1995 San Francisco 49ers: A Repeat Bid Runs Out Of Steam

The 1995 San Francisco 49ers were coming off a breakthrough Super Bowl championship for quarterback Steve Young. Big personnel losses and an injury to Young represented some significant adversity, but the 49ers reached the season’s stretch drive in prime position to repeat. But disappointing losses ended those hopes and ushered in an era where the 49ers continued to be good but were consistently a notch below the league’s elite.

Whether it was Young or backup Elvis Grbac throwing passes, Jerry Rice was there to catch them. The great wide receiver had a vintage year in 1995, catching 122 passes at better than fifteen yards a pop. Rice finished second in the MVP voting. J.J. Stokes was a reliable second wide receiver and Brent Jones caught 60 balls at tight end.

San Francisco’s running game took a hit when Rickey Watters left via free agency. Derek Loville became the prime replacement, and he just wasn’t effective. Loville ran for 723 yards, but at a meager 3.3 yards-per attempt, even with an offensive line anchored by 37-year-old Pro Bowl center Bart Oates. What Loville did do, however, was contribute to the passing game—he caught 87 passes out of the backfield.

Young might have slipped a bit from an MVP season in 1994, but when he was healthy, he was still the highest-percentage passer in the league. His 7.2 yards-per-attempt ranked 10^th among qualifying quarterbacks, and his 2.5 percent interception rate was 12^th.

When all was said and done, the Rice-led 49er offense still scored more points than anyone in the NFL. And the defense wasn’t far behind, ranking second in points allowed. San Francisco had a Pro Bowl defensive tackle in Dana Stubblefield, and a reliable pass rusher in another 37-year-old vet, Rickey Jackson. Ken Norton was an All-Pro middle linebacker.

But the real strength of the defense lie in the secondary. Eric Davis at corner and Merton Hanks at free safety were both All-Pros. Strong safety Tim McDonald made the Pro Bowl. The only downside for this unit was who wasn’t there—the great Deion Sanders had departed in free agency.

While San Francisco’s play in the secondary obviously survived, Deion had a swagger that was impossible to replace. Moreover, he signed with the Dallas Cowboys—merely the team the 49ers had met in the NFC Championship Game for three straight years, a period in which these two franchises were rightly seen as head-and-shoulders above the rest of the league.

San Francisco’s repeat bid opened on the road against the New Orleans Saints and there were no signs of any problems with the running game. The Niners enjoyed a 154-26 edge on the ground. Young went 21/27 for 260 yards, including a 50-yard TD strike to Rice that opened the scoring. San Francisco won 24-22.

The 49ers were even better at home against the Atlanta Falcons. Young and Rice got it started with an 18-yard scoring pass and San Francisco raced out to a 24-0 lead. They pounded the ball on the ground and enjoyed a 158-25 edge. McDonald’s Pick-6 was one of three interceptions in what ended as a 41-10 rout.

Bill Parcells and the New England Patriots had made the postseason in 1994 but would struggle to a 6-10 season in ’95. Young threw a pair of touchdown passes to Rice to build a 14-3 lead after three quarters. Hanks intercepted two passes, part of three picks overall against Drew Bledsoe. San Francisco pulled away in the fourth quarter and got a 28-3 home win.

A Monday Night visit to Detroit, where the Lions were a contending team led by the great Barry Sanders, was up next. The 49er defense did a good job on Barry, but they couldn’t run the ball themselves. Young and Rice put on a show, with the latter catching 11 passes for 181 yards, and Young throwing for 348 yards. But Detroit’s Scott Mitchell was having a big night throwing the ball himself, and the Niners lost, 27-24.

Playing a bad New York Giants team at home was the right antidote. A dominant defensive effort keyed a 20-6 win. San Francisco went into their bye week with a 4-1 record and had every reason to feel good about where they were at.

But a road trip to Indianapolis two weeks later went sour. The Colts, with a quarterback named Jim Harbaugh, would scrape into the playoffs, and then get on a run to the AFC Championship Game. They dominated the 49ers in the trenches—there was no running game, Young was sacked six times, and after the game an MRI showed a shoulder injury. That was salt in the wound of an 18-17 loss.

Grbac had to come in and start. His first start came in St. Louis, where a mediocre Rams team then played. All went well. The defense stepped up with four interceptions, two of them coming back for touchdowns. Grbac played efficiently—11/14 for 119 yards and no mistakes. The result was an easy 44-10 win.

But the loss of Young would show up the next two weeks in what should have been winnable divisional games. Under the alignment that existed prior to 2002, there were only three divisions per conference (East, Central, West). The 49ers and Rams were joined in the West by the Falcons, Saints, and the Carolina Panthers—the latter in their first year of existence. It was perhaps odd that San Francisco was the only NFC West team to be west of the Mississippi River, but it’s how it was.

New Orleans came to San Francisco, shut down the running game, didn’t make mistakes, and Grbac was unable to generate offense. The 49ers lost 11-7. Grbac produced passing yardage at home against the Panthers, with Rice catching eight balls for over 100 yards. But Grbac also threw a Pick-6 when his team looked to be headed into the end zone. The result was an embarrassing 13-7 loss.

San Francisco was reeling at 5-4. Just making the playoffs was looking like a dogfight. Meanwhile, Dallas and Deion were riding high at 8-1. And the 49ers were heading into Big D for a late afternoon showdown on November 12.

With Young still out, the nation expected the Cowboys to solidify their position at the top of the NFC. Instead, Grbac immediately hit Rice with an 81-yard touchdown pass. Hanks scooped up a fumble and ran it back 38 yards for a score. Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman was knocked out. Before anyone knew it, the 49ers had a 24-0 lead. Grbac went 20/30 for 305 yards and no mistakes. The result was a 38-20 win that sent a clear message to the NFL world—the 49ers weren’t done yet.

Another showcase opportunity awaited on a Monday Night in Miami against the playoff-bound Dolphins. Grbac again lit it up—31/41 for 382 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions. Rice caught eight of those passes for 149 yards. The defense recorded five sacks. And the result was a 44-20 stomping. The 49ers were 7-4 and showing life as Young returned to the lineup.

The Rams came to San Francisco and the 49ers spotted their guests a 7-0 lead. Then they ripped off five unanswered touchdowns. Young threw for three scores, Davis brought an interception back 86 yards and the final was 41-13.

With the calendar moving to December and the final four games, San Francisco’s 8-4 record had them one game up on Atlanta in the NFC West, and a season-ending date with the Falcons if you looked ahead. In the fight for what were then two first-round byes, the 49ers were tied with Brett Favre’s Green Bay Packers for the 2-seed and had a one-game edge in conference record, which is the tiebreaker that would settle it. Dallas was 10-2 and still looked comfortably ensconced on the 1-line.

That was the context for a Sunday Night game against Buffalo, who was en route to the AFC East title. Loville had his best game of the year, running for 88 yards and catching ten passes. Davis intercepted two passes, and the defense forced five turnovers overall. The result was a 27-17 win.

This came after an afternoon where Atlanta had lost, giving the 49ers a comfortable two-game lead in the NFC West. And the Cowboys had been upset by the lowly Washington Redskins, allowing San Francisco to move within a game of the 1-seed—a race in which they controlled the head-to-head tiebreaker.

A revenge trip to Carolina was up next. Loville ran for one touchdown and caught another one. Young went 31/45 for 336 yards, targeting Rice for 121 of those yards. The final score was 31-10.

And fate continued to smile on San Francisco. Dallas lost at Philadelphia. Green Bay lost that night in Tampa Bay. The 49ers now controlled their own destiny for homefield advantage. Everything was right there for a repeat title run.

Mediocre Minnesota came in for a Monday Night game, after a weekend where a Falcon loss wrapped up the NFC West, but the Cowboys and Packers held serve in the fight for seeding. Young hit Rice for a pair of early touchdowns. San Francisco had a 21-0 lead before the Vikings rallied to tie the game 27-27. But Rice was off the hook with his performance—14 catches for an astonishing 289 yards. The 49ers finished the job with a 37-30 win.

The victory sealed the 2-seed and a first-round bye. Now, all San Francisco needed to do was go to Atlanta on Christmas Eve Sunday and wrap homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.

But the high point of the season had been reached. The Falcons, at 8-7, were playing a win-or-go-home game. The 49ers took a 14-3 lead that included Rice throwing a touchdown pass off a trick play. What San Francisco was not doing was running the ball, generating a pass rush, or getting turnovers. And they gave up a late touchdown and lost 28-27.

The loss was a big lump of coal in the Christmas stocking, and it got worse the next night when the Cowboys won and reclaimed the #1 seed. Even so, San Francisco could still feel like they had closed strong over the last seven games, and they had already shown they could go to Dallas and win.

But this year would begin the breakup of the monopoly the 49ers and Cowboys enjoyed at the top of the league. Favre and the Packers came into San Francisco for a late Saturday afternoon divisional round game. And to the shock of the crowd, Green Bay bolted to a 21-0 lead. Young never quit and he threw the ball 65 times trying to rally his team. Rice and Jones each went over 100 yards. But San Francisco never put real pressure on the Packers after the slow start and a 27-17 loss ended the season with a disappointing thud.

Dallas went on to win the Super Bowl, but the coming out party Green Bay put on in San Francisco marked a shift in the power structure at the top. The 49ers continued to be a contender in 1996 and 1997, but both seasons ended with playoff losses to the Packers. San Francisco got over the hump and beat Green Bay in a wild-card game in 1998, but promptly lost the next round. The 49ers did not reach the Super Bowl again until 2012, and they are still waiting for their next championship.