Jerry Jones knows how important Sunday night’s game is for the Dallas Cowboys.
The San Francisco 49ers, Jones said, are the “most likely” right now to win the Super Bowl. Though that game is still more than three months out, Sunday night’s contest between the two teams should provide quite the test for the Cowboys.
“They are, right now, probably the most likely team to go win the Super Bowl,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, via ESPN. “But in order for them to get there, they have to go by us, hopefully two times if that’s the way it falls in the playoffs and we’re in the playoffs of course.
“But the bottom line is you’re playing the best. You don’t need the game to tell you you’re playing the best, but you need the game to show you how you stack up against the best.”
The 49ers are off to perhaps the best start anywhere in the league this season. The team is 4-0, and is coming off a dominant 35-16 win over the Arizona Cardinals last week. Quarterback Brock Purdy still has yet to lose a regular season start in his career. Running back Christian McCaffrey put up a career-high four touchdowns last Sunday, and has now scored in 13 straight games — which is a 49ers record.
The Philadelphia Eagles are the only other undefeated team left in the league.
Other than a rough blunder against the Cardinals, the Cowboys kicked off the season in dominant fashion, too. They sit 3-1 headed into Sunday night’s matchup, and have blowout wins over the New York Giants, Jets and New England Patriots, who they beat 38-3 on Sunday.
The Cowboys, who haven’t won a Super Bowl since 1996, have been knocked out of the playoffs the past two years by the 49ers. San Francisco beat Dallas 19-12 in the divisional round last season at Levi’s Stadium.
“Now it’s about turning the page and studying the hell out of these [49ers] — understanding who they’ve been and what this matchup has been the past couple of years,” Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said on Sunday, via the team. “I’ve played them in the playoffs and we understand it’s a team that if we get to where we want to get, we have to play them again, come playoffs. I look forward to the matchup and turning the page … and coming up with a great gameplan.”
Plenty is sure to change between now and January. But, if all works out, Sunday’s game will be a preview for what would be a tremendous playoff battle.