SF 49ers: 10 most painful playoff losses in franchise history

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Quarterback Steve Young (C) of the San Francisco 49ers is swarmed by the defense of the Atlanta Falcons (Photo by RHONA WISE/AFP via Getty Images) /

While the SF 49ers have had some phenomenal postseason success, they’ve also been marked by heartbreaking playoff losses.

Typically, when one thinks about the SF 49ers in the postseason, hearkening back to the glory years of the 1980s and 1990s is a favorite thing to do.

It’s easy. The Niners were, after all, about as dominant a dynasty in professional sports during the 1980s, and that trend continued amid other competition into the following decade. Even the San Francisco teams of the early 2010s were powerhouses expected to make deep runs into the postseason.

There’s no shortage of great playoff moments throughout the SF 49ers’ storied history. But paralleling those wonderful memories are some heartbreaking moments, including a most-recent fourth-quarter Super Bowl collapse which stained what was a pretty exceptional record in the NFL championship game.

Unfortunately, the Niners have endured their share of painful playoff losses over the years, and Niner Noise goes back through the franchise’s archives to rank the 10 worst ones fans are still struggling to deal with to this day.

No. 10: SF 49ers 1998 divisional loss to Falcons

Final Score: Falcons 20, SF 49ers 18

Kicking off this list is a game many San Francisco fans like to forget happened. After all, the SF 49ers finally got over one of their biggest nemesis teams the previous week, the Green Bay Packers, in dramatic fashion thanks to a last-second touchdown pass from quarterback Steve Young to wide receiver Terrell Owens.

But that magic didn’t carry over into the divisional round against the Atlanta Falcons, who took advantage of an early ankle injury to Niners running back Garrison Hearst and made life exceptionally difficult for Young throughout the rest of the game.

Young was intercepted three times in what proved to be the final playoff game of his otherwise storied career. Despite those gaffes, however, Young and his team found themselves in a position to capitalize on some fourth-quarter magic.

Trailing by two points and with under three minutes remaining, Young and the offense seemed poise to reclaim some of that Wild Card round magic again.

Only this time, Falcons safety William White pulled down his second of two interceptions that day, sending San Francisco home early in a postseason that had so much promise after the team went 12-4 during the regular season.