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DALLAS — Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman said Thursday the Dallas Cowboys “absolutely have a chance” to beat the 7-1 San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at AT&T Stadium, and that a win over San Francisco could start Dallas’ climb back into the NFC East race.
Aikman made the comments during his Thursday appearance on The Musers on SportsRadio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket. The Dallas Morning News published a lightly edited transcript of the interview.
The Cowboys (4-5) host San Francisco at 3:25 p.m. CT on FOX. Dallas is coming off a 27-23 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Nov. 8, and a second straight victory would put the Cowboys back at .500.
San Francisco has won the last four games against Dallas, according to DallasCowboys.com. Aikman’s case for the Cowboys started with Indianapolis, a 2-6 team entering the Nov. 8 game that still had a chance to beat Dallas late.
“Absolutely, they do,” Aikman said. “It’s like we talked about last week, and we saw in the game with Dallas and Indianapolis that Indianapolis played better or put up a bigger fight than I think most people thought that they might and had a chance to win and I think the same. The one thing we’ve all learned is you get into the NFL and, man, you think you have it figured out and you don’t.”
“So as big as a mountain as this seems for the Cowboys to climb, they absolutely have a chance to win this game,” Aikman said. “They got to play some of their best football and they’ve got to hope some things bounce their way. But yeah, absolutely.”
Troy Aikman Maps Dallas Cowboys’ Path Back Into NFC East Race
Sunday opens a three-game homestand for Dallas. Aikman said a win over San Francisco would be a real confidence boost, and that there is opportunity within the division for a Cowboys team that gets past the 49ers.
“I do think it’s an opportunity in a game like this,” Aikman said. “If they can beat the 49ers, then they can beat anybody. I mean, it’s that simple. If they can beat them, then they can play with anybody on any given day. So I would have to believe it would be a real confidence boost. And yeah, they certainly could. I mean, it’s happened before, and there’s opportunity within this division.”
“And you look at it after this game,” Aikman said. “If they were to get past San Francisco, I mean, you can’t count anything as a win. But when you start evaluating it, you kind of think you’re going to beat Tennessee at home, and you’re going to probably beat Philadelphia at home, and then you go to Seattle, a game that I’ll be calling, which obviously will be a tough one. But they can start to kind of climb back into it and have a chance within the division and still with a game against the Giants to play.”
The New York Giants still lead the NFC East at 5-3-1 after a 24-21 loss to the Washington Commanders on Thursday night. Dallas sits second at 4-5. Washington is 3-5-1, and the Philadelphia Eagles are 2-7.
The Cowboys already beat Philadelphia once, on Oct. 26 in a Monday night game at Lincoln Financial Field. New York visits AT&T Stadium on Jan. 3.
Aikman Says Cowboys’ Locker Room Has To Determine What It Is
Aikman said how far Dallas climbs depends on what its players believe about themselves, and that he has played on teams on both sides of that question.
“So yeah, I wouldn’t rule that out at all,” Aikman said. “It’s just really a matter of how much do the players [believe]? I guess is a better question. I’ve been on teams where the locker room just knew, ‘Hey, we’re just not any good. This is going to be an uphill slug.’ And then there’s other times when you think, ‘Hey, we’re pretty talented. We just haven’t really put it together, but we can.’ But those are the things that locker room’s got to determine.”
Before the Indianapolis win, Dallas blew a 14-point lead and lost to the Arizona Cardinals in overtime at home. The win over the Colts was the Cowboys’ second in five games. What the Cowboys believe they are is not something Aikman claimed to know from the outside.
“I don’t know,” Aikman said. “Based on what I’ve seen, I think everyone from top to bottom, is still pretty bullish on this team. So we’ll find out here over the next eight, nine games, I guess.”
Sunday’s game opens the final eight of Dallas’ regular season. After San Francisco, the Cowboys host the Tennessee Titans at noon CT on Nov. 22 and Philadelphia at 3:30 p.m. CT on Thanksgiving.
Dallas then visits the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks on Dec. 7 for a 7:15 p.m. CT Monday Night Football game on ESPN, the broadcast Aikman calls, before a Week 14 bye.
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