If you have been a Cowboys at any point since 1995, you have surely heard all the jokes about how they are overrated and won't win another Super Bowl.

Every off-season some fans will buy into the hype and start proclaiming it is "our year". But when the playoffs come around, the Cowboys will "choke." Despite six division championships and twelve winning seasons since 2000, the Cowboys only have four playoff wins to show for it. 

Just last year the Cowboys got into the playoffs and sent the legendary Tom Brady home in the Wildcard round. What made it even better was the Cowboys beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, convincingly, in the 31-14 win. 

It was a game where Dak Prescott threw for four touchdowns and added one on the ground.

Cowboys fans were riding high. You just sent the GOAT home on the last game of his career. Many believed it was truly "our year."

Then the Kirk Cousins-led Minnesota Vikings went and ruined the parade. The Vikings lost to the Giants, thus putting the Cowboys against the San Francisco 49ers in the Divisional Round of the playoffs.

The 49ers knocked the Cowboys out of the playoffs the year prior. So there was still a sour taste in the mouths of Cowboys fans and players, alike.

Spoiler alert: Things got even more bitter after the 49ers beat the Cowboys in the postseason for the second straight year.

This was a game where the Cowboys offense struggled and only scored 12 points. This was also the game that put the final nail in the coffin for offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, as it ultimately lead to his termination. 

Now fast forward to the 2023 season. The Cowboys enter Week 5 with a 3-1 record and they are set to face the undefeated San Francisco 49ers. 

The past is not lost on the Cowboys, and more specifically Dak Prescott. 

The Cowboys seem more motivated than ever to get the monkey that is the San Francisco 49ers off their back as evidenced by this Dak Prescott quote.

Does the loss to San Francisco in last year’s playoffs drive Dak Prescott?

Dak: “Every fu-,” he caught himself, to a laugh around the room. “Every day.”

— Mike Leslie (@MikeLeslieWFAA) October 2, 2023

A motivated Prescott is obviously huge and the Cowboys are going to need him at his best if they want to even get close to winning this game. The 49ers currently look like the best team in football and they're firing on all cylinders. Prescott is one of the Cowboys' best players on offense and he will also have to elevate those around him on top of playing well. 

It's not going to be easy, whatsoever. But nothing in the NFL comes easy. Prescott and co. can certainly compete with the 49ers and Sunday is their chance to prove that.

If they don't, then it's the same conversation we've heard for years, now.