Kyle Shanahan downplays key advantage for 49ers versus Cowboys

The San Francisco 49ers have a distinct advantage over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. Having played at home versus the Seahawks on Saturday while the Cowboys waited to travel to Tampa Bay for their Monday night game, the 49ers have two more days of preparation than their opponents for the divisional round.

Asked about the advantageous NFL scheduling, San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan downplayed the benefits. The sixth-year head coach pointed to the Rams last season who played on a short week before beating Tampa Bay on their way to beating the 49ers then the Bengals in the Super Bowl.

“I think it can be an advantage, sometimes it can be a disadvantage,” Shanahan said. “I know the obvious ones, that you get less rest, less time to recover. I love having more time, but sometimes you feel like you can’t play those Thursday night games and you get to it and your team is just off the wall because they haven’t slowed down at all.

“And by this time, I don’t think it is about recovery. It’s about detail and it’s about executing and it’s about playing at a high level. Once you get to games, especially in the playoffs, that recovery, people forget about pretty quickly and just watching the Rams last year, they beat the Cardinals as good as anyone and then they flew all the way to Tampa and I think they were up 28-0 at halftime, so I don’t think that means anything.”

McCarthy on Cowboys’ short week: ‘TV is king’

The Cowboys are no strangers to operating on a short week, which is perhaps why Mike McCarthy is unbothered by the six-day week of prep his team has to get ready for the divisional round versus San Franciso.

The 49ers are not operating on the same short week as Dallas. They beat the Seahawks on Saturday, a full two days before the Cowboys played the Bucs.

Asked about the disparity in preparation time between the two opponents, McCarthy chalked it up to the reality of being at the mercy of TV ratings.

“TV is king. What are you gonna say?” McCarthy responded, via Jon Machota. “This is part of the challenge. It’s not a concern. We got plenty of time to get ready. We’re not stressed about it at all.”

The head coach had his players more than ready to go after their long week going into the wild card, which they proved by delivering a 31-14 beatdown. They got out to a three-score lead in the first half and stopped Tom Brady dead in his tracks early.