Week #16
Sunday, Dec.30, at Texas Stadium, 10:00am PDT
vs
27
 
21

Dallas Cowboys' Joey Galloway (84) pulls in a 47-yard touchdown pass in front of San Francisco 49ers' Rashad Holman (26) and Zach Bronson (31) during the third quarter in Irving, Texas, Fridday, Dec. 30, 2001. The Cowboys won 27-21. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
IRVING, Texas (AP) With a new set of Triplets on offense, the Dallas Cowboys played a vintage game against the San Francisco 49ers.

Rookie Quincy Carter threw two touchdown passes, including a 47-yarder to Joey Galloway, and ran for another, and Emmitt Smith rushed for 126 yards, carrying the Cowboys to a 27-21 victory over the 49ers in a game reminiscent of the rivalry's mid-1990s heyday.

Dallas (5-10) beat San Francisco(11-4) for only the second time in the last seven meetings. While the Cowboys paid back the 49ers for last season's midfield antics by Terrell Owens, more satisfying to them was possibly redirecting San Francisco's postseason plans.

The 49ers are assured of a wild card and are likely to play Green Bay in the first round. San Francisco must finish ahead of the Packers (11-4) to have the game at home instead of traveling to the cold of Lambeau Field.

Carter, the heir to Troy Aikman who talked all week about the excitement of being part of the Dallas-San Francisco rivalry, was 15-of-25 for 241 yards, easily the most for any of the Cowboys' four quarterbacks this season. He also had 30 yards rushing on 10 carries.

Galloway, acquired from Seattle for two first-round picks before last season to replace Michael Irvin as the Cowboys' No. 1 receiver, caught six passes for a career-high 146 yards. It was his first 100-yard game in Dallas.

And Smith, one of only two holdovers from Dallas' three Super Bowl teams, went over 16,000 yards in his career and moved within 56 yards of 1,000 this season. He's trying to become the first player to have 11 consecutive 1,000-yard seasons; he shares the mark of 10 with Barry Sanders and will try breaking it next Sunday in Detroit.

Carter used his feet and arm to guide three straight scoring drives to start the second half: his own 1-yard run that might not have crossed the goal line, the long pass to Galloway and a 20-yard field goal by Jon Hilbert.

With the defense limiting the 49ers to two first downs on their three ensuing possession, the Cowboys turned a 14-10 halftime deficit into a 27-14 lead.

San Francisco reached the 5 on the next series, but Jeff Garcia threw four straight incompletions - including one knocked away from Owens by George Teague, the safety who was ejected from last year's game for tackling Owens after the second of his two post-touchdown celebrations on the Dallas logo.

The 49ers got the ball back after blocking a punt, and Garcia threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to J.J. Stokes with 39 seconds left. San Francisco tried an onside kick, but it was recovered by Dallas, sealing the Cowboys' best game of the season and one of the most disappointing for the 49ers.

Garcia was 21-of-36 for 229 yards and two touchdowns. His 6-yard scoring run put the 49ers up 7-3, and a 7-yard TD pass to Stokes with 12 seconds left in the second quarter provided the halftime lead.

Carter got the third quarter going with a wobbly 44-yard pass to Galloway and appeared to cap the drive with a 3-yard TD run. But San Francisco coach Steve Mariucci successfully challenged the call, with officials saying Carter's elbow touched down before he stretched the ball over the goal line.

Carter ran into the middle on the next play and was ruled in, although replays showed he probably didn't make it. Mariucci - who would've been out of challenges if he questioned it, regardless of the result - held onto his red flag this time.

Carter highlighted the next drive with a 9-yard run up the middle on third-and-8. On the next play, he slipped while dropping back, but recovered to heave the ball to Galloway for the long touchdown.


   
   

 
FINAL
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
Total
San Francisco
0
14
0
7
21
Dallas
0
14
10
3
27

 
SCORING SUMMARY SFO DAL
1st Quarter
    No Scoring Plays.
0
0
2nd Quarter
DAL FG  22 yard field goal by Jon Hilbert (DAL) is good.
0
3
SFO TD Jeff Garcia (SFO) rushed right side for a 6 yard touchdown. Extra point by Jose Cortez (SFO) is good.
7
3
DAL TD Quincy Carter (DAL) pass left side complete to Darrin Chiaverini (DAL) for a 2 yard touchdown. Extra point by Jon Hilbert (DAL) is good.
7
10
SFO TD Jeff Garcia (SFO) pass right side complete to J.J. Stokes (SFO) for a 7 yard touchdown. Extra point by Jose Cortez (SFO) is good.
14
10
3rd Quarter
DAL TD Quincy Carter (DAL) rushed up the middle for a 1 yard touchdown. Extra point by Jon Hilbert (DAL) is good.
14
17
DAL TD Quincy Carter (DAL) pass right side complete to Joey Galloway (DAL) for a 47 yard touchdown. Extra point by Jon Hilbert (DAL) is good.
14
24
4th Quarter
DAL FG  20 yard field goal by Jon Hilbert (DAL) is good.
14
27
SFO TD Jeff Garcia (SFO) pass right side complete to J.J. Stokes (SFO) for a 3 yard touchdown. Extra point by Jose Cortez (SFO) is good.
21
27
   
  
  
TEAM STATISTICS
SFO
DAL
FIRST DOWNS 16 23
Passing 13 11
Rushing 2 11
Penalty 1 1
 
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 5-12 11-17
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 1-2 0-0
 
TOTAL NET YARDS 284 420
Total plays 54 70
Average gain 5.3 6.0
 
NET YARDS RUSHING 55 186
Rushes 18 44
Average per rush 3.1 4.2
 
NET YARDS PASSING 229 234
Completion-attempted 21-36 15-25
Yards per pass 6.4 9.4
Sacked-yards lost 0-0 1-7
Had intercepted 0 0
 
PUNTS-AVERAGE 4-38.5 3-34.0
 
RETURN-YARDAGE 92 24
Punts-returns 1-15 0-0
Kickoffs-returns 4-77 2-24
Interceptions-returns 0-0 0-0
 
PENALTIES-YARDS 2-10 5-27
FUMBLES-LOST 1-1 0-0
   
   
   
Passing
49ERS CMP ATT YDS PCT YPA SACK SYDS TD INT
Jeff Garcia 21 36 229 58.3 6.36 0 0 2 0
COWBOYS CMP ATT YDS PCT YPA SACK SYDS TD INT
Quincy Carter 15 25 241 60.0 9.64 1 7 2 0

Rushing
49ERS ATT YDS AVG LONG TD FUM
Garrison Hearst 11 35 3.2 11 0 0
Kevan Barlow 5 15 3.0 7 0 0
Jeff Garcia 1 6 6.0 6 1 0
Terry Jackson 1 0 0.0 0 0 0
COWBOYS ATT YDS AVG LONG TD FUM
Emmitt Smith 26 126 4.8 22 0 0
Quincy Carter 10 30 3.0 10 1 0
Michael Wiley 4 24 6.0 19 0 0
Troy Hambrick 4 6 1.5 10 0 0

Receiving
49ERS REC YDS AVG LONG TD FUM
Terrell Owens 5 93 18.6 37 0 0
J.J. Stokes 4 47 11.8 28 2 0
Eric Johnson 4 33 8.2 10 0 0
Tai Streets 2 27 13.5 20 0 0
Kevan Barlow 1 13 13.0 13 0 0
Terry Jackson 1 6 6.0 6 0 0
Vinny Sutherland 1 5 5.0 5 0 0
Garrison Hearst 2 3 1.5 5 0 0
Justin Swift 1 2 2.0 2 0 0
COWBOYS REC YDS AVG LONG TD FUM
Joey Galloway 6 146 24.3 47 1 0
Raghib Ismail 3 46 15.3 19 0 0
Troy Hambrick 1 27 27.0 27 0 0
Mike Lucky 1 7 7.0 7 0 0
Ken-Yon Rambo 1 6 6.0 6 0 0
Emmitt Smith 1 4 4.0 4 0 0
Michael Wiley 1 3 3.0 3 0 0
Darrin Chiaverini 1 2 2.0 2 1 0

Kicking
49ERS FGA FGM PCT LNG XPA XPM PCT PTS
Jose Cortez 1 0 0.0 -- 3 3 100.0 3
COWBOYS FGA FGM PCT LNG XPA XPM PCT PTS
Jon Hilbert 2 2 100.0 -- 3 3 100.0 9
Micah Knorr 1 1 100.0 -- 0 0 0.0 3

Punting
49ERS PUNTS AVG LONG BLOCKED IN 20 TB
Jason Baker 4 38.5 -- -- -- --
COWBOYS PUNTS AVG LONG BLOCKED IN 20 TB
Micah Knorr 3 34.0 -- 1 -- --

Kick/Punt Returns
49ERS KR YDS AVG LONG TD PR YDS AVG LONG TD
Vinny Sutherland 4 77 19.2 -- -- 1 15 15.0 -- --
COWBOYS KR YDS AVG LONG TD PR YDS AVG LONG TD
Demetric Evans 1 7 7.0 -- -- 0 0 0.0 -- --
Reggie Swinton 1 17 17.0 -- -- 0 0 0.0 -- --

Defense
49ERS TOT SOLO AST SCK YDS FF INT YDS INT/TD
Jason Webster 9 9 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Jeff Ulbrich 7 6 1 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Derek Smith 6 5 1 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
John Engelberger 5 5 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Rashad Holman 5 5 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Lance Schulters 4 4 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Dana Stubblefield 3 3 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Zack Bronson 3 3 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Andre Carter 3 3 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Bryant Young 2 2 0 1.0 7 0 0 -- --
George McCullough 2 2 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Reggie McGrew 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Julian Peterson 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Jamie Winborn 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
COWBOYS TOT SOLO AST SCK YDS FF INT YDS INT/TD
Dat Nguyen 7 5 2 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Peppi Zellner 6 4 2 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Darren Woodson 5 4 1 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Duane Hawthorne 5 4 1 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
George Teague 4 4 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Dexter Coakley 4 3 1 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Brandon Noble 2 2 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Greg Ellis 1 0 1 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Michael Myers 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Izell Reese 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Pat Dennis 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --
Mario Edwards 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 -- --

....