Victory Is a Throwback to Cowboys’ Glory Days

A different set of Triplets put a crimp in San Francisco’s postseason plans.

The Dallas Cowboys got superb games from Quincy Carter, Joey Galloway and Emmitt Smith to beat the 49ers, 27-21, Sunday.

The 49ers (11-4), already assured of a wild card, are likely going on the road for the first round of the playoffs, against either Green Bay or Chicago--whichever doesn’t win the NFC Central. The only way San Francisco gets to stay home is if it wins and the Packers lose.

“We haven’t broke out the thermos yet, but maybe we should start thinking about it,” 49er Coach Steve Mariucci said.

The Cowboys (5-10) can only wish they were talking about the playoffs.

But San Francisco was in a similar situation when it came to Texas Stadium last year and won, 41-24, with Terrell Owens punctuating two touchdowns with celebrations on Dallas’ midfield logo. The 49ers were in a 1-14 skid going into that game and returned having won 17 of 27.

The Cowboys are hoping this victory will be their launching pad.

“This was our playoff game,” said safety Darren Woodson, who along with Smith are the only holdovers from the championship seasons (1992, ’93 and ’95.) “It was a game we had to win to have some confidence going into the off-season.”

Said Dallas Coach Dave Campo: “This is a huge win for our psyche, for what we’re going to carry from this year.”

The Cowboys hadn’t scored more than 24 points this season.

But with Carter throwing for a season-high 241 yards, Galloway catching six passes for a career-high 146 yards and Smith running for 126 yards, the Dallas offense was reminiscent of the glory days of Smith, Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin.

The Cowboys also converted 11 of 17 third downs, didn’t have a turnover and held the ball 15 minutes longer than the 49ers.

“I’m not surprised,” said Smith, who went over 16,000 career yards rushing and moved within 56 of 1,000 this season. “I felt all along if we can be as balanced as we were today, with our defense playing the way it is, we’d probably win a lot of games.”

Dallas’ defense, allowing the second-fewest yards in the NFL, limited San Francisco to 285 yards, including a season-low 56 yards rushing.

The 49ers gained only two first downs and Dallas scored 17 points on their first three drives of the second half.

San Francisco reached the Dallas 5 on its next series, but Jeff Garcia threw four consecutive incompletions--including one knocked from Owens by safety George Teague, who was ejected from last year’s game for tackling Owens after the second of his celebrations.

The 49ers then blocked a punt, and Garcia threw a three-yard touchdown pass to J.J. Stokes with 39 seconds left. They tried an onside kick, but Dallas recovered.

“We never really seemed to get on track,” said Garcia, who was 21 for 36 for 229 yards with two touchdowns.

Owens had 93 yards on five catches, but his first came in the final minute of the second quarter.

“I’m a valuable part of the offense and I can’t get the ball. That’s a problem,” Owens said.

“I got open. For whatever reason, the ball didn’t come my way.”