SANTA CLARA — It was a nearly perfect game for the 49ers.
It was a performance so dominant, it allowed those poor souls on the East Coast — subject to an 8:20 p.m. kickoff time — to go to sleep at a reasonable hour.
It was perhaps the single best game the 49ers have played under head coach Kyle Shanahan.
The 49ers’ 42-10 win over the Cowboys was so dominant that it feels ridiculous to declare studs and duds — the 49ers were the former, the Cowboys, the latter — but we endeavor, nevertheless:
STUDS
Fred Warner LB
Warner’s forced fumble of Cowboys running back Tony Pollard at the end of the first quarter was the kind of impact play that few NFL defenders can produce. It should have been a turning point in the contest, but Christian McCaffrey’s fumble at the 2-yard line gave the ball right back to Dallas.
Warner, of course, ended that subsequent Dallas drive with a sack of Dak Prescott in the open field.
He had eight tackles, that sack, and a fourth-quarter interception.
I talked up Warner as the frontrunner for Defensive Player of the Year last month.
If the national media doesn’t catch on to this campaign after this dominant game, they’re willfully ignorant.
But here’s the thing: Warner might have been the second-best linebacker on the field Sunday.
And no, No. 1 was certainly not Dallas’ Micah Parsons, who clearly has his ghost costume ready for Halloween.
