Reactions to San Francisco 49ers' Demolition of the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1

The San Francisco 49ers had a message they wanted to send to all those who felt their preseason struggles boded poorly for the season ahead.

The 49ers rolled into Dallas and beat up the Cowboys on Sunday, finishing with a 28-17 victory that was really over before halftime. Four first-half turnovers spotted the 49ers a 28-3 lead, which they’d never relinquish.

The 49ers defense showed ball-hawking tendencies as it operated a bend-but-don’t-break style of attack. 

That’s not ideal for the long run—and allowing DeMarco Murray to compile 118 yards on the ground is a cause for concern—but considering the team is missing Aldon Smith and NaVorro Bowman, and saw both Chris Culliver and Tramaine Brock leave the game with injuries, that’ll do fine.

The defense played solidly and waited for Dallas to shoot itself in the foot.

Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

The play of the reserve cornerbacks was something that was really good to see. When Culliver and Brock went down, the scenario of Dez Bryant matching up against the reserves could have been a nightmare. 

Instead, rookie Dontae Johnson and backup Perrish Cox did a very solid job against what can be a very explosive offense. Considering the circumstances, it was a fantastic performance from the next men up.

The offense? For all the talk about a healthy Michael Crabtree, and the additions of Stevie Johnson and Brandon Lloyd, it was the two guys who were available last year who led the offense. 

Vernon Davis caught two touchdown passes, and Anquan Boldin was all over the field. Boldin came down with eight receptions for 99 yards—not quite matching his performance in last year’s opener, but it’s clear that he still has the best chemistry with quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Boldin was especially valuable on third downs, catching three passes to extend drives. The 49ers as a whole did a very good job of extending their drives, converting seven of their 12 third-down opportunities.

For the offense, it was largely a tale of two halves.

The 49ers offense only had the ball for about 90 seconds in the first quarter, yet it scored two touchdowns—one due to great field position from one of Dallas’ multitude of turnovers, and the other on a three-play, 80-yard drive that saw Kaepernick scramble, avoid pressure and throw a 37-yard pass to Boldin and a 29-yard pass to Vernon Davis.

The second half saw no more points for the 49ers offense, but it wasn't going for the same explosiveness due to the game situation. Three of its five second-half drives went for seven plays or more, draining the clock and ending the chances of a Dallas comeback.

That was more akin to how the unit played last season, grinding out yards on the ground and controlling the clock and field position.

Had Phil Dawson not missed a 37-yard field goal, it would have been classic 49ers offense.

LM Otero/Associated Press

It remains to be seen if the 49ers can keep up the explosiveness of the first half over an entire game, but that simply wasn’t in the plan this week. The 49ers called 15 passes and nine runs in the first half. In the second half, they cut down to 11 passes and 19 runs. It was situational football at its finest.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, of course.  The 49ers were flagged multiple times, ending up with 11 penalties for 80 yards. Here's the breakdown:

• Two counts of illegal use of hands
• One neutral-zone infraction
• Four offensive holdings
• One offside
• Two illegal contacts
• One offensive pass interference

On offense, there was a disturbing amount of pressure on Kaepernick—especially early. He was able to scramble out of pressure repeatedly, only ending up with one sack and 10 yards on scrambles, but it will be nice when the offensive line finishes gelling.

Neither Alex Boone nor Anthony Davis started in this one, however, so some of the offensive line discontinuity can be blamed on that. That needs to get better against a tougher defense.

The NFL has made illegal contact a point of emphasis this season, and it showed in the second half of this game. The offensive pass interference wiped out a 32-yard gain by Vernon Davis, but the penalty itself was questioned by the NFL on Fox crew, as it looked like a phantom penalty.

The two illegal contacts were not phantom calls, but they were more or less borderline. They extended Dallas’ drive and helped lead to its first touchdown in the game, as both turned failed third-down plays into first downs.

That’s something that the team will have to look at and adjust during the week ahead.

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

However, this is nitpicking. The 49ers had a dominant win from stem to stern.

Justin Smith had a couple of sacks, Carlos Hyde had his first NFL touchdown and Frank Gore went over 10,000 career rushing yards. The 49ers had four plays of 20-plus yards and only one three-and-out. They took their foot off the gas late, because the game was essentially over after the 21-3 first quarter.

We’ll spend plenty of time this week reflecting on, analyzing and breaking down every bit and piece of this dominant victory, but for now it’s enough to bask in a game the 49ers controlled from the opening kickoff to the final whistle.

This is exactly what we wanted to see out of the 49ers after the question marks of the preseason and the trauma of the offseason.

The team still has some kinks to work out, but it got its season started about as well as you could have possibly hoped.

Bryan Knowles is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the San Francisco 49ers. Follow him @BryKno on twitter.