This marked -The first playoff win for the Falcons since 1991 -The first home playoff win for the Atlanta Falcons since 1978 -The first ever divisional round playoff win in Atlanta Falcons history -The final career playoff game for Steve Young -The final playoff game for Jerry Rice as a 49er -The first playoff win for Dan Reeves as head coach since 1993
Truly believe if Garrison Hearst doesn't get hurt the 49ers win this game. Nevertheless, nobody knew it at the time, but it would be the end of an era.
@@manuginobilisbaldspot424 Naw, the OP was right. If Hearst and Kirby would have remained healthy in this game and plus, the fact that Rice, Owens, and Stokes were having success against that Falcons defense, the Niners should have and would have won this game. 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒕, 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝒂𝒍𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒔.
This was a pretty good playoff game. The 49ers would have won with an extra minute, but it was too late to come back. The Falcons also gave them those last 50 seconds by running out of bounds on that sweep with Anderson. The Vikings would make a similar clock management error by running out of bounds late in the game.
The 1998 Falcons are mostly forgotten. Even when they ARE remembered it’s usually only when people lament that they ruined the potential Vikings/Broncos Super Bowl. I think that is so because of 4 main reasons... - The Vikings and Broncos were historically great that season and overshadowed the Falcons. Even at 14-2 themselves. - They got blown out by Denver in the Super Bowl. They looked awful when the whole world was tuned in. - They were the Falcons and the Falcons were usually terrible. Other than the Deion Sanders lead team in 1991 the Falcons previous 12 seasons had been made up of 7 years last place and 4 in next to last. They had 5 playoff appearances and 2 playoff wins in 32 years. - Gary Anderson. The only thing most people remember about the NFC championship game is that Gary Anderson didn’t miss a single kick all year until he was about to ice the game. So when you combine them being the 3rd best team in the NFL that season, the terrible Super Bowl performance, and the franchise being a joke, you get a narrative of they weren’t that good and shouldn’t have been in the Super Bowl. They got lucky. It was a fluke. Well, no, no it wasn’t luck and maybe they caught lightning in a bottle but there was nothing fluky about how they won the NFC. Atlanta was 4th in offense and 4th in defense that year. They had 2 receivers go over 1,000 yards and Jamal Anderson went over 2,000 yards from scrimmage. They outscored their opponents by just under 10 points per game. They defeated teams with the 1st and 4th best point differential that season in the 49ers (12-4, +151) and the Vikings (15-1, +260) on their way to the Super Bowl. Denver was 2nd and Atlanta was 3rd. Their defense lead the league with 44 forced turnovers and was 2nd in rushing yards (1,203), yards/attempt (3.3), and rushing touchdowns (7) allowed. They were in control of this game against the 49ers from the jump. San Francisco got very lucky on a terrible call regarding a fumble that should’ve made the score 21-0 Atlanta. The Falcons were absolutely the better team that day. And yes they were fortunate that Gary Anderson picked the worst time possible to brick his fist field goal all season. So what? Kickers miss all the time. It was a close game. Minnesota won all 9 of their previous home games that season and by an average of 23.2 points a piece. They won by at least 21 points in 7 of those games. The Falcons were within striking distance late in the 4th quarter. They were the second team to do that and the first needed touchdowns of 100, 60, and a 91 yard interception return to do the same. Atlanta gained 71 more yards than Minnesota. The Vikings scored just once in their final 9 possessions. The 1998 Falcons were really good. They deserve to be remembered that way.
I always believe that any given Sunday a team can be beat that's why when people think the 98 Falcons were a fluke or a team that got hot I disagree the only reason they are not talked about much is because it was not the SuperBowl the media wanted, and a team that was bad for years and all of the sudden got fire in 98 and then got blown out by Denver it was like the opportunity the media needed to say "see if it was Denver vs Minnesota it would of been a closer game but since this team was just a flash in the pants they showed their true colors in the SuperBowl" in the end it was always that SuperBowl of What If we just never know.
They were a fluke. Shouldn't have even won this game and definitely got extremely lucky to miraculously weez past the Vikings. Ruined Super Bowl indeed, and it is rightfully what they should be remembered for. Also, now the Falcons are known for 28-3, the biggest failure of all time.
Steve Young had no running game to lean on once Hearst got hurt. And he threw 3 God-Awful picks. And even with that, the Niners were a field goal away from winning this game. Falcons were quite fortunate to win this one.
What we didn't know then was that this was the end of the Steve Young era in SF. Early the next year he would be injured and never play again. Sad sad thing to watch as a lifelong 49er fan.
He likely gets more criticism for those than he did at the time. Social media results in people making entertainment out of mocking people’s failures, and as such a lot of failures by players before the late 2000’s are often forgotten. Side note: My personal opinion is that if you made the conference championship game or later (of which a very small share of the league gets there), then you’ve had at least a decent season at the end of the day as you made the playoffs, and won a game when you got there (maybe not you individually, but your team did).
I was so embarrassed to be a Falcon before Dan came along. The Smiths nearly had the franchise in ruins. I will admit that I wondered when would our clock strike midnight. Thankfully, it was not until Denver recovered the onside kick. We will always be a trivia question, what team ended the 49ers dynasty?
Sadly as The 1998 NFL Season didn’t end right The San Francisco 49ers🏈 The Following Year Of 1999 would become Steve Young’s😭 Last Season with The Team Following A Concussion !!!! 😭😭😭😭😭🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈🏈
Everyone saying if Garrison Hearst didn’t get hurt Niners win this game but I believe if they called Jerry Rice fumble the week before Packers would have played and beat Falcons then set up the 3rd meeting with the Vikings and its hard to beat a team 3 times in 1 season so we could have gotten a Packers vs Broncos super bowl rematch
I always wondered what would've happened, but Favre, in a dome, against the Falcons defense that year... I'm guessing 2 picks. I think the Packers' Defense would rebound surprisingly well from the crappy run D against SF, but I see Atlanta winning the turnover battle, and shutting down the Packers' running game. Favre probably throws for 300 yards, 2 TDs and 2 INTs. Packers were really undisciplined in 1998 too, with penalties and turnovers in general, especially on the road. Atlanta would probably win it by 10 points is my best guess, and the game would never really seem as close as the score. 27-17 is my guess... but it would have been nice to have the opportunity!
Credit them for winning three of their first four games in 1999 (including I believe two after Young’s career ending injury), but 98 was ultimately the last good season these Niners had. This loss was the end of a very successful 16 year period from 1983-1998.
