While the merits of the San Francisco 49ers’ performance in their divisional round win over the Green Bay Packers are still being debated, their nail-biting victory put them within one victory of a remarkable achievement.
Making the Super Bowl is the only feat the 49ers are focused on, but a victory over the Detroit Lions in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game would also see San Francisco do something no team has done for three decades.
With a win, the 49ers would become the first team to beat every other team in their conference’s playoff field in the same season since the 1993 Kansas City Chiefs.
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On that occasion, 49ers legend Joe Montana led the Chiefs to the AFC Championship Game, only to then suffer defeat to the Buffalo Bills.
Though the 49ers struggled for much of their win over the Packers, top-level competition has tended to bring the best out of them, with the Cleveland Browns, the Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Rams the only playoff teams to beat them in the regular season, the latter defeat coming with the caveat that both teams were resting starters ahead of the playoffs.