The End of the 2013 NFL Season

You take your small victories where you can find them.  I hit both side and total for Super Bowl 48; I was not surprised by the severity of the beating, believing pretty firmly that the real Super Bowl was the NFC Championship game.  My takeaways are three.

1. We are maybe done with this debate.

Joe Montana Super Bowls: 83 of 122, 1142 yards, 11 TD, 0 picks, 127.8 rating 4-0. Peyton Manning: 90 of 132, 860 yds, 3 TD, 4 INT, 81.0 rating, 1-2.

Peyton Manning's the greatest regular season quarterback of all time, but he's played 3 middling-poor games in the Super Bowl and the contrast is unavoidable. Even a win in his golden years will probably not be enough for Manning to overtake Montana as the consensus best ever.

2. Has this ever happened before?

The Niners lost the 2011 NFC Title in overtime; we were favored, at home, and two Kyle Williams fumbles cost us our first trip to the Super Bowl in 17 years.

The favored Niners lost Super Bowl 47 despite having 4 shots from the 5 yard line to win the game.

The Niners lost the 2013 NFC Title game with an end zone pick to end the game.

Considering the wrenching nature of the late game losses that knocked us out of title games 3 years straight, has any team ever been punched in the stomach quite like this one? If this group doesn't win a Super Bowl, we're Bud Grant's Vikings.

3. 20 years. Next year will be two decades since we've won a Super Bowl. No more "hey, look at our rings" billboards. We need to win now.

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