SANTA CLARA — What it’s like to participate in the 49ers’ playoff rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys?
Nick Bosa can’t fully explain it, and that’s because of a concussion that sent him out of last year’s wild-card road win before halftime.
“I really don’t remember much. I remember watching in the locker room and cheering my guys on,” Bosa recalled Wednesday. “We came up with some big sacks toward the end. I remember that. But from the day, I don’t remember.”
Bosa and the No. 2-seed 49ers (14-4) are at full strength for Sunday’s rematch, when the No. 5 Cowboys (13-5) visit Levi’s Stadium in a divisional-round game. This is their ninth playoff meeting as each franchise aims for a long-sought sixth Lombardi Trophy.
“It’s playoff football, either way, so it’s going to be a big deal. But the past definitely makes it even bigger,” Bosa added.
Bosa is enjoying the biggest production of his four-year career. He had an NFL-best 18 1/2 sacks in the regular season, and even though he had none in Saturday’s 41-23 wild-card win over the Seattle Seahawks, his presence loomed large, just as it will Sunday, just as it did last time against the Cowboys before his concussion.
Not that Bosa recalls all too much from that last meeting, between the third-down sack he shared on the opening series and, eventually, the postgame celebration to advance to Green Bay.
“I remember the first stunt we ran for a sack, because my dad was sitting in a box right up front,” Bosa said. “I looked at him after that, then I remember celebrating with the guys in the locker room afterward.”
As for his concussion that came from a collision with teammate D.J. Jones, “it was a good one, yeah,” Bosa said, adding that he hasn’t had one since, “thankfully.”
The Cowboys have their own elite pass rusher in Mikah Parsons, who Bosa praised for being “crazy athletic” with sideline-to-sideline hustle.
This time around against Dak Prescott and the Cowboys, Bosa says it’s imperative the 49ers shut down their run game and clog all the lanes Prescott may want to use as escape routes. Bosa also emphasized the need to uphold their standard of full-time effort, which he’s seen carried over to other teams by ex-49ers, such as Arden Key on the Jaguars’ playoff run.
With as little as four days or as many as four weeks remaining in their season, Bosa knows how quickly it can end.
He watch his brother, Joey, get eliminated with the Los Angeles Chargers in Saturday’s AFC wild-card collapse at Jacksonville, in which the older Bosa had a penalty-drawing meltdown complete with helmet throwing after a verbal confrontation with an official, who ignored false-start and holding penalties on the Jaguars.
Nick Bosa said that’s a reminder of the self-control that is needed, adding: “I’m sure Joey wishes he could take that back, but obviously he can’t, and it cost their team. You have to be able to keep your cool no matter how bad the refs are at times.”
Sunday’s referee is Bill Vinovich, a veteran official who worked the 49ers’ Super Bowl LIV loss to the Chiefs three years ago. A highly questionable non-call from that game: a Chiefs lineman got away with holding Bosa on a third-down completion that sparked the Chiefs’ comeback.
APPRECIATING GOULD
The Cowboys, after Brett Maher missed four point-after kicks Monday night, signed one-time 49ers sub Tristan Vizcaino to their practice squad, while keeping Maher on the roster, for now.
The 49ers, meanwhile, acknowledged how thankful they are for 18th-year veteran Robbie Gould, who’s made all 25 field-goal attempts and 38 point-after kicks in his playoff career. His four field goals Saturday tied the franchise record Ray Wersching set in Super Bowl XVI.
“He’s been one of the best kickers of our generation,” coach Kyle Shanahan said of Gould, one of his first free-agent acquisitions in 2017. “He’s been extremely consistent. When it comes to the playoffs, that’s the most important thing. I feel he’s always going to make it, regardless of what game it is. He’s given us that feeling in these six years, and I guess it makes sense I even feel stronger in the playoffs about him.”
“I have unbelievable confidence in him,” Bosa said of Gould, while acknowledging Maher’s struggles. “That was pretty wild. Usually you don’t see guys just completely get the yips like that, but it does show how tough that position is, even for a short kick like that.”
When Gould missed the 2020 finale on the COVID-reserve list, it was Vizcaino who replaced him.
SAMUEL’S TD MEMORY
Samuel may have downplayed the 49ers-Cowboys rivalry as just another game en route to their ultimate goal, but he enjoyed recalling his 26-yard touchdown run against the Cowboys last year. That third-quarter sprint not only followed a K’Waun Williams interception but it came after Samuel took the field and called for the ball from coach Kyle Shanahan.
“It was just the heat of the moment,” Samuel said. “I was just mic’d up and said, ‘Yo, we need a turnover.’ Then K’Waun (Williams) got a pick. Then, in the heat of the moment, I was like, ‘Kyle, let’s go.’ In the heat of battle, he called the right play, it was blocked up well, and I hit it.”
He hit the Seahawks last Saturday for a 76-yard touchdown reception that included 66 yards after the catch, with the help of Brandon Aiyuk’s blocking. “We don’t too much talk about (yards after the catch) because that’s just what we do here,” Samuel said. “We harp on making a big block. When I turn the curve and see it’s him – just like if he turns the curve and sees it me – we just are going to give it our all to try and get each other in the box (the end zone).”
‘CRUSH THEIR DREAMS’
Defensive end Charles Omenihu grew up some 30 minutes from Dallas in Rowlett, Texas, and he grew up a Cowboys fan admiring such pass rushers as Demarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer.
“I just like playing my home team, honestly,” Omenihu said. “I know the history between these two franchises runs deep, especially in the playoffs and big games. This is just going to be a continuation of that.”
Omenihu had 1 1/2 sacks in last year’s playoff win at Dallas, and he had two sacks in Saturday’s win over the Seahawks, including a strip-sack fumble Bosa recovered. Added Omenihu: “Going against the Cowboys, I like it. I was hoping they’d win (Monday night). Your family and everybody supports them, then you have to go against them and kind of crush their dreams. I like that aspect of it.”
PRACTICE NOTES
Left tackle Trent Williams conditioned on a side field during Wednesday’s first practice of the week. Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (Dec. 4 foot fracture) and cornerback Ambry Thomas (ankle) remain out of action. Defensive end Samson Ebukam (ankle), wide receiver Jauan Jennings (ankle) and defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw (knee) were limited.
Left tackle Jason Peters (hip) did not practice with the Cowboys; safety Jayron Kearse (knee) and defensive end Demarcus Lawrence (foot) were limited.
Source: www.mercurynews.com