49ers not first to dip after loss in Super Bowl
Last year, in Week 6 of the NFL season, the defending NFC champion Rams, coming off a 133 season, hosted the 49ers and entered with a twogame losing streak.
On Sunday, in Week 6 of the NFL season, the defending NFC champion 49ers, coming off a 133 season, will host the Rams and enter on a twogame losing streak.
The 49ers are hoping the similarities they share with the 2019 Rams are about to end: After all, the 49ers throttled the Rams 207 in that Week 6 meeting.
But history and their recent performances suggest the 49ers are poised to join those Rams and many other teams who lost their
swagger a season after losing in the Super Bowl.
It has been mentioned plenty since the 49ers fell short in Super Bowl LIV, but it bears repeating now that they’ve started 23 and just endured a 4317 beatdown by the Dolphins: Of the first 53 Super Bowl losers, only the 2018 Patriots, 1972 Dolphins and 1971 Cowboys have won a title the following season.
In addition, since the AFLNFL merger in 1970, 31 of 49 Super Bowl losers didn’t win a playoff game the next season. Fourteen of those teams missed the postseason. Seventeen lost their first playoff game.
Those nonplayoff teams include last season’s Rams. They went 97 a season after they were outscored 100 in the fourth quarter of a 10point Super Bowl loss to New England. The 49ers were outscored 210 in the fourth quarter of their 11point Super Bowl loss to Kansas City.
Since Rams head coach Sean McVay now has some firsthand knowledge, he was asked Wednesday if a crushing loss in the NFL’s biggest game could be causing a “Super Bowl hangover” for the 49ers.
“I don’t necessarily think so,” McVay said. “I think every year presents new challenges. I think five games is a real small inventory to write the narrative yet. I know these guys will be ready to go. I know what great coaches, what great players they have.”
A problem for the 49ers: They won’t have many of the defensive players who headlined last season’s win in Los Angeles and powered them to the NFC title. Last October, they limited the Rams to 10 first downs, 157 yards and no points in the final 54 minutes and Los Angeles went 0for13 on third and fourth down.
On Sunday, however, the 49ers will meet the Rams without three Pro Bowl defensive players — cornerback Richard Sherman and pass rushers Nick Bosa and Dee Ford — who helped limit quarterback Jared Goff to 78 passing yards, the fewest of his 59start career.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan pointed to the loss of such players, rather than some postSuper Bowl malaise, as a reason for the 49ers’ start.
“As far as going through it, I mean, it has no correlation with anything,” Shanahan said on a conference call with Los Angeles reporters. “We’re trying to figure out our team now and battle through a number of injuries and we’re trying to play better football.
“But to compare that to a year before anything — we have a different team this year. You have a different team every year and that’s something we’re working through. We’re not at our best right now and we’re trying to get there, but quickly once the season starts, once you get into a game, I feel the year before, it’s out of your mind completely.”
The 49ers might not be thinking about last season, but a few more losses in the coming weeks might have them thinking about 2021.
In that case, the 49ers can take heart from the Rams, now two seasons removed from their Super Bowl loss: Los Angeles has a 41 record, the Rams’ secondbest start since 2006.