ARLINGTON, Texas – The swaths of red, San Francisco 49ers red, spread and leached through the stands at AT&T Stadium. It was all over the end zones. It dominated the third deck and standing room areas. It even scattered through the most expensive club seat sections.

Red here. Red there. Red everywhere.

It didn't just speak to the traveling might and national appeal of the Niners. It wasn't just about the power of a Super Bowl contender that would cruise to a 28-17 victory that was far more lopsided than the score suggests.

View photos Niners DE Justin Smith sacks Tony Romo during the second half. (AP) More

It also said plenty about the willingness of Dallas Cowboys fans to unload their tickets, or never bother to buy them, for the opener of a season that seems to carry so little promise.

Fifty-percent red? Sixty-percent red? Whatever it was, the number was big, shockingly big for the first game of the season when seemingly every team has hope and the excitement of a live game and a full tailgate is in full swing.

Jerry Jones said he didn't notice.

"Did you count," he asked of the number of Niners fans in attendance?

He owns the Cowboys and owns the building so he was getting paid no matter what. There were 91,174 here, so it was a good day for business.

He's also the team's general manager, so from his luxury box where he entertains friends and business contacts, he says he's watching like an actual football executive and that requires tunnel vision.

"I just pay attention to the field," he said.

Maybe it affects his hearing because in the first quarter as the Niners kept taking Dallas turnovers and scoring touchdowns, the roars for the visiting team were, you'd think, impossible to ignore – 7-0 just 54 seconds in … 14-3 with 5:54 to go in the first quarter … 21-3 not 90 seconds later … 28-3 just before the half …

"I didn't have my eye on the crowd," Jones said. "I had my eye on those turnovers … I don't have any knowledge or information about red shirts or anything."

What Jones can't seem to see or hear or fathom – that this Cowboys season appears bleak and long and hopeless – his fan base has apparently come to accept.

It isn't unusual for customers to bail on a loser and save money for an autumn, but Dallas hadn't lost a game yet when the fans decided to stay home or go fishing or just not care.

Of course, their lack of faith was rewarded by the dreadful start that saw a fumble returned for a touchdown followed by three Tony Romo interceptions, each seemingly worse than the last, that killed any fleeting hope.

"We are not good enough to come back from that kind of start," Jones said. "We won't be coming back from many starts like that."

No they aren't and no they won't. The question is whether there is any way for them to get good enough to make anything out of this season. Yes, it was just one game and you never really know how the team will respond, but suddenly one of coach Jason Garrett's patented 8-8 campaigns seems like a long shot.

The issue begins and ends with Jones the GM. He's joked/admitted for years that his performance in putting together the team has been so poor that he would get fired if he didn't also own the team.

He reasons that as owner he'd have final say anyway, so it's all semantics. Mostly though he remains consumed with the lack of credit allotted to his football acumen for the Cowboys' three titles in four seasons during the early-to-mid 1990s. He thinks then coach Jimmy Johnson, who he fired after winning consecutive titles, gets too much of the hype.

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