49ers oust Cowboys 19-12, head to NFC Championship in Philly

BY DANIEL GLUSKOTER

The 49ers wore down the Cowboys in the second half of a defensive struggle to advance to the NFC Championship game next Sunday in Philadelphia with a 19-12 win over Dallas Sunday afternoon at Levi’s Stadium.

San Francisco’s defense picked off Dak Prescott twice to stop Dallas drives while holding the Cowboys to 76 yards on the ground, and Brock Purdy played another mistake free game to help the Niners knock out Dallas for the second season in a row and head to the Conference Final for the third time in four years.

Purdy completed 19 of 29 passes for 214 yards, connecting with George Kittle five times for 95 yards, to help the 49ers control the second half of the tight game in spite of unusually limited contributions to the offense from Christian McCaffrey (57 total yards) and Deebo Samuel (56).

GAME NOTES:

The Niners head to Philadelphia having only played one game outside of the Pacific time zone since Week Seven in Atlanta, their last loss before the start of a 12 game winning streak.

This marks the 16th time since 1980 that San Francisco has reached the NFC Championship Game, the most in the NFL.

Sunday marked the 49ers 12th consecutive game with no more than a single turnover, coinciding with their winning streak. It was also the 10th straight game they won the turnover battle with their opponent, tying for the third longest streak in NFL history. All but one of those three teams went on to win the championship.

The 49ers third straight win against Dallas improved their record to 19-19-1 all-time against the Cowboys, 4-5 in the postseason. The nine postseason meetings are tied for the most in nFL history.

Kyle Shanahan improved to 6-2 as a head coach in the postseason, including a 2-0 record against Dallas.

Brock Purdy became just the third rookie quarterback since 1970 to win two postseason games.