The 49ers Super Bowl Hangover
The San Francisco 49ers lost the Super Bowl following the 2019 season. The next year, the 49ers were
decimated by injuries and were
clinging onto faint playoff hopes when they played
a December "home" game in Arizona against
the Buffalo Bills. The Bills won the game as they had no punts in the first
55 minutes of the game.
Earlier in the season, the Bills went an entire game with no punts (and no touchdowns!) -
a very
unique feat. Of course,
the most
famous game in which the Bills had no punts was a 49ers home game in 1992. (The home game was an actual home game held in San Francisco.) That game happened
during the Bills' stretch of four consecutive seasons in which they appeared (and lost) in the Super Bowl.
Thus, the Bills came back to appear in the Super Bowl in three of the four years (75%) after they lost the Super Bowl. Out of the other 52 Super Bowl losers,
only five
(less than 10%) returned to the Super Bowl next year. The 2020 49ers were not one of the five as after the Bills game,
they lost
three out of four to end the season and did not make the playoffs. The 49ers have played in seven Super Bowls and
this was only the second time that they didn't make the playoffs
the following year.
The first time was after their first Super Bowl appearance (and victory). After "The Catch"
and winning their first Super Bowl in 1982 following the '81 season, the 49ers went just 3-6 and didn't make the playoffs the following year. I did some
research as to why the 49ers faded (this happened before I was born) and
here is what I found.
Since 2020, the 49ers have made the playoffs every single year. Like did they after 2020, the 49ers bounced back from that dreadful '82 season: following that season, they had sixteen (!!) consecutive ten-win seasons. The sixteen consecutive ten-win seasons was an NFL record until the
Patriots broke it in 2019. The Patriots' run ended
the following year as they went 7-9 after Tom Brady's departure.