5 most insane Wild Card weekend games in SF 49ers history
By Peter Panacy
No. 1: SF 49ers stage the ‘comeback of comebacks’ vs NY Giants
Final Score: SF 49ers 39, NY Giants 38
There can be no greater Niners Wild Card game than this one, right? And it’s likely fans will never see anything quite like this again.
San Francisco was all but done on Jan. 5, 2003 against the visiting Giants. New York got out to a whopping 38-14 lead with just over four minutes left in the third quarter. Even if the SF 49ers made things interesting in the fourth and final frame, overcoming a 24-point lead would be next to impossible.
“Next” being the key word here.
Because that’s exactly what Terrell Owens, quarterback Jeff Garcia and the rest of the Niners did. Owens and Garcia connected for San Francisco’s next two scores, one before the fourth quarter and another shortly after it started.
Just liked that, 38-30. A ballgame.
The SF 49ers added a field goal with 7:49 left in regulation to make it 38-33, and Garcia completed the epic comeback by finding wide receiver Tai Streets with a minute to go to make it 39-38.
Then that botched last-second Giants field-goal attempt and ineligible player downfield with six seconds left, and the game was essentially over.
“It’s one of those things where you’re in the park playing with your buddies,” Garcia told ESPN after the game. “You try to emulate what the great ones do, what Joe Montana and Steve Young did. Now I’m that guy. Maybe some kid wants to be Jeff Garcia. That’s an awesome feeling.”
Next. Counting down the 49ers' top 10 plays from 2020. dark
Yeah, it was an awesome feeling for Niners fans, too.