The 1992 NFC Championship game at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park was a showdown between the team of the 1980s, the 49ers, which starred the 30-plus-year-old Hall of Famers Jerry Rice and Steve Young; and the upstart Cowboys, featuring the 23-year-old Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman, both age 26. Just three years earlier, in head coach Jimmy Johnson’s first season, Dallas was 1-15; but they’d matured and improved each season since and were now on the cusp of a Super Bowl appearance. In their way, however, was San Francisco, three years removed from a Super Bowl title and – having gone 14-2 in the regular season – with home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The game was tied, 10-10, at halftime, and then, the young underdogs from Dallas took control: a 16-yard touchdown pass from Aikman to Smith, the NFL’s rushing leader, gave the Cowboys a 24-13 lead in the fourth. Rice caught a TD pass of his own, but it wasn’t enough, as the Cowboys won, 30-20, and went on to win the Super Bowl and establish their 1990s dynasty of three titles in four years. ― NFL 100
Box Score: Football Reference
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