Somehow it happened. After the Dallas Cowboys won their game on Saturday night, they had to wait on a series of results in order to see their NFC playoff seeding improve. They got two of them in the late afternoon window as the San Francisco 49ers came back from down 17-0 to defeat the Los Angeles Rams in overtime, 27-24.
Matthew Stafford threw an overtime interception to end the drama. Meanwhile, the Seattle Seahawks took care of business and defeated the Arizona Cardinals, 38-30.
Combined with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ win over the Carolina Panthers, Dallas finds themselves in the No. 3 seed of the NFC for the wild-card round. Their opponent? The red-hot 49ers who have won seven of their last nine contests.
San Francisco finished third in the NFC West, but the division has sent three teams to the playoffs once again.
Dallas will host the 49ers to renew one of the 1990s best playoff rivalries.
It will be the first time the two teams meet in the postseason since the 49ers won the NFC Championship, 38-28, following the 1994 season. That victory interrupted the Cowboys reign as Dallas was winning three out of four Super Bowls.
Dallas has won the last three meetings between the two clubs, including a late-season backup-QB matchup in 2020, 41-33.
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