After beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card game, the Dallas Cowboys now have a chance to do something they haven’t done since 1996 – advance to the NFC Championship game.

Oddsmakers, however, don’t think such a scenario is certain to happen. The reason is that Dallas’ opponent in the Divisional Round is the San Francisco 49ers, a team that’s been even more impressive in the 2022-23 season.

Dallas Cowboys vs San Francisco 49ers Divisional Odds

*Odds taken from FanDuel on Thursday, January 19, 2023.

When, Where, and How to Watch?

• Place: Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco, California
• Date: Sunday, January 22, 2023
• Time: 6:30 PM ET
• How to Watch: FOX

The Cowboys Ready to Make History

Mike McCarthy’s boys have already done something no one’s done before – they knocked out Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the postseason.

The Cowboys completely dominated the game last Monday, beating the Bucs 31-14, although it could’ve been an even bigger margin. For instance, Dallas placekicker Brett Maher missed his first four extra-point kicks in that game.

That, however, is probably the only major issue the Cowboys had at Raymond James Stadium. They completely outplayed the Bucs that evening, both offensively and defensively. Quarterback Dak Prescott went 25/33 for 305 passing yards and four touchdowns. On top of that, he also made seven carries, scoring a rushing touchdown and adding 24 running yards to his team’s tally.

Defensively, they were equally impressive. The Cowboys defense held Brady to 351 yards and two touchdowns, while also forcing him throw an interception. They also made him make plenty of mistakes, recording a pass completion of only 53.03% – his worst number since Week 2.

Reasons Why the Niners are Bookies’ Favorites

After a fantastic regular season in which they finished second in the NFC with a 13-4 record, the San Francisco 49ers got to play against the Seattle Seahawks in the Wild Card Round. As we correctly predicted, they defeated the Seahawks without any problems.

The final score was 41-23, which tells the entire story of what happened in that game. San Fran’s offense led by rookie quarterback Brock Purdy completely demolished Pete Carroll’s defense. In his first-ever postseason game, Purdy completed 18 of his 30 passes for 332 yards and three touchdowns. He threw no interceptions, and his running game was brilliant – the youngster covered 16 running yards on seven carries and scored one rushing TD.

Running back Christian McCaffrey also had a brilliant game, recording 119 running yards and snatching a TD pass. The other two TD passes were caught by wide receiver Deebo Samuel and running back Elijah Mitchell.

The Niners defense was also at a top level that afternoon, picking up three sacks, one interception, and recovering one fumble. Sure, doing all that against a team like Seahawks isn’t that hard, but we do think they can put on at least a similar level of performance against the Cowboys as well.

Dallas Cowboys vs San Francisco 49ers Prediction

The Cowboys didn’t get to the NFL Divisional Round by chance. They have been brilliant this season, although with some dips in form of their crucial players. Dak Prescott, for instance, made a number of mistakes in the closing couple of game weeks of the regular season. However, he was brilliant against Tampa Bay.

We expect to see him play well against the 49ers as well, but we doubt that will be enough for his team to win. It’s just that San Francisco’s roster is way, way better. We expect to see the Niners focus on running the ball throughout Sunday’s game, which should be the key to victory. However, this sort of tactic usually results in not-too-many points on both ends.

Picks: San Francisco 49ers to win and cover the spread; under to hit