1991 San Francisco 49ers Were Dominant But Missed The Playoffs

Published on January 8th, 2024 1:57 pm EST
Written By: Dave Manuel


Some excellent teams have missed the playoffs entirely over the history of the NFL.

The 1978 San Diego Chargers, for instance, got off to a slow start before demolishing the rest of the league en route to a 9-7 record. They missed the playoffs.

The 1991 Philadelphia Eagles overcame a season-ending injury to QB Randall Cunningham before putting up a record of 10-6, buoyed by one of the most imposing defensive lines of all time. They missed the playoffs.

The 2005 Kansas City Chiefs, behind over 2,000 scrimmage yards from Larry Johnson, missed the playoffs despite easily handling some of the better teams in the league. They missed the playoffs.

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The title of best-ever team to have missed the postseason, however, almost certainly belongs to the 1991 San Francisco 49ers.

First off, let's state the obvious - the 1991 49ers had a point differential of 154 points, meaning that they outscored their opponents by an average of almost 10 points per game.

The 49ers had the third best offense in the league and the 4th best defense.

The team had Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Bill Romanowski and Charles Haley, just to name a few.

The 49ers were stuck in the mud to start the season, getting off to a miserable 4-6 start.

After that, however, things clicked for the team, as they finished the season on a 6-0 run, including wins over some very good teams.

These were mostly dominant victories too, including a 52-14 rout of the Bears and a 33-10 shellacking of the Rams.

The 49ers, however, were too little, too late, as they ended up missing the playoffs.

It's hard to make the argument that any non-playoff team was better than the 1991 San Francisco 49ers.