Niners win in a perfectly imperfect game

It was a perfectly imperfect game, full of too many penalties (by the Dallas Cowboys, mostly), more than enough tension (thanks to some 49er misplays) and an ending that belonged in a comedy show as much as it did an NFL highlight film.

Yet, when it came to the bizarre conclusion — Dak Prescott trying to run off a play without the officials having touched the ball — there were the 49ers in the next round of the playoffs and Dallas owner Jerry Jones sitting stunned in his box at the multi-billion-dollar stadium in Texas he helped finance.

On Wild Card Sunday the Niners, with a (phew) very wild 23-17 victory, advanced another step in the postseason, to the divisional round, where they’ll face the Green Bay Packers.

The Pack defeated the Niners in the regular season. And with quarterback Aaron Rodgers, football’s anti-vax answer to the disgraced and deported tennis star Novak Djokovic, Green Bay will be picked to win this one.

But who cares? In effect the Niners, who two weekends ago seemed to be done for the season (they’re now 11-7), are playing with house money — mainly because they play with a great defense.

The talk coming into this one was all about Dallas (of course, the former “America’s Team.”) No matter, the Niners clearly were better. The Boys helped SF by getting called for 14 penalties; who do they think are, the Raiders?

But the Niners, who were off to a first-quarter 10-0 lead, made mistakes of their own, including a Jimmy Garoppolo interception to keep us from turning off the CBS telecast, which featured the duo of Jim Nantz, fighting any urge to favor the Cowboys, and ex-Cowboy QB Tony Romo, who was less neutral.

Which made him about the same as others in the CBS crew. When sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson said Dallas was looking to pick off Jimmy G, and did the next play, there were congratulations and joy throughout.

“It was an emotional, up-and-down game,” said Garoppolo, who would rue the interception. “We were in a dogfight. The fans were nuts.”

AT&T Stadium in Arlington, also known as Jerry’s World, holds more than 94,000 of those fans, and with Jones, GM as well as owner, and highly paid quarterback Dak Prescott running things in their own ways, the Cowboys were talking the Super Bowl.

Oops. That’s also a word applicable for the ultimate play on Sunday. Moments before, with the 49ers trying to run out the clock, Deebo Samuel was stopped on third down literally inches short of the first down.

Then came a Niner false start and a punt to the Cowboys’ 20. As the clock kept ticking, the Cowboys, with Prescott running and throwing, moved the ball to the Niners’ eight. Tick tock.

Prescott bumped into ref Ramon George trying to place the ball without an official touching it — or did George, in the line of duty, bump into Prescott? Whatever, the ticking had stopped. Game over.

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy — anybody here remember he was the Niners’ offensive coordinator for Mike Nolan in 2005? — said Prescott was slowed by the collision.

McCarthy wanted a review. “They were going to put time on the clock,” said McCarthy, “and the next thing I know they’re running off the field.” They had to catch a flight to SFO.

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said later when asked about his team, “There are lots of ways to win a game, but we shouldn’t have given the ball back to them.”

They did, but most importantly they held on to the victory.