Has your opinion changed after 2024?
Last year, we discussed what the best 49ers’ win was in the previous five years. Now that we’re into 2025, that means the epic 2019 season (and the crazy game against the New Orleans Saints) is out. Luckily, my pick, the win in the NFC Championship against the Detroit Lions in the 2023-2024 season, can still be used.
Now that we’re into the part of the offseason where not much is happening, I figured we’d reset this topic to see what has changed now that we’re into another year, and a year that removes the aforementioned Saints game.
So, without that season, we still have some notable wins, like the 2021 victory over the Los Angeles Rams that sent the 49ers to the playoffs, or the 2023 game where the 49ers essentially broke the Philadelphia Eagles. And who can forget all the wins over the Dallas Cowboys?
2024 doesn’t exactly bring what we’d call good “wins”. Or at least a win that will unseat what we have over a five-year period. Injuries for much of the season plagued the 49ers, and seeing the starting roster together for a full game was a rarity. So while we bump 2019, it’s now replaced by 2024, which sucks.
That means I’d still go with 2023 and the NFC Championship win against the Detroit Lions. While everyone used it as a criticism of Brock Purdy (after they said he couldn’t play from behind), Purdy bailed the 49ers out of a game where his defense didn’t do him any favors in the first half. I’ve said this was the game where they decided Steve Wilks wasn’t coming back—not the Super Bowl—and it’s hard to change my opinion on that.
Of course, as I said, we got a lot of yawns and “meh”s from the haters, but for a second year quarterback to dig his team out of that hole, when nothing was going right, I don’t care how good the team around you is, that does wonders for the mental game.
It’s a win for the future, and hopefully, the future will be less like 2024. What win do you think was the “best” win of the last five years? Maybe your requirements for “best” are different than mine? Perhaps beating the Seattle Seahawks to win the division in 2022 was the best win, as it’s the Seahawks, and a rookie QB taking that team to school is always a good time.
Or, you know, stomping the Cowboys over and over again.