SF 49ers Super Bowl loss to Ravens hurts more than loss to Chiefs

The SF 49ers’ five Super Bowl wins feel pretty good, but those two Super Bowl losses hurt a lot. Especially the one to the Ravens.

Recency bias might suggest otherwise, but the SF 49ers‘ loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII hurt a more than the most recent Super Bowl defeat at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs last February.

Granted, neither game is easy to swallow. And in Super Bowl LIV, all one has to do is look at that now-infamous 10-point lead the Niners held while keeping Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes in check for the better part of three quarters.

Only to see it all fall apart in the final quarter.

As bad as that all stung, especially watching quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo overthrow wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders for what could have been a game-winning touchdown, that particular loss still isn’t quite as painful for what happened back early in 2013 against the Ravens.

There’s no need to go back and live through every play from Super Bowl XLVII. Fans have likely tried blocking that game from memory.

But the context stands out, and so do a few key plays making San Francisco’s first-ever Super Bowl loss a bit more painful than the most recent one.

SF 49ers were already a dominant team in 2012

Few expected the SF 49ers to make it all the way to Super Bowl LIV in 2019. They were a four-win team the year before. And while many predicted improvement, guessing a 13-3 regular-season finish with the No. 1 overall seed was far from the expectation level.

In a way, this backdrop made almost everything that happened in 2019 a bonus. It truly was almost shocking to see the Niners that good and dominant.

In 2012, though, San Francisco had already appeared in the NFC Championship game the year before and was poised to retain perennial Super Bowl contention status under then-head coach Jim Harbaugh. Simply put, the SF 49ers were expected to be in the Super Bowl that season. And there they were.

SF 49ers losing to the Chiefs is one thing, losing to the Ravens was another

This is by no means a discredit to what Baltimore was able to do in 2012. The Ravens were an excellent team with bona fide Hall of Famers on defense and impact players on offense.

Yet there’s a stark difference between Mahomes, a surefire Hall of Famer in his own right, and the quarterback at the helm of the Ravens offense in 2012, Joe Flacco.

Flacco was never anywhere close to the level of Mahomes, never having reached a 100.0 passer rating in any season of his career and throwing at least 10 interceptions in each one of his full seasons as a starter until 2018 when he was relegated to backup duties.

If most Niners fans can admit Mahomes is the best quarterback in the NFL right now, it’s fair to admit defeat to the best in the biggest game of the year.

Doing so with regards to Flacco is quite the opposite. It’s the proverbial “I can’t believe that guy beat us” argument that still rings true today.

SF 49ers suffered some infamous calls from both games

Both Super Bowl losses incurred some calls and plays San Francisco fans would soon rather forget. In Super Bowl LIV, of course, there was tight end George Kittle‘s seemingly phantom offensive pass-interference call. On Mahomes’ now-infamous 3rd-and-15 completion, it sure looked like EDGE Nick Bosa was held.

No call.

But there were equally as bad calls against the SF 49ers back against the Ravens, too. Some have argued relentlessly kick returner Jacoby Jones’ 108-yard return for a touchdown at the start of the third quarter was rife with Baltimore holds, none of which were called. And while the Niners were well behind at that point of the game, all other things being equal, their comeback would have been successful if that particular play would have gone the other way.

Yet that’s not the worst of it.

True, then-offensive coordinator Greg Roman (now interestingly enough with the Ravens) questionably tried three fade passes from quarterback Colin Kaepernick to wide receiver Michael Crabtree on that final potential go-ahead possession from Baltimore’s 5-yard line.

None were completed, and fans will second-guess Roman’s decision-making process for decades there. Especially with Kaepernick and running back Frank Gore’s prowess on the field.

But that last fade, which saw Ravens defensive back Jimmy Smith all over Crabtree, received no call. The ball fell short, and San Francisco’s hopes of completing the comeback evaporated.

You be the judge:

The mere jam might have worked, as the ball was a bit overthrown anyway. But it sure looks as if Smith’s hands were wrapping up Crabtree’s most of the way.

“No question in my mind there was a pass interference and a hold on Michael Crabtree on that last one,” Harbaugh told reporters after the game.

Most, if not all, SF 49ers fans would agree.

What made it all worse was the fact that was the high-water mark of the Niners’ Super Bowl window during that era. They came close to reaching the big game the year before, then fell short on another infamous Crabtree fade pass in the 2014 NFC Championship game loss to the Seattle Seahawks a little less than a year later.

And while the loss to the Chiefs still stings badly, that defeat at the hands of the Ravens hurts just a wee bit more.