Why Warner’s 49ers vs. Cowboys labels ‘bittersweet’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
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It’s always fun for the 49ers Faithful when San Francisco (or any team) beats the Dallas Cowboys.
But after their most recent dub under bright primetime lights, 49ers linebacker Fred Warner admitted he had mixed feelings about the 30-24 victory at Levi’s Stadium.
“Bittersweet, bittersweet,” Warner said when asked to explain what he felt during NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” postgame broadcast. “Man, the way we finished. You know how it goes. Defensively, I know what it takes to be a Super Bowl-caliber team. I know we have that in us.”
“Defensively, we had some mental mistakes at the end. We should have been sitting on the bench enjoying the Kool-Aid, but hey, that’s the NFL.”
Warner, a noted perfectionist, was unhappy with the way his unit achieved victory.
It’s hard to blame him.
With the 49ers falling victim to several late collapses this season, Warner didn’t want to take any chances. After Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and Dallas had the offense locked down for most of the game, a number of botched coverages late in the game gave the Cowboys a chance to make a late comeback in the fourth quarter.
Dallas entered the fourth quarter trailing by 17 points, but scored consecutive touchdowns to cut the deficit to six.
At the end of the night, the 49ers walked away with a win. But Warner looks at the big picture and how the defense’s performance late in the game is not up to their standards: his standards.
At halftime, with the 49ers trailing 10-6, Warner admitted he “said a few words to the team” that helped spark their second-half turnaround. It worked.
Now he may give the defense a pep talk before the 49ers return to action after their Week 9 bye and face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on November 10.
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