SANTA CLARA, California. – For most teams in the NFL, especially this year’s Cowboys version, it takes four really good quarters of football to win a game.

However, it only takes one really terrible quarter to lose a game.

The Cowboys found that out the hard way on Sunday night when they were defeated by the 49ers, who completely dominated them in the third quarter.

Sure enough, the Cowboys won the other three quarters by a combined score of 17-9. But it doesn’t matter if you come out of halftime and get going, 21-0.

Serious? Twenty-one points to nothing in the third quarter?

That’s what ultimately doomed the Cowboys, but they didn’t exactly help themselves early in the first quarter or at the very end either. The old saying ‘it’s how you start, it’s how you finish’ doesn’t always apply to football.

In today’s NFL, where games are designed to push the envelope, it usually comes down to how you start… and how you finish.

And the Cowboys didn’t do well enough to win this one.

Wow, if this game wasn’t a lot like the Ravens loss from a few weeks ago. For me it was pretty much the same game. The 49ers took control, mostly on the ground game, and looked like they were going to blow out the Cowboys. But then, somewhat in the “too little too late” category, the Cowboys rally and come pretty close to getting back in the game, but it eventually collapses.

And that’s pretty much what happened again. Yes, the 49ers had a bit of a lull on offense and stopped scoring after a great third quarter. And the defense gave up a number of plays to CeeDee Lamb as the Cowboys scrambled to get back into the game.

But in the end, when the 49ers defense had to make a stop, the Cowboys didn’t even get a yard. And then the San Francisco offense took over and picked up a crucial first loss and the game was over.

If you add that to the Cowboys’ struggles to start the game, what you get here is a 30-24 loss to the 49ers, who have dominated this rivalry in recent years.

And honestly, I really don’t know why I’m surprised, but I was. I seriously thought the Cowboys were going to show us something completely different.

While all my peers around me picked the 49ers to win based on recent history, I also made my pick from history. Something told me the Cowboys would be another team coming out of the bye. That’s how it’s been among Mike McCarthy-coached teams. I took that, combined with the 49ers’ recent injuries, and thought maybe they could pull out a win.

Turns out the bye week really didn’t help the Cowboys.

Sure, it may have started out as if things were different, and there was that fourth-quarter fuss, but in the end — right at the end — the 49ers did what they wanted to do, regardless of who was in or out of the lineup. .

And that’s a credit to the 49ers and their coaching staff for what has been built here. Yes, they’re not the same without Brandon Aiyuk and Christian McCaffrey, just like the Cowboys aren’t the same without Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence and DaRon Bland, but San Francisco still finds a way to be functional. And against this Cowboys defense, they were better than that. After a slow start, the 49ers knew how to beat the Cowboys in the third quarter and that proved to be the difference in the game.

And honestly, who’s surprised?

I came across this stat two weeks ago, and I’ve probably overused it, but until the Cowboys fix it, I’ll keep saying it because it’s reared its ugly head again: the Cowboys have been terrible early on – at the beginning of the match, at the beginning of the second half. And it’s both sides of the ball.

After seven games, it’s more than a trend, it’s a pretty big deal.

The Cowboys have yet to score a touchdown early in a game, but they still keep getting the ball when they win the coin toss. Once again the Cowboys punted right away, which was kind of depressing because of the two weeks off. You’d like to think they would have come up with something better than one first down and a punt.

But don’t be too upset if the Cowboys get the ball to start the game. They also do nothing with the ball to start the third quarter.

On offense, the Cowboys have now had fourteen possessions to start a game or half and need only three field goals to do so – none of which occurred on Sunday night.

Unfortunately the defense was even worse at the start of the games and halves. Out of 14 possessions this year, teams have scored 13 times. Serious? That’s 92 percent for opponents who score on the first drive of any half.

That’s absurd. And I’m sorry, that comes down to preparation – for both the coaches and the players.

We have heard the players, especially Dak Prescott, say too many times this year that practices need to be better. We heard Jourdan Lewis talk about the players not being ‘detailed’ enough in their preparatory work, both in practice and in the film room.

And that’s the part that’s most visible when you start a game, and when you come out of the locker room in the third quarter. There appears to be no adjustments at all and the team is defeated.

Add up each opening drive, both offense and defense, and the score is 71-15.

Yes, the Cowboys are being outscored 71 to 15 on the first drives of each half this year. To me, that’s the official score of what is an underlining problem: the Cowboys are being outgunned and outplayed and it all adds up to they are surpassed.

Okay, so the Cowboys rallied late to turn what looked like a blowout into a one-score game with a chance to win, but they couldn’t.

They struggled at the start and couldn’t finish at the end. If you do that often enough, it doesn’t really matter what happens in between.