bbgun;1878876 said:
That was the final score. Don't think it was the score when that play happened.
It was 38-28 when the play happened.
http://www.***BANNED-URL***/sharedc...c/recordbook/yearbyyear/1994/01169549ers.html
Turnover at the top
Cowboys give, 49ers take, 38-28
1/16/1995
By TIM COWLISHAW / The Dallas Morning News
SAN FRANCISCO – There was no rain Sunday, only a deluge of Cowboys mistakes. There were no major problems with Emmitt Smith's hamstrings until late in the game, but Dallas was hamstrung from the start.
There were those who said the NFC Championship Game was the real Super Bowl. It wasn't. The real one comes in two weeks, and the Cowboys will be watching when San Francisco tries to make history. Dallas already is.
The Cowboys' quest for their share of NFL immortality died a slow, lingering death in Candlestick Park. Dallas committed three turnovers in the first five minutes to bury itself in the field's muck and never dug all the way out in bowing to the 49ers, 38-28.
49ers 38, Cowboys 28 Turnover at the top: Cowboys give, 49ers take
Galloway: Slipping from dynasty to disaster
Luksa: Sunday's loss merely the last in a series
All-time vs. San Francisco
Cowboys' playoff history
1994 results
"It's really kind of comical, kind of like the Keystone Kops," coach Barry Switzer said. "You go out and play the first five minutes and give San Francisco 21 points. But you know what?
If the referee makes the same call on Deion Sanders that he made on Larry Brown, we're going to score and it's 38-35 with five minutes to go."
That interference call never came. Instead, Switzer drew a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for bumping an official in his exasperation over the non-call. That ended one of Dallas' final threats, laying to rest the Cowboys' attempt to become the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls.
Instead, the 49ers will try to become the first franchise to win five, another mark the Cowboys had in mind.
"I've got four (Super Bowl) rings and I've won some NFC championships, but nothing compares to this one," 49ers coach George Seifert said. "Obviously, our work is not over. But this particular moment is a great deal."
The 49ers turned the tables on the Cowboys by playing error-free football as Dallas had done in winning the last two NFC title games. On Sunday, the Cowboys committed five turnovers, missed a short field goal, shanked a punt, made Twilight Zone play-calling decisions on both sides of the ball and, thus, ended their season.
But the key was the three turnovers in the first five minutes – a Troy Aikman interception returned for a touchdown by Eric Davis and fumbles in Dallas' end of the field by Michael Irvin and Kevin Williams. "It's like spotting Carl Lewis 20 yards in the 100-yard dash," said Smith, who rushed 20 times for 74 yards before pulling his right hamstring with 10:28 to play.
The Cowboys weren't completely out of the game when Smith had to depart, but they were well into their pass-or-else mode because of the early deficit.
Three of the Cowboys' five turnovers were Aikman interceptions, and yet it was his courage that largely kept Dallas alive into the fourth quarter. He completed 30 of 53 passes for 380 yards while being sacked four times and knocked down an incredible 19.
"This was very frustrating," Aikman said. "It was my first loss in the playoffs (as a starter). We came in here as champs, and we are until proven otherwise. And today it was proven otherwise."
The Cowboys lost not only a game Sunday. Afterward, Pro Bowl defensive end Charles Haley surprised teammates by announcing his retirement. Coach Barry Switzer did not rule out a change of heart but said he does not expect Haley to play in 1995.
Haley didn't do much in his final game – and neither did the rest of the defense. There were no interceptions, no fumbles, no sacks of Steve Young. They found themselves playing on a short field much of the day because of offensive mistakes, but the defense never made a stand or a big play to reverse the game's course.
After falling behind, 21-0, in the first eight minutes, the Cowboys clawed back to make it 24-14 with one minute to go in the half. A 10-point deficit after two quarters would not have been so bad, given Dallas' horrendous start. But then decisions on both sides of the ball contributed to another 49ers touchdown.
With the ball at the Dallas 16 just 1:02 before halftime, the Cowboys called three pass plays. All were incomplete, forcing a punt with 42 seconds left. John Jett, punting from a bad spot on the muddy field, shanked a 23-yarder to give San Francisco the ball at the Dallas 39 with 30 seconds left.
The 49ers moved to the 28 before using their last timeout with 13 seconds left. It seemed obvious they were going to take a shot at the end zone. Jerry Rice, the NFL's all-time leading touchdown scorer, lined up to the left and was single-covered by Larry Brown, a move second-guessed by Switzer.
"We leave Rice one-on-one there; that's real smart," Switzer said.
Rice beat Brown to the left corner of the end zone, hauled in Young's 28-yard touchdown pass and it was 31-14.
Dallas again closed the gap to 10 points after Adam Walker fumbled the second-half kickoff. That's when Dallas needed the defense to force a 49ers punt. Instead, San Francisco drove 70 yards in 10 plays, with Young scoring on a three-yard run to make it a 17-point game once more.
The Cowboys didn't quit in the fourth quarter as Aikman continued to work the ball to Irvin, who tied an NFC championship record with 12 catches and set another mark with 192 yards. But Dallas could not draw closer than 10 as Switzer blamed an official's call for the team's failure.
The reality was that the Cowboys had to let go of a dream Sunday because they couldn't hang onto the football.