San Francisco 49ers at Dallas Cowboys: Playbook
For the 49ers’ newest receiver, Sunday just might feel like Groundhog Day.
The NFL trade deadline saw its shadow, and Keenan Allen has two straight weeks of football against the Cowboys. As Allen hurriedly got up to speed this week on Kyle Shanahan’s playbook, he at least didn’t have to spend much time thinking about who he’d line up against.
He got an in-person scouting report last week.
Allen caught four passes for 26 yards from Daniel Jones, the Colts’ quarterback, in a 27-23 loss to the Cowboys last Sunday. Two days later, he was on his way to San Francisco for a sixth-round pick.
After three days of practice, walkthroughs and route-tree study sessions, he’ll do it all over again this week with Brock Purdy relying on him to be one of his top targets, with the 49ers still missing fellow veteran receiver Mike Evans, rookie De’Zhaun Stribling, Christian Kirk and Ricky Pearsall.
No pressure. Shanahan’s playbook is only regarded as one of the most complex in the NFL.
“Definitely,” Allen said after his first practice, “[my] head [is] spinning.”
Allen took the field for the first time Wednesday afternoon. He got in late Tuesday and, as Shanahan put it, got “two hours of install to the face.”
“Then, he gets to go out there and walk through it,” he continued. “No person in the history of football has been able to hear it for the first time and go out there right away.”
But that’s just about what the 49ers will ask the 34-year-old Cal product to do.
Christian McCaffrey was able to contribute right away after coming over at the 2022 trade deadline, but according to Shanahan, it’s easier for a running back, “because once you hand them the ball, they can just run.” A better example might be Emmanuel Sanders, another veteran receiver the 49ers brought in on their run to the Super Bowl in 2019.
Sanders’ offensive coordinator before the trade had previously been a 49ers quarterbacks coach under Shanahan, “so,” he said, “they had the same terminology for a year, which helped him, but it was still a challenge for him. …
“It takes a lot for receivers just getting lined up, knowing all the route tree, hearing the verbiage and everything on how to do it.”
At least Allen will know what he’s up against.
According to Todd Archer of ESPN, citing the Elias Sports Bureau, only one other player in NFL history has faced the Cowboys in back-to-back weeks — all the way back in 1963, when guard Andy Cvercko went from Cleveland to Washington between Weeks 3 and 4.
It’s not quite so unprecedented in recent league history.
In 2024, linebacker Ernest Jones IV saw the Bills twice in a row when he was traded from the Titans to the Seahawks. That same year, Davante Adams was handed consecutive losses by the Steelers, though he only suited up for one — after the Raiders had traded him to the Jets. Heck, the 49ers are about to see Kirk Cousins again for the second time in three weeks next Sunday in Mexico City.
Cousins’ midseason trade from Las Vegas to Minnesota means that he, like Allen, will play all 18 weeks of the season. The 49ers had their bye leading into last week’s win over the Raiders; the Colts weren’t scheduled to have theirs until Week 13.
“That’s what happened to Emmanuel when he came here, too,” Shanahan said. “I remember he missed his bye week, and it’s a long year. I couldn’t imagine missing that as a coach, too. It’s a grind, 17 weeks in a row.”
(Allen, it’s worth noting, may get an NFL-mandated break, pending what, if any, discipline the league hands down following his DUI arrest earlier this year.)
The scheduling oddity adds an interesting wrinkle to Allen’s anticipated debut.
Could it also give him any sort of upper hand?
“It would,” Allen sighed, “if it was the same plays.
“Just gonna have to flip everything in the brain and learn new terminology. … That’s what makes it hard. It’s all the same concepts, just different words now.”
Marquee matchup: 49ers secondary vs. CeeDee Lamb
Raheem Morris has tended to keep his cornerbacks on their respective sides of the field, rather than using either Renardo Green or Deommodore Lenoir to shadow an opponent’s top receiver. So keeping the NFL’s most targeted receiver — with 70 catches for 904 yards on an astounding 108 chances from Dak Prescott — in check will likely be a team effort. Lamb is the most dynamic pass catcher San Francisco has faced since Jaxon Smith-Njigba in Week 5. The 49ers took JSN out of that 32-29 win as well as any other team that has faced the Seahawks, tying his season low with five catches. Green, Lenoir, nickelback Upton Stout and Jack Jones, now on their practice squad, all matched up with Smith-Njigba, and it will likely look similar Sunday. One potential complication: Green (back) and Lenoir (foot) both left last week’s game with injuries and were limited in practice this week, while Stout is still dealing with a shoulder stinger.
Webeck’s winner: 49ers 28, Cowboys 21
It feels like a broken record. By now, we know that the 49ers are going to be better than just about any team they face the rest of the season, and Dallas (4-5) is no exception. Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb could torch San Francisco’s ailing secondary, and it still might not be enough. The Cowboys have allowed every opponent they’ve faced to score at least 20 points; last week was the first time they held a team below 300 yards of offense. Deebo Samuel’s return and the addition of Keenan Allen should be enough for the 49ers to take advantage.
Key stat: 0-3
The Cowboys’ record this season when Dak Prescott is intercepted. The 49ers had picked off only three passes all season before Kirk Cousins had three INTs last week.
