the final NFC standings,” said Professional Football DiscussionIt’s Mike Florio.

“It’s the Cowboys 49ers, the two best teams in the NFC, playing once this year and with a very good chance of ending up in the playoffs. The outcome of this game goes a long way in determining where this game goes. be.

“There are levels and levels of intrigue and relevance in this Sunday night game. Cowboys-49ers, the rivalry has been reestablished.”

Watch the Dallas Cowboys vs. San Francisco 49ers on Sunday Night Football, live on Sky Sports NFL early Monday morning, with kickoff at 1:20.