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Kaepernick passes for two touchdowns| Carlos Hyde's first touchdown of the season also | San Francisco's defense holds off the Cowboys offense to zero points
SANTA CLARA, San Francisco -- The San Francisco 49ers went with their alternate "color rush" uni's to match their new starting quarterback in
Colin Kaepernick in the hopes that a fresh new start would kickstart their 2016 campaign, it worked as the 49ers ran out 45-12 winners over their rivals the Cowboys.
What a difference a week in the NFL can make, just last Sunday the 49ers moved to 0-3 as they were crushed by the Seattle Seahawks, however today the 49ers were the ones doing the crushing as their defense held the Cowboys to zero touchdowns in the game, all of the Cowboys points came from the kicking of
Dan Bailey.
"Thats the real us," 49ers captian Navorro Bowman told reporters after the game. "We knew were not the worst defense in the NFL, things just needed to click and today they did. I'm proud of my guys and what we did today."
HB Carlos Hyde recorded his first rushing touchdown of the season against Dallas today Bowman was just one tackle short (8) of safety
Eric Ried (9) in leading the 49ers defense, but the sixth year linebacker out of Penn State did combine with
Tank Carrdaine and rookie
DeForrest Buckner to register a three way sack on Cowboys rookie quarterback
Dak Prescott.
The 49ers offense looked re-energised too with
Colin Kaepernick back under center, the former Nevada man got off to a fast start completing six of his first seven passes for 65 yards on the 49ers opening drive, a drive which was completed by the first rushing touchdown on the year by
Carlos Hyde. Kaepernick would go on to finish the game 25-of-31 for 263 yards and two touchdowns without mistake, he was however sacked three times.
Carlos Hyde looked like a completely differant tailback in todays game also, the third year running back had his first 100 yard rushing game and registered his first toucdown of the season. Hyde would end up rushing for 115 yards on 25 carries with two rushing touchdowns of 29 yards and 8 yards.
"We were moving the ball well today," 49ers coach Chip Kelly said. "We were getting good gains on first and second down and not leaving ourselves to much gap to gain on third, something we had been doing on pretty much ever offensive possession up until today's game."
The 49ers managed a season high 402 yards on offense.
With
Tony Romo out for another six weeks the Cowboys have looked to fourth round pick
Dak Prescott to lead their offense so far in 2016, up until todays game the former Missipppi State quarterback hasn't failed to disappoint leading the Cowboys offense to the NFL's 7th ranked passing attack and 12th ranked in points per game (25.3), today though against a 49ers defense that looked more like the defense of old the rookie showed his first signs of struggle in the NFL.
Prescott, was 17-of-35 for 181 yards and no touchdowns; it is the first time this season he has failed to pass for a touchdown. The Cowboys offense wasn't helped by the fact
Ezekiel Elliot wasn't allowed to break into open space, the 49ers defense held the first round pick to just 42 yards on an average of 2.1 yards per carry.
In a game of a lot of firsts for the 49ers this season we saw
Cordarelle Patterson a recent pickup in a trade from Minnesota recorded his first career touchdown reception with the 49ers, along with that he also rushed for a 14 yard touchdown when
Chip Kelly opened up his playbook and went with a cute trick play.
"Every game in the league comes down to one or two plays that change the outcome of the game," Patterson said. "I hope these two plays are just the start of an established career here in San Fran."
In just four short days the 49ers host the Arizona Cardinals (0-4) on "Thursday Nigh Football". The Cardinals are yet to win a game so far in 2016 after back-to-back losses to New England (34-14), Tampa Bay (20-17), Buffalo (44-14) and St Louis (34-10). The Cardinals will also be without starting quarterback
Carson Palmer for the game at Levi Stadium.