The last team we had that had a legitimate shot at the Super Bowl?

Originally posted by DonnieDarko:

Originally posted by crabman82:

Originally posted by Chico:

Originally posted by blunt_probe:
1998, for sure. After we beat the packers, I thought the SB was as good as ours. Then Hearst got hurt...

this

u guys are sleepin on the vikings, they were the highest scoring team in league history until the 07 pats

seriously...don't think we woulda beaten the vikes

not in the dome, who were our cb's that year? darnell walker, antonio langham and rw mcquarters? that aint slowing down jake reed, cris carter and randy moss

Originally posted by crabman82:
not in the dome, who were our cb's that year? darnell walker, antonio langham and rw mcquarters? that aint slowing down jake reed, cris carter and randy moss

Good point, but they still had McDonald and Hanks as the safeties. I just looked up the stats from that year. I had forgotten how many sacks they got. The top 5 were Doleman-15, Barker-12 and Young-9.5, Bryant-5 and McDonald with 4. They ended up at 51 total. Pretty impressive.

I'm going with the '95 team. We still had all that firepower that took us to the '94 Super Bowl. The loss to the Pack was an upset loss.

Originally posted by IWasWrongRubber:
I'm going with the '95 team. We still had all that firepower that took us to the '94 Super Bowl. The loss to the Pack was an upset loss.

This. In '95 the D was still legit (Pope ~ Deion IMO, like the G.O.A.T. said, the loss of primetime did not hurt the defense! sanders was overrated in '95, and luckily the cowpokes overpaid for him...the Niner D's strength was their pass rush: BY, Stubblefield and Rickey Jackson)

IMO, the main thing that proved to be the achilles heel of the '95 Niners was the lack of a running game, with Watters gone via FA and William Floyd done for the year on IR (comparable to how the SF Giants weren't the same this year w/out Posey...a dynamic rookie from the year before done for the season), the Niners were stuck with the likes of Derek Loville and Adam Walker against the Pack (Walker had that crucial fumble early in that game). same thing hurt the '96 team (Terry Kirby wasn't the answer). wasn't till Hearst came on board in '97 that the running game was back on track, but then Young and Rice were hurt first game, and then ironically the defense started showing its age (lots of older vet FAs like Rod Woodson, Kevin Greene, etc were brought in for that one year).

Originally posted by IWasWrongRubber:
I'm going with the '95 team. We still had all that firepower that took us to the '94 Super Bowl. The loss to the Pack was an upset loss.

Downgrading from Waters to Loville and Sanders to Pope was just too much to overcome, IMO. The GB loss was an upset, but they wouldn't have gotten by DAL.

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:

Originally posted by IWasWrongRubber:
I'm going with the '95 team. We still had all that firepower that took us to the '94 Super Bowl. The loss to the Pack was an upset loss.

Downgrading from Waters to Loville and Sanders to Pope was just too much to overcome, IMO. The GB loss was an upset, but they wouldn't have gotten by DAL.

Maybe...looking back now, the biggest factor to '95 might've been losing both OC (Shanahan) and DC (Ray Rhodes) after the Super Bowl win. IIRC, Marc Trestman took over OC and Pete Carroll was the '95 DC. Had Seifert just retired and Mike Shanahan taken over the reins, maybe the Niners draft a RB in the '95 draft (Terrell Davis???) instead of JJ Stokes and win @ least two more Super Bowls from 1995-99. The Stokes pick really irked me, cos we traded up with the Browns to draft JJ in the top 10 in '95, the Brown (became the Ravens in '96) used the pick we gave them the next year to draft Ray Lewis...luckily (or unluckily depending on your point of view) we'd draft TO in the same '96 draft...oh what could've been

98. Losing Hearst was devastating.

We all have different definitions of legitimate. I think a legitimate contender is not as good as a favorite but better than just a team with a chance. All playoff bound teams have a chance. I would say 1998. The victory against Green Bay was as uplifting as the Hearst ankle was demoralizing....and later the Vikings showed their Championship inexperience was a huge factor. If ATL beat them we definitely could have too.

But you know, I actually rank the 98 Broncos much higher all time than most fans do.

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:
Maybe...looking back now, the biggest factor to '95 might've been losing both OC (Shanahan) and DC (Ray Rhodes) after the Super Bowl win. IIRC, Marc Trestman took over OC and Pete Carroll was the '95 DC. Had Seifert just retired and Mike Shanahan taken over the reins, maybe the Niners draft a RB in the '95 draft (Terrell Davis???) instead of JJ Stokes and win @ least two more Super Bowls from 1995-99. The Stokes pick really irked me, cos we traded up with the Browns to draft JJ in the top 10 in '95, the Brown (became the Ravens in '96) used the pick we gave them the next year to draft Ray Lewis...luckily (or unluckily depending on your point of view) we'd draft TO in the same '96 draft...oh what could've been

Great point on the coordinators. God Trestman was bad.

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:
Maybe...looking back now, the biggest factor to '95 might've been losing both OC (Shanahan) and DC (Ray Rhodes) after the Super Bowl win. IIRC, Marc Trestman took over OC and Pete Carroll was the '95 DC. Had Seifert just retired and Mike Shanahan taken over the reins, maybe the Niners draft a RB in the '95 draft (Terrell Davis???) instead of JJ Stokes and win @ least two more Super Bowls from 1995-99. The Stokes pick really irked me, cos we traded up with the Browns to draft JJ in the top 10 in '95, the Brown (became the Ravens in '96) used the pick we gave them the next year to draft Ray Lewis...luckily (or unluckily depending on your point of view) we'd draft TO in the same '96 draft...oh what could've been

Great point on the coordinators. God Trestman was bad.

Just remembered too, a certain lanky 4th string WR on the '94 team....had Shanahan been our HC in the late 90's we'd also probably have kept ED MCCAFFERY! There'd have been NO NEED to draft JJ (goddamnit). Just think of it...Rice, Taylor and McCaffery, with TO coming on board in '96...we draft Terrell Davis in '95, keep our '96 pick and maybe draft Ray Lewis...ugh...hindsight hurts

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:
Downgrading from Waters to Loville and Sanders to Pope was just too much to overcome, IMO. The GB loss was an upset, but they wouldn't have gotten by DAL.

Dallas' '95 SB team was not that great. They barely beat a Steelers team QB'd by an insurance salesman. Our lack of a running game killed us ... we lost 2 games that year on missed field goals, which translated to a loss of home field advantage and having to play GB on the road, in the snow, with a horrible running game.

The '98 team was not close either. We barely beat a very diminished GB team at home (on a miracle play) and to reach the SB we would have had to beat Atlanta and Minnesota on the road. Not a simple task.

The year was '97. We had home field advantage. We played GB incredibly tough that year with Elvis Grbac starting at Lambeau in the regular season. You'd think replacing him with Young and playing at the 'Stick would have given us the advantage. That was the year IMO.

Originally posted by midrdan:
Dallas' '95 SB team was not that great. They barely beat a Steelers team QB'd by an insurance salesman. Our lack of a running game killed us ... we lost 2 games that year on missed field goals, which translated to a loss of home field advantage and having to play GB on the road, in the snow, with a horrible running game.

The '98 team was not close either. We barely beat a very diminished GB team at home (on a miracle play) and to reach the SB we would have had to beat Atlanta and Minnesota on the road. Not a simple task.

The year was '97. We had home field advantage. We played GB incredibly tough that year with Elvis Grbac starting at Lambeau in the regular season. You'd think replacing him with Young and playing at the 'Stick would have given us the advantage. That was the year IMO.

They may not have been as good as the 92' and 93' teams, but they were better than us in 95', IMO. We played GB in SF in the 95' playoff game btw.

Originally posted by midrdan:

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:
Downgrading from Waters to Loville and Sanders to Pope was just too much to overcome, IMO. The GB loss was an upset, but they wouldn't have gotten by DAL.

Dallas' '95 SB team was not that great. They barely beat a Steelers team QB'd by an insurance salesman. Our lack of a running game killed us ... we lost 2 games that year on missed field goals, which translated to a loss of home field advantage and having to play GB on the road, in the snow, with a horrible running game.

The '98 team was not close either. We barely beat a very diminished GB team at home (on a miracle play) and to reach the SB we would have had to beat Atlanta and Minnesota on the road. Not a simple task.

The year was '97. We had home field advantage. We played GB incredibly tough that year with Elvis Grbac starting at Lambeau in the regular season. You'd think replacing him with Young and playing at the 'Stick would have given us the advantage. That was the year IMO.

i think you got '95 and '96 confused...IIRC in '95 the Niners were 11-5 and the #2 seed. they still had a first round BYE, but were one and done after GB upset us @ the 'Stick (this was the first playoff meeting of the soon to be rivals). The loss that hurt the team the most this season was a late season defeat to the Falcons that knocked us down to 11-5 and denied us the #1 seed (had the Niners and Cowboys both finished 12-4...Niners get the tie-breaker due to having beaten Dallas). Also, #1 seed = maybe Dallas faces GB in the playoffs instead, and up to that point, the cowpukes had eliminated the cheeseheads the past 2 years in the playoffs. Niners probably beat old DC Ray Rhodes and Ricky in the same round. Then you have a rematch with the 'boys @ the Stick...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995%E2%80%9396_NFL_playoffs

'96 was when the Niners lost a couple close games to FG's, still had a crappy running game and were a wild card team in the playoffs (the Niners finished 2nd place in the NFCW to the Panthers of all teams...ugh). wild card round, we beat the eagles @ home, but i believe Young got hurt that game...next week we had to got to frozen Lambeau with Elvis Grbac @ QB and get muddied and bruised....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2%80%9397_NFL_playoffs

I agree with all the 1998, but will point out that this team wasn't as magical and perfect as perceived; Antonio Langham and Gabe Wilkins were FA busts, and our had problems against big-time offenses in general. Jamaal Anderson owned us once in the regular season and the playoffs, and the Vikings may have done the same. Our secondary was not too hot, and I see Cris Carter and Randy Moss going wild in a game like that.

'98 for sure. Possibly '02, if we had a few breaks.