Owens, Cowboys trounce Niners

IRVING, Texas — The 49ers placed a lot of trust in cornerback Nate Clements when crafting their game plan to face the Dallas Cowboys.

The idea was to rely on Clements to match up in a lot of single coverage against receiver Terrell Owens, allowing the rest of the 49ers’ defense to focus on other aspects of Dallas’ explosive offense.

Things did not work out so well.

Owens torched Clements and the 49ers for 213 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions, as the Cowboys cruised to a 35-22 victory Sunday at Texas Stadium in a game that was never in doubt after the first half.

“They unleashed me today,” said Owens, who complained recently about his role in offensive coordinator Jason Garrett’s scheme.

In Owens’ only previous game against his former team, he caught five passes for 143 yards and two touchdowns in the Philadelphia Eagles’ 42-3 victory in 2005.

Owens recorded the second-most receiving yards of his career on Sunday. In 2000, while with the 49ers, he recorded 283 yards — and an NFL-record 20 catches — against the Chicago Bears in Jerry Rice’s final home game at Candlestick Park.

The Cowboys’ offense posed a lot of problems for the 49ers’ defense. But the 49ers, 3-8 and losers of seven of their last eight games, did a commendable job against tight end Jason Witten, who entered as the team’s leading receiver, and running back Marion Barber.

Witten had one catch for 11 yards, while Barber rushed for 59 yards on 19 carries. However, quarterback Tony Romo completed 23 of 39 passes for 341 yards and three touchdowns, with nearly two-thirds of those yards going to Owens.

It was a disappointing performance for Clements, who generally is assigned the opposition’s top receiver. That is the kind of responsibility given to the man who signed a seven-year, $64 million contract on the first day of 2007 free agency.

Niners interim coach Mike Singletary disputed the notion that it was a difficult to expect Clements to shadow Owens for an entire game without surrendering some big plays.

“Nate can cover ‘T.O.’ but he didn’t do that today,” Singletary said. “He is better than what he played today. I will not say Nate can’t cover that guy. He can cover that guy all over the field. Nate is a man and a professional. He will recover and bounce back from today.”

The game-changing play happened early in the second quarter. Even though the 49ers led 6-0, an opportunity to seize control of the game was wasted.

Twice the 49ers had first-and-goal situations at the Dallas 4-yard line. And twice the 49ers settled for short Joe Nedney field goals. Through three quarters, 49ers quarterback Shaun Hill completed just 1 of 7 passing attempts in the red zone for 1 yards with one interception. (Hill finished with a strong statistical line of 21-of-33 passing for a career-best 303 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.)

“They’re fighting and trying to make it happen, but you know it’s going to come back and bite you,” Singletary said of the 49ers’ red-zone failures.

In this case, it bit them rather quickly.

On the Cowboys’ third offensive play after the 49ers took their two-field-goal advantage, quarterback Tony Romo escaped a 49ers blitz and looked deep for Owens, who caught Clements flat-footed with a corner route that he turned up the field.

Clements made illegal contact with Owens, but that did not slow him down. He caught the pass in stride about 50 yards down the field. Clements caught up with him at the 15-yard line. But instead of securing the tackle, Clements tried to punch the ball free from Owens.

Clements failed to create a fumble. And he failed to prevent Owens’ 75-yard touchdown reception. The Cowboys scored the next 29 points, including a safety after Carlos Polk blocked an Andy Lee punt out the back of the end zone.

“You can’t give up big plays,” 49ers linebacker Takeo Spikes said. “It’s unacceptable at the end of the day. You can’t allow them to get behind you on coverage like that. We have to play what’s called and understand he (Owens) is a potential (big-play) guy.”

Owens has not been a big-play guy for most of the season, though. His performance against his former team snapped a streak of 14 consecutive games in which he was held to fewer than 100 yards receiving.

“I’ve been patient,” Owens said. “You guys have been waiting for me to blow up, but I’ve been patient.

“I told you guys that I’ve been successful everywhere I’ve been, and I’ve been consistently involved in the offense. When I get my hands on the ball, things happen. It’s not a mystery.”

What is a mystery is why the 49ers did not try to play more press coverage against Owens, who has struggled to shake free when he’s been faced with a defender confronting him at the line of scrimmage.

Clements admitted all of Owens’ big plays came when he gave Owens a cushion at the line of scrimmage. But he said the play call often dictated that he not play bump-and-run coverage.

“I gave up a couple big plays,” Clements said. “He got off today. I’m not taking anything away from him. I have confidence in what I can do against anybody. I’m going to make the corrections, and I’m going to be back at it. ... My mindset is I’m down overall, how the season’s gone. I’m frustrated. But I’m confident in my abilities and in myself and my teammates.”

For more on the 49ers, go to Instant 49ers at blog.pressdemocrat.com/49ers. You can reach Staff Writer Matt Maiocco at 521-5492 or matt.maiocco@pressdemocrat.com

Terrell Owens is a force again. Perhaps the Dallas Cowboys are, too.

Bottled up all season, and his frustration over it starting to show, Owens broke out with 213 yards receiving to help the Cowboys beat the San Francisco 49ers 35-22 Sunday and continue what's looking like the start of a playoff push.

Owens' total was the second-most of his career, behind only the 283 yards he had in the 2000 game in which he caught an NFL-record 20 passes, back when he played for the 49ers, and the fifth-best in Cowboys history.

It was the most in the NFL since Philadelphia's Kevin Curtis had 221 in September 2007 and the most by a Dallas player since Tony Hill had 213 against Philadelphia in 1979.

While Owens' big day should help cut some tension in the locker room, the better news for the Cowboys (7-4) was having consecutive victories for the first time since starting 3-0. With sputtering Seattle coming to Texas Stadium on Thanksgiving, Dallas has a chance to go steaming into December in prime position for a wild-card playoff berth.

The Cowboys also should feel good about the way the defense played when the game was close and about Tony Romo having another efficient performance in his second game dealing with a splint covering the broken pinkie on his passing hand.

Romo was 23-of-39 for 341 yards and three touchdowns. He probably will only need the protection for one more game.

The 49ers (3-8) were coming off their first win under interim coach Mike Singletary and had a great chance to grab control early, facing first-and-goal from the 4 on consecutive drives in the first quarter.

But San Francisco only got a pair of field goals out of it. The next drive inside the 20 also resulted in a field goal, then a drive that started on the Cowboys 17 lasted only one snap, an interception in the end zone. The lead swelled to 32-9 before the 49ers got into the end zone.