Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

The Dallas Cowboys are still picking up the pieces after their 42-10 humbling at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night.

In a game that was going to be a true test of not only coordinator Dan Quinn's defense but also head coach Mike McCarthy's "Texas Coast Offense," both were seriously underwhelming.

The offense, which included a frustrated CeeDee Lamb, failed to get anything going aside from Dak Prescott's touchdown pass to KaVaonte Turpin in the second quarter and a seven-play, 39-yard drive to start the third quarter that ended in a field goal.

For offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, there is a lot to fix after witnessing just how little the offense put up against the 49ers defense.

“A lot of really good lessons to learn from,” Schottenheimer said. “We’ll go through it, make the corrections, there’s certainly a lot of those to do, and I really believe you can learn a lot from games like this."

There will be a host of lessons learned from Sunday night's game, and none of them will feel good for the Cowboys locker room. Built up as the game that would potentially solidify their Super Bowl credentials, Dallas wilted under the bright lights in every phase of the game.

For Schottenheimer, the offense, which managed just 197 total yards, zero red zone trips, and only converted four of 11 third downs, never got a chance to build any kind of momentum.

“We never found our rhythm offensively,” Schottenheimer said. “Some of that was us not doing the things we needed to do, but some of it was they [49ers] did a nice job.”

Unfortunately for Dallas, it will not be able to rectify its mistakes until the two teams meet again (if they meet again), and it will have to sit with the horrorshow it produced for the rest of the season.

For Dallas, which no doubt still harbors playoff intentions and possibly more, the 49ers shadow now looms larger than ever, and if McCarthy's team is to make something of this season, then going through the Niners at some stage might be a requirement.

But if the last three outings have taught us anything, it's that the 49ers have the Cowboys' number; on any day, anywhere, San Francisco is Dallas' kryptonite and knows how to neutralize their fellow NFC counterpart. 

And until those lessons learned produce tangible results against the best, Dallas will likely never be considered a serious contender this season.

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