The Dallas Cowboys are playing arguably the best team in the NFL in the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday Night Football. It's a monster game for obvious reasons, and experts and analysts have largely backed the 49ers to defend home turf in primetime.
NBC's "Football Night in America" pregame show illustrated this to a tee, as all but two show members picked the 49ers to win.
Devin McCourty, Chris Simms, Mike Florio, Matthew Berry, Ronnie Harrison, Tony Dungy and Kathryn Tappen are all riding with the 49ers. They all essentially deferred to the fact that San Francisco is the best team in football, is playing at home and have had Dallas' number in the playoffs the last two years.
That didn't stop former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett from riding with his guys in primetime, however. Lead host Maria Taylor picked Dallas to change it up before Garrett rounded out the predictions by calling a Cowboys win.
JASON GARRETT RIDING WITH HIS GUYS pic.twitter.com/8TGQXoGlnz
— David Helman (@davidhelman_) October 9, 2023
Jason Garrett alone in predicting Cowboys win vs the 49ers on NBC's pregame show.
Fans have to love Garrett sticking up for the Cowboys, but this has to be a bad omen.
It was cool of Maria Taylor to add some variety to the pregame picks, but she admitted to picking Dallas for that very reason. Garrett, on the other hand, was adamant that the Cowboys, fielding a full-strength offensive line for the first time since 2021, will win the battle in the trenches and see out the victory.
It's typically never a good sign when a player or coach is the lone analyst that predicts a victory for their former team. That speaks to how high the media regards the 49ers, but also how poor of a matchup San Francisco is for the Cowboys. The mismatch was evident in the 2021 and 2022 playoff games between these teams.
Like clockwork, the 49ers marched down the field on their opening drive after Dallas won the toss and deferred. Victimized by a facemask penalty, the Cowboys' defense offered zero resistance as San Fran mixed up passing and running plays before Brock Purdy connected with George Kittle in the end zone for an early 7-0 lead.
Garrett obviously didn't jinx the Cowboys, but it'll be interesting to look back at the former head coach's prediction when the game ends.
So far, it's not aging well.