FRISCO, Texas —  Hop in a day device and air the clock again seven years to the 2016 NFL season. The Atlanta Falcons soared to an 11-5 document and an NFC identify as quarterback Matt Ryan piloted the NFL’s highest-scoring offense (33.8 issues in step with recreation). Ryan posted the best season of his 15-year occupation, eminent the NFL in yards in step with go effort (9.3) and passer ranking (117.1) in offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan’s offense, who was once part of head educator Dan Quinn’s teaching team of workers within the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Upcoming that season, Shanahan were given his head-coaching shot next being leased through the 49ers. Quinn joined head educator Mike McCarthy’s Dallas Cowboys team of workers because the defensive coordinator in 2021 next being fired six seasons into his Falcons tenure that incorporated a 43-42 document, two playoff appearances and a 34-28 extra time defeat in Tremendous Bowl LI towards the Brandnew England Patriots. 

In Generation 5 this season, the 2 input their 1/3 high-stakes matchup within the terminating 18 months, every as play-callers for high-powered gadgets, because the Dallas Cowboys (3-1) proceed again to the Bay Department to stand the San Francisco 49ers (4-0) on “Sunday Night Football.”

“They have a big line, two strong backs, so we thought that was one of the ways they [the Patriots] would attack for sure,” Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn mentioned Monday. “That has been the formula for San Francisco, you can see the effectiveness of their [4-0] start just in the run game, scoring and finishing. [Running back Christian] McCaffrey is at the top of that list for sure. We have a lot of work cut out for us for sure. Still getting into the planning, but it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

The Cowboys’ terminating two seasons, either one of which have been 12-win campaigns, got here to an finish towards Shanahan’s 49ers come playoff day. First, there was once the 23-17 defeat within the 2021 NFC wild-card spherical at AT&T Stadium. Utmost season, it was once a 19-12 slip-up in Santa Clara, California at Levi’s Stadium within the 2022 divisional spherical. The ones are the one matchups Quinn has had with Shanahan since coming to Dallas. The 49ers haven’t been a very simple mountain to climb beneath Shanahan because the group has reached so far as the NFC Convention Championship Recreation in 3 of the terminating 4 season, together with a Tremendous Bowl LIV look to conclude the 2019 season. They got here up simply scale down towards Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas Town Chiefs that evening, falling 31-20 next taking a 20-10 into the fourth quarter of that recreation. 

“Absolutely,” Quinn mentioned when requested if he knew his former OC was once taking to be a excellent head educator. “He is really squared away. Kyle can coach any position on the offense. He could be an offensive line coach, a quarterback coach, tight ends. He is that equipped. I thought that was one of his rare things from a coordinator standpoint that he had such good detail in every area, especially in the run game. Often times an offensive coordinator may have gotten their acumen on the way up being a quarterback person or someone who had great strength in the passing game. One of Kyle’s superpowers was he had every job on the way up, so he knew the run game. That is a real advantage for him and why their run game is so strong. He is at the front and center of it. That is one of my biggest compliments for him and that carries over into the head-coaching spot for him.” 

Shanahan’s 49ers have had a summit 10 scoring and general offense in 3 of the terminating 5 seasons together with 2023 during which they have got the quantity 3 scoring offense (31.3 issues in step with recreation)  and quantity two general offense (398 general yards in step with recreation). Professional Bowl operating again Christian McCaffrey is the engine that powers the 49ers offense as he has grow to be most effective the 1/3 participant in NFL historical past with 600 or extra scrimmage yards (600, leads the NFL this season) and 7 or extra scrimmage touchdowns (seven, connect for essentially the most within the NFL this season) via his group’s first 4 video games to begin a season. He’s now the 1/3 member of that membership in conjunction with Professional Soccer Corridor of Famers Jim Brown (1958 and 1963) and Emmitt Smith. Smith took house the MVP in that 1993 season life Brown claimed the award in his first such season with that sizzling get started again in 1958. 

“I think Christian is the most versatile back in the NFL when it comes to how the 49ers use him,” Dallas Cowboys All-Professional linebacker Micah Parsons mentioned Wednesday. “You can almost say he’s a running back that plays receiver, you can say he’s a receiver that plays running back. The way he gets open the way, you can’t just put anybody on him. Sometimes you might want to put a DB on him with just how good he is with his routes and things like that. How dynamic he is and then the way he’s able to make people miss, there’s nobody better in the NFL. You look at what he does and how explosive he is. It’s something we have to be watchful of.”

Alternatively, Dallas did prohibit McCaffrey to 35 dashing yards, together with one dashing touchdowns from two yards out, on 10 carries of their most up-to-date postseason assembly. The important thing for the Cowboys protection: are living within the backfield. 

“The main purpose is to live in the backfield,” Cowboys defensive finish DeMarcus Lawrence mentioned Thursday. “If you live in the backfield, you keep him going sideline-to-sideline instead of cutting up [field] on inside zones and stuff, I feel like we can have a pretty good day. We can’t sit around on blocks and wait for him to make his move or get upfield. Meet him in the backfield.”

Quinn has saved a related sight on how Shanahan’s run recreation has advanced schematically over time as he works to determine how McCaffrey could also be applied on Sunday. He to start with ran an offense very homogeneous to his father Mike’s, a two-time Tremendous Bowl champion head educator with the Denver Broncos, however the young Shanahan has now branched off to his personal variation of the under-center, zone scheme offense his father pioneered that has now proliferated around the league as of late. 

“Early on [in Shanhan’s head-coaching tenure with the 49ers, there was some things that were probably like we were in Atlanta,” Quinn mentioned. “Wide zone [runs] and keepers [play-action passes] off of that. Now, it’s a gap scheme with a lot of pullers, which his dad didn’t do, and they [the Broncos] had a tremendous offensive line coach at the time in Alex Gibbs. You couldn’t get him [Gibbs] to pull a lot, that wasn’t part of his process… In any system, whether you are a gap scheme or zone scheme, you better be excellent at those things. Then, you have the play[-action] passes go off of that. When you make your passes not look like your run game, they really aren’t that effective. One of the things Kyle and his father certainly had were the run looked like the keeper [play-action pass] coming out…When you can marry a run look with a pass protection look, that’s something. That’s where you get the advantages. As a linebacker, do I run downhill and take this on and then they rip one behind me? Or, do I stay back and they’re trying to run the ball. When you can make those too married together, the run looks and the play-passes, that’s when I think you can really get humming. If you’re just one or the other, you can scheme through that: this is an all-passing team and deploy everyone back. Or this is an all-running team and you put everybody down [at the line of scrimmage]. When you have the ability to do both, that’s what makes an offense special.”

Any other important quality of Shanahan’s scheme is movement as just about 70% in their performs incorporate pre-snap motion, 69.7%, the third-highest price within the NFL trailing most effective one among his pupils, Mike McDaniel’s Miami Dolphins (74.9%), and hour Corridor of Famer Andy Reid’s Kansas Town Chiefs. Communique can be paramount for Quinn’s protection to bring to restrict explosive performs, performs of 25 or extra yards. The 49ers have 10 such performs this season, connect for the eighth-most within the NFL getting into Generation 5.

“It’s a challenge when you have guys that aren’t communicating,” Cowboys protection Jayron Kearse mentioned of shielding towards motion-heavy offenses. “When you talk ahead of the snap and the guy next to you knows what you’re thinking and what you’re seeing, that makes everything very easy. We just have to have clean communication pre-snap and post-snap with movement and things like that. We have to have good communication in that aspect, and then I think that will take care of itself. You’re playing in sand when you’re not talking. You’re seeing things and the other guys might be seeing it differently. When you’re talking to the guys next you and your buddy understands you give him a tip on this guy that might be in motion and this guy might be swinging or whatever the case may be. It allows you to play ahead of the snap.”

Having a participant like Micah Parsons additionally is helping the Cowboys play games forward of the snap. The 24-year-old’s 25.7% quarterback drive price is the absolute best within the NFL amongst 109 avid gamers with 75 or extra go rushes this season. He additionally co-leads the NFL in quarterback pressures with 27 along the Raiders’ Maxx Crosby and the Detroit Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson following his explosion towards the Patriots on Sunday during which he recorded 10 quarterback pressures regardless of now not having a sack. This is connect for essentially the most in a recreation this season in conjunction with Cincinnati Bengals defensive finish Trey Hendrickson’s 10 towards the Los Angeles Rams on “Monday Night Football” in Generation 3. 

“He impacts the game even when it doesn’t show on the statsheet,” Kearse mentioned. “He impacts the game a lot, and that’s good. He has been impacting the game at a high level. He’s one of those guys that draws attention from a lot of people whenever he is on the field. He is just being who he is and he is ready for this matchup. I could tell after the [Patriots] game, it’s the first he said ‘we know who we got this week.’ He has been ready for it, so I know it’s going to be a huge one for him.”

The eye Parsons draws can not hidden alternative alternatives up for the residue of the Dallas’ top-ranked ranked scoring protection (10.3 issues in step with recreation allowed. As evidenced from their 38-3 beatdown towards the Brandnew England Patriots in Generation 4, Parsons is a magnet for opposing offenses. 

“When a team tries to isolate you and tries to make an example saying ‘you won’t ruin the game’, it leaves guys to eat and do what they do, and it’s important they’re going to get paid and they’re gonna get theirs,” Parsons mentioned. “That’s always important because it makes other teams play them.”

The Cowboys additionally top the league in quarterback drive price (55.6%, negative alternative group is above 45%) and passer ranking allowed (55.2, negative alternative group has a ranking allowed beneath 65) as others but even so Parsons additionally consume. They rank 2nd within the league in general yards in step with recreation allowed (259.8), passing yards in step with recreation allowed (148.0) and rank connect for 2nd in takeaways (10).   

Shanahan was once similarly complimentary of his former boss’ protection on Wednesday forward of some other important reunion.

“It’s a huge challenge, Dan is as good as it gets,” Shanahan mentioned Wednesday, by way of The Athletic. “His schemes are always tough. He makes adjustments well, but the one thing that’s always  the same is how his guys play. Those 11 guys play with their hair on fire. They generate a lot of chaos, especially up front, and that’s usually what leads to them getting all their turnovers.”

The 2023 49ers most effective have one giveaway this season, connect for the fewest within the league during the first day of the season. The Cowboys protection has pressured 10 yieldings this season, connect for the second one maximum within the NFL. Dallas’ flow protection joined the “Iron Curtain” Pittsburgh Steelers (1972-1974) as the one protection because the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to top the NFL in takeaways in consecutive seasons (2021-2022), they usually surely seemed adore it on Sunday, forcing 3 extra yieldings towards the Brandnew England Patriots in a 38-3 victory. Quinn mentioned forcing a submit on Sunday can be “a turning point” within the recreation. San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy hasn’t thrown an interception in 219 passes courting again to terminating season, together with the playoffs, and McCaffrey hasn’t misplaced a fumble since Generation 1 of the 2018 season, towards the Cowboys,  when he was once nonetheless with the Carolina Panthers. Of the 2, Dallas sees extra of a chance to shake Purdy, who has most effective 9 familiar season begins, although he leads the NFL in familiar season touchdown-to-interception ratio (16-2) and familiar season passer ranking (117.1) since his first occupation get started in Generation 14 terminating season. 

“Something has to give, especially with Purdy,” Parsons mentioned. “I don’t think he’s played perfect, I think he’s played really good, and I think there are opportunities there. People just haven’t capitalized on it. He’s been really terrific through the past two years, and he’s definitely solidified himself as one of them guys you have to watch, one of the top 15 quarterbacks and things like that.”

To Parsons’ level, Purdy was once a unique participant terminating postseason when Parsons and the Dallas go accelerate were given into his grill.

Brock Purdy vs. Cowboys in 2022 postseason

PURDY	CLEAN POCKET	PRESSURED
Comp-Att	15-17	4-12
Move Yards	214	55
Move Yards/Att	9.4	4.6
Passer Ranking	105.6	49.0

In the long run, neither Quinn nor Shanahan consider their day spent in combination in Atlanta provides them an upper-hand comes Sunday. That must be progressive in between the traces. 

“No, I don’t think so,” Quinn mentioned. “I wish it did. Hell, I would use that if I had that [knowledge] as a superpower. It’s always a good matchup. I have faced Kyle a couple of times, and he is just one of the very best there is. Not just from a game plan, but calling the game. That’s just as important because you go into a game thinking it’s going to be one way, but then you have to be able to adjust, move and go. That’s what makes him strong and unique. He may start one way, but if  that ain’t working, he’s going to go attack another way. That’s the mark of a good play caller. The first part is what you thought and then you have to adjust  and do it. He is fully equipped to do that.”

“A little bit,” Shanahan mentioned when requested if it’s difficult to stand Quinn on account of their shared historical past. “It’s different when you’re in the division, at least it’s not twice a year, unless you meet in the playoffs. I think Dan, and I got to go against each other twice here in Dallas, and it’s always a huge challenge.”