Where does this loss rank on your most painful losses of all time?

[bvanthielriceyoung]

This one might be #1 for me.

I was pretty young in the 1990 championship so didnt understand the magnitude of it. A lot of older fans seem to think this is the most painful one and I could definitely understand that given the situation.

The back to back losses against the Cowboys in the nfc championship were pretty damn bad, but we were a very succesful team and in the playoffs every year competing. Plus the games werent as close at this recent one. The 2nd loss to the Cowboys is probably just a hair below this recent one. I think our success(winning a lot every year, past superbowls, never having helped manage the pain for me.

The 98 nfc championship against Green Bay hurt but we were beat pretty bad. And we did have the 94 Superbowl recently which seemed to help the pain.

This one seems to feel different probably for one thing because I'm older, and for two, we just experienced 9 yrs of losing and havent had a superbowl since the 94 season. This was such a winable game and we wouldve gone up against an overated and beatable Patriots team.

 

[MW49ers5]

This eclipses '91, '87 & '72 as the most painful for me...

 

[deep9er]

not high.

my expectations before the season was less than .500, so still very happy. its not a fluke' season either, and believe we'll make the play-offs again.

no excuses for losing and of course we're dissapointed, but doesn't rank high.

 

[deep9er]

This eclipses '91, '87 & '72 as the most painful for me...

my most painful is easily the loss to the same Giants in '90. that was the infamous fumble by Craig, ruining the sure 3-peat.

it was the '90 season but game played in '91, pretty sure this is the one listed above?

 

[Kinzu]

This one ranks #1 for me. We were 1 win away from finishing a magically season. I would have been ok with a Super Bowl loss, but it really sucks and takes away from such a great season that we came up short the way we did. We out played the Giants and yet we have to watch them play in the Super Bowls instead of us.

 

[deep9er]

This eclipses '91, '87 & '72 as the most painful for me...

if '72 is the loss to the Vikings with Fran Tarkenton, i agree thats another bad one. i'd still rate that one more painful than yesterday, again its the expectations.

 

[MW49ers5]

my most painful is easily the loss to the same Giants in '90. that was the infamous fumble by Craig, ruining the sure 3-peat.

The reason this loss has surpassed '91 for me is because of our defense and certain players like Gore, Sop, Al.Smith, J.Smith, Willis et al. who played their hearts out all season; and, because in '91, before we lost the game we had lost Montana. Thus, I never saw the three-peat as being a 'sure thing'.

 

[deep9er]

This one ranks #1 for me. We were 1 win away from finishing a magically season. I would have been ok with a Super Bowl loss, but it really sucks and takes away from such a great season that we came up short the way we did. We out played the Giants and yet we have to watch them play in the Super Bowls instead of us.

your opinion is fine but mine is........a superbowl loss would be way worse than yesterday. with every win this season, the expectations simply sky rocket.

 

[deep9er]

The reason this loss has surpassed '91 for me is because of our defense and certain players like Gore, Sop, Al.Smith, J.Smith, Willis et al. who played their hearts out all season; and, because in '91, before we lost the game we had lost Montana. Thus, I never saw the three-peat as being a 'sure thing'.

thats fine, but i'll stick to my 3-peat as a sure thing. we had a STRONG defense at the time too, we would've won.

 

[MW49ers5]

if '72 is the loss to the Vikings with Fran Tarkenton, i agree thats another bad one. i'd still rate that one more painful than yesterday, again its the expectations.

The '72 loss was the third in a row to Dallas (which is why the '81 win was so meaningful). It was just a divisional game but we were in command until 'the man with the fedora' brought in some guy named Staubach...

 

[MW49ers5]

thats fine, but i'll stick to my 3-peat as a sure thing. we had a STRONG defense at the time too, we would've won.

I can appreciate your confidence, but Young was untested and Buffalo was a very strong team and had as well a very strong defense...Thus, with Joe, no problem - we win; without Joe, I don't know...

 

[h-hour]

This is number 1 for me.

Its the way we lost it that makes me wanna puke. To have so many guys who went through so damn much over the years come together like that was something special...just to have some waste of sperm and eggs fuck it up.

The 1990 NFC Championship is #2.

The losses to Dallas and Green Bay in the 90's all fill in behind that in no particular order.

Im too young to remember the '83 Championship game and I was 5 when we lost to Minnesota in '87 so I cant speak for those.

 

[NinerSickness]

Nothing will ever eclipse Craig blowing the '90 / '91 NFC Championship game IMO. That was the closest anyone's ever gotten to 3 SB in a row.

 

[calsnowskier]

I rank '87 against the Cards, '89 against Oakland, '93 against LA, '02 against Anaheim and '11 against Florida higher. This one hurt, but the season was such a sweet surprise, it is hard to have a bad taste.

 

[crash]

This one was the worst for me!! i've never cried after a lost in my life...but i felt like crying after williams fumble for the second time and the giants kicked that field goal..

 

[bvanthielriceyoung]

This one was the worst for me!! i've never cried after a lost in my life...but i felt like crying after williams fumble for the second time and the giants kicked that field goal..

Yeah it was a very odd feeling for me. Whenever we lose, I'm usually just extremely pissed off, swearing and yelling.

This one felt like an extreme depression like my dog just died and my wife left me. Had to keep trying to tell myself to not take this shit so serious, cant be healthy.

 

[1911Alaska]

This is definitely number 1 for me. Especially since were would have been up against the Patriots in the SB. I can't stand Tom Brady and I am pretty confident that we would have had them beat.

 

[tallglassofwater007]

I think that the 92 and 93 losses to the Cowboys were worse. Those 49er teams were loaded and Young couldn't get over that hump. We had a chance to throw a couple more Superbowl trophies into our case and really cement that Superbowl record. I hate the Cowboys more than the Giants as well. This one hurts because it is fresh in the mind. Not to mention I really like this group of guys and it may have been the best/only chance for guys like Justin Smith and Alex Smith to win the big one.

The 90' loss to the Giants was bad too. After Montana got taken out my dad punched the ground really hard and broke his hand...scared the shit outta me cause I was pretty young.

 

[9er4life]

This loss has to rank right up there just for the fact that all the other years (80's and 90's, because I was born in 71 and don't remember 72) you had the feeling that we would be back next year. Not to mention that when I was younger it didn't sting as much beacuse you think you're going to live forever. Now that I'm older it hurts alot more. There's no guarantee we'll be back with this team, it could be another 10 -15 years. There wasn't parity back in the day like there is now, we could easily be 6-10 next year.

 

[threelittleturds]

The other NFC '90 NFC Championship game was the worst for me, that was pretty much a sure 3-peat until Montana got injured, after that they still had a chance with Young. Until Craig fumbled, and then it became my darkest memory of 49ers football.

Next up is the 1997 game against the Packers. That one was horrible because the officials lost the 49ers the game. The rules have changed since then, but at the time... when Henderson caught the ball took a step and turned up field, it was a reception... so after he got hit and fumbled with Plummer picking it up for a clear run up the sideline. It was pure garbage that they ruled it an incomplete pass. Throw that in with J.J. Stokes jumping straight up at the sidelines inside the endzone for a TD pass, then Newsome came running over and shoved him out of bounds before he was able to land inbounds... according to the rules at the time, a receiver had to be allowed a chance to get his feet down and if you shoved him out it was a TD. The officials instead decided that J.J. Stokes own momentum was taking him out of bounds, even though Newsome came running from 3 yards away to push him out. The funny thing about this game, is when Mooch and the 49ers complained about the officials and got the "apology from the NFL for the two bad calls I mentioned", the next year when that crew officiated the game against Buffalo, they threw something like 30 penalties against the 49ers... that sucked because the 49ers were good enough to beat the Broncos and win their 6th Super Bowl

This one is 3rd, because the defense put together a 2nd half that should have put them in the Super Bowl... but the offense and special teams completely wasted that out of this world effort by the defense. It sucks because the 49ers are good enough to beat the Patriots and win another Super Bowl, but it isn't as painful because their own mistakes and decision to go with shitty WRs is what cost them. Its more painful when an injury costs the team the win, or when the officials fuck you over. This game hurts because they were good enough to win, but just didn't do it. Which in my opinion, is better than what happened in my #1 and #2 choices.