If San Francisco can win one more game, it will become just the second team to go from 4-12 to a championship the next year. Only four teams have won the Super Bowl the year after finishing with a losing record.
In the first 53 Super Bowls, the 1999 St. Louis Rams made the biggest turnaround, going from 4-12 to beating the Titans for that franchise’s first Lombardi. Two years later, that same Rams team fell victim to the Patriots, who had gone 5-11 the previous season.
The 1988 Bengals (who went 4-11 in the strike-shortened 1987 season) made it to the Super Bowl but lost to San Francisco.
Only three 10-loss teams have gone on to play in the Super Bowl the following season. Two of them came in the same year, with both Cincinnati and San Francisco playing in their first Super Bowl games in January, 1982. The Bill Parcells Patriots team that lost to Green Bay went 6-10 the previous year.
In 54 years, only 12 teams have made the Super Bowl the year after finishing with a losing record. Those teams have gone 4-7 in those games (with the 49ers yet to come). Six other teams have made the Super Bowl the year after going .500, and those teams all lost.
SUPER BOWL THE YEAR AFTER A NON-WINNING SEASON | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Team | Prev. W-L | Opp. | Result |
1973 | Minnesota | 7-7-0 | Miami | L 24-7 |
1981 | Cincinnati | 6-10-0 | San Francisco | L 26-21 |
1981 | • San Francisco | 6-10-0 | Cincinnati | W 26-21 |
1988 | Cincinnati | 4-11-0 | San Francisco | L 20-16 |
1989 | Denver | 8-8-0 | San Francisco | L 55-10 |
1994 | San Diego | 8-8-0 | San Francisco | L 49-26 |
1996 | New England | 6-10-0 | Green Bay | L 35-21 |
1998 | Atlanta | 7-9-0 | Denver | L 34-19 |
1999 | Tennessee | 8-8-0 | St. Louis | L 23-16 |
1999 | • St. Louis | 4-12-0 | Tennessee | W 23-16 |
2000 | NY Giants | 7-9-0 | Baltimore | L 34-7 |
2001 | • New England | 5-11-0 | St. Louis | W 20-17 |
2003 | Carolina | 7-9-0 | New England | L 32-29 |
2008 | Arizona | 8-8-0 | Pittsburgh | L 27-23 |
2015 | Carolina | 7-8-1 | Denver | L 24-10 |
2016 | Atlanta | 8-8-0 | New England | L 34-28 (ot) |
2017 | • Philadelphia | 7-9-0 | New England | W 41-33 |
2019 | San Francisco | 4-12-0 | Kansas City | ??? |
—Ian Allan