It’s a franchise that has won more postseason games (38) than any other in NFL history. With a victory over the Kansas City Chiefs at Las Vegas on February 11, the San Francisco 49ers would tie the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots for the most Super Bowl victories (6).
Here’s a look at the 49ers’ previous seven Super Sunday performances, in chronological order.
San Francisco 49ers 26, Cincinnati Bengals 21 (XVI)
It’s certainly not unusual especially these days to have a team come out of nowhere and wind up playing in the Super Bowl. In 1981, both the San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals were coming off 6-10 seasons. The former was led by Bill Walsh and quarterback Joe Montana. Cincinnati’s head coach was Forrest Gregg, while underappreciated signal-caller Ken Anderson wound up winning NFL MVP honors.
The teams would finish 13-3 and 12-4, respectively, with one of the Niners’ victories coming at Cincinnati. The clubs would meet again, this time at the Pontiac Superdome.
San Francisco would jump out to a 20-0 halftime lead and hold on for a five-point win as the franchise began it’s run in the 1980s.
San Francisco 49ers 38, Miami Dolphins 16 (XIX)
Bill Walsh’s team missed the playoffs the year after they won their first Super Bowl in 1981. The Niners got as far as the NFC title game in 1983. A season later, they embarked on a campaign that saw them win their first six games and finish with a 15-1 record. Bill Walsh and Joe Montana were still at the forefront, as was an emerging star in second-year running back Roger Craig.
Walsh’s squad took care of the Giants and Bears in the playoffs, shutting out the latter in the conference championship game. The foe in Super Bowl XIX at Palo Alto would be Don Shula’s Dolphins, who finished 14-2 while second-year quarterback Dan Marino was earning league MVP honors and setting new NFL passing records. Miami would actually own a 10-7 lead after one quarter.
The Dolphins would be limited to a pair of field goals late in the first half for the remainder of the game. The Niners finished with 537 yards of total offense, while Montana threw for 331 yards and three scores, plus ran for 59 yards and a touchdown. Craig became the first player to score three touchdowns in a Super Bowl.
San Francisco 49ers 20, Cincinnati Bengals 16 (XXIII)
San Francisco was back in the Super Bowl for the third time in eight years, but it was a rough season throughout. The team actually owned a 6-5 record after 11 weeks and there was a brewing quarterback controversy between Joe Montana and Steve Young.
The Niners embarked on a five-game winning streak, then rested some players to finish 10-6. They picked up where the regulars left off by rolling the Vikings, 34-9, and the Bears, 28-3, on the way with another Super Sunday clash with the Cincinnati Bengals.
This time, the game was in South Florida and the opposition was led by head coach Sam Wyche and the 1988 NFL MVP in quarterback Boomer Esiason. Neither offense scored a touchdown in the first three quarters of the game, and the Bengals’ only trip to the end zone came via a 93-yard kickoff return by Stanford Jennings.
Down 13-6 with 15 minutes to play, Montana wound up throwing TD passes to Jerry Rice (the game’s MVP) and John Taylor. The latter came with 34 seconds to play and capped off an 11-play, 92-yard drive. In what proved to be Bill Walsh’s final game as the team’s head coach, the 49ers sent him out in style.
San Francisco 49ers 55, Denver Broncos 10 (XXIV)
The Niners looked to become the fourth franchise to win back-to-back Super Bowls, but they would try and do it with a new head coach. Defensive mind George Seifert took over for Bill Walsh, and the results were impressive.
Many feel that the 1989 49ers were the best team of the Super Bowl Era to date. They finished 14-2, and their two losses were by a total of five points. They led the NFL in scoring with 442 points and quarterback Joe Montana was the league’s Most Valuable Player.
It was a loaded offense with wide receivers Jerry Rice and John Taylor, running backs Roger Craig and Tom Rathman and tight end Brent Jones. The defense took somewhat of a back seat despite the presence of future Hall of Famers Ronnie Lott and Charles Haley.
San Francisco was virtually unstoppable in the playoffs and their 55-10 victory over Denver in Super Bowl XXIV remains the most lopsided result in the series’ history. In three postseason victories, Seifert’s team vanquished the Vikings, Rams, and Broncos by an unimaginable score of 126-26.
San Francisco 49ers 49, San Diego Chargers 26 (XXIX)
It’s somewhat hard to believe, but this remains the franchise’s last Super Bowl victory. In 1993, the NFL embarked on real free agency. A year later, the salary cap kicked in. That offseason, the 49ers signed numerous veterans looking less for a payday and more for an opportunity to unseat the Dallas Cowboys as Super Bowl champions. The team had lost back-to-back NFC title games to Jerry Jones’ club.
It would prove to be future Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young’s finest moment, but it didn’t come without its rough spots. A loss at Kansas City in Week 2, with former teammate Joe Montana at the helm of the Chiefs, didn’t sit well. Three weeks later, an emotional Young didn’t finish a humbling 40-8 home loss to the Eagles which left the team 3-2 after five games.
However, George Seifert’s team would lose only one more game the rest of the season. That was a meaningless clash with the Vikings in Week 17.
Young would be the league’s Most Valuable Player, as well as Super Bowl XXIX MVP as he threw for 325 yards and a record six TD passes – three to Jerry Rice. He also led the team with (ironically) 49 yards on the ground. Ricky Watters scored three touchdowns as well. The Niners totaled 131 points in their three postseason contests, and became the league’s first franchise to win five Super Bowl titles.
Baltimore Ravens 34, San Francisco 49ers 31 (XLVII)
A mere 18 years after winning their fifth Lombardi Trophy, the 49ers were back in the Super Bowl and obviously, with a very new slate of players. The head coach was Jim Harbaugh, now back in the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers. This match-up with the Baltimore Ravens would feature a first as the brothers Harbaugh would clash on Super Sunday at the Superdome.
It was a wild afternoon in the Crescent City. Baltimore got on the board first when quarterback Joe Flacco found Anquan Boldin for a 13-yard score. By halftime, the Ravens owned a 21-6 lead and things got worse for San Francisco when Baltimore speedster Jacoby Jones returned the second-half kickoff 108 yards for a score. It remains the longest play in Super Bowl history.
Inexplicably, the lights would go out at the Superdome. When power returned, Jim Harbaugh’s club, led by quarterback Colin Kaepernick, would go on to score 17 straight points and trailed only 28-23 entering the final quarter. The Niners could not complete the comeback, and suffered its first-ever Super Bowl setback.
Kansas City Chiefs 31, San Francisco 49ers 20 (LIV)
In his third season as head coach, Kyle Shanahan led the 49ers to their seventh Super Bowl. With a victory, the franchise could tie the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots for the most Lombardi Trophies (6). The team began the season 8-0, finished 13-3 and pushed around the Vikings and Packers in the NFC playoffs.
The site was South Florida, where San Francisco had won Super Bowls XXIII and XXIX. This time, the opposition was Andy Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs. It was a franchise making its first Super Bowl appearance in 50 years. 49ers’ quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo spearheaded a power offense that was run heavy in the postseason victories over Minnesota and Green Bay.
In this contest, Garoppolo threw for 219 yards and one score, but he finished the game with a pair of interceptions. His team would take a 20-10 lead into the fourth quarter. However, it wasn’t meant to be as the Chiefs scored the final 21 points of the game to deny the Niners another chance of capturing a sixth NFL title.