Fan reaction: San Francisco faithful dejected after a stunning defeat.
It was looking good until the fourth quarter. Then dread set in for 49ers fans who packed sports bars and living rooms throughout the Bay Area on Sunday.
In the final five minutes, the hammer went down. The Kansas City Chiefs scored the goahead touchdown. Bars and block parties that had throbbed red and gold all afternoon were suddenly struck silent.
Defeat. The Super Bowl hopes of the Bay Area vanished in a twinkling.
“It sucks. It sucks,” said Jesse Snyder, hugging friends at Chief Sullivan’s Irish pub in San Francisco as the defeat of his favorite team flickered across the television.
All around him, and in every sports watering hole of the city, the sense of dejection filled the air. Fans began streaming out of bars in the waning seconds, not even waiting for the Chiefs to clinch their title. Everything went from an anticipation of victory ready to explode to something resembling the pall of a funeral parlor.
“They came all this way, I thought they had a chance. But they blew it,” said Danny Keshishyan, a lifelong San Francisco resident and longtime 49ers fan. “Overall, it was a disappointment.”
All the horn blowing, delirious screams of joy, clogging of intersections to jump up and down in ecstasy — nope. Even the confetti gun a waitress handed to a couple at Chief Sullivan’s to fire in victory didn’t get its shot.
“We were in charge of the confetti. We had to give it back,” said Chris Esquivel, nursing the last of his drink with his wife, Alyssa. “We don’t really have a purpose right now.” They glumly checked their phone, unsure of what to do with the rest of their shattered night.
Things had looked better earlier in the day, as the 49ers confidently took the lead and seemed headed for the promised land.
Every district of the city had caught the football spirit, and the same excitement filled the air around the Bay Area from Santa Rosa to Concord down through Santa Clara. By the midafternoon kickoff time, the freeways were either sparsely filled or spilling the last streams of fans into the suburbs for home parties and sports bars’ bashes.
Bars in the Mission District were packed to the gills by fans wearing 49ers red and gold, with teamcolored balloons adorning the entrances. At Tacolicious on Valencia Street, the eager ones paid $49 a pop for an exclusive Super Bowl viewing party in the back with unlimited tacos and three giant televisions blasting the game at full volume.
T. Elliott greeted people at the party by hanging red and gold beads around their necks as they entered. By game’s start, more than 50 people were packed shoulder to shoulder, more than ready for fun.
“It’s been awesome,” Elliott said early in the game in that happy time when things were looking good. “Everyone’s really excited. It’s been a great party.”
Over on Alabama Street between 21st and 22nd streets, about 50 neighbors decked out in 49ers jackets and other regalia converged on a block party at a driveway between two homes. The smells of snacks and Mexican food permeated the street, and yells erupted at every big play as everyone gathered around a television set perched in the driveway.
Near the TV sat a white and red HarleyDavidson motorcycle sporting a 49ers flag and a license plate reading “49er Hog.”
Cuco Herrera, a resident, happily cooked a giant vat of carnitas while the game roared in the background. He wore a 49ers apron and chef ’s hat, and a jersey with the name of former 49ers receiver Randy Moss.
“We’re all family and neighbors here,” he said, beaming.
Across town in North Beach, drained Tecates and napkin-stuffed shot glasses littered the lone hightop table at International Sports Bar even before the Super Bowl began as four lifelong 49ers fans ramped up their spirits.
The table’s occupants — Mike Caverly, Erick Paez, Lalo Florace and JJ Watts — perfected their quadruple highfive, and then Watts mimicked George Kittle’s sailing hand gesture as a victory flourish when a touchdown actually happened. The four celebrated the first field goal with a rowdy pour of Jameson whiskey.
“You can’t stop this! You can’t stop this!” Caverly screamed as the bartender clanged a bell.
The joint went silent for the Chiefs’ first touchdown. A passerby peered in through the window and shook his head at the TV.
Across the bay in Pleasant Hill, nearly a dozen fans screamed their lungs out at the home of Paul Levin, as the game unfolded on a bigscreen TV and the tables were filled with Sicilian pan pizza, shrimp cocktails and beers.
“We got robbed on that call — pass interference on Kittle, that was b—,” Levin said as the crowd around him shouted agreement. “It’s going to be a tough game. Both teams are really good. It’ll be tight.”
Turns out he was prescient: “That call on Kittle probably cost us the game,” he said.
Expecting hordes of revelers, the city closed one block in every direction from 24th and Mission streets to traffic. Dozens of police officers stood with helmets and batons at the ready, as one of their helicopters sliced the air overhead. But the throngs never showed. Teams of motorcycle officers and street sweepers periodically passed through the intersection.
“It’s very heartbreaking,” Corina Aguilar said while walking from a bar with two friends. “I think you’ll find San Francisco is very quiet tonight.”
Evan Sernoffsky, Megan Cassidy, Kevin Fagan and Rachel Swan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: esernoffsky@ sfchronicle.com, megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com, kfagan@sfchronicle.com, RSwan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky, @meganrcassidy, @KevinChron, @rachelswan