The 49ers–Cowboys rivalry is a National Football League (NFL) rivalry between the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys lead the series 19-17-1. It is one of the great inter-division rivalry games in the NFL. The two teams do not play every year; instead, they play once every three years due to the NFL's rotating division schedules, or if the two teams finish in the same place in their respective divisions, they would play the ensuing season. Sports Illustrated ranked it as the eighth best rivalry[1] while the NFL Top 10 ranked this rivalry to be the tenth best in the NFL. The rivalry was also the subject of two 2015 episodes of NFL Network's The Timeline series.
History
The rivalry between the Cowboys and 49ers has been going on since the 1970s, including seven postseason games. The Cowboys defeated the 49ers in the 1970 and 1971 NFC Championship games, and again in the 1972 Divisional Playoff Game. The 1981 NFC Championship Game in San Francisco, which saw the 49ers' Joe Montana complete a game-winning pass to Dwight Clark in the final minute (now known as The Catch) is one of the most famous games in NFL history. The rivalry became even more intense during the 1992–1994 seasons. San Francisco and Dallas faced each other in the NFC Championship Game three consecutive times. Dallas won the first two match-ups, and San Francisco won the third. In each of these pivotal match-ups, the game's victor went on to win the Super Bowl. The rivalry has gone cold in recent years due to the two teams’ inability to make the postseason in the same year since 1998.
NFC Championship Game. First postseason win for the 49ers over the Cowboys. Wide receiver Dwight Clark makes a leaping catch in the back of the end zone on a pass from Joe Montana with 58 seconds left best referred to as "The Catch". 49ers win Super Bowl XVI.
