You must go back to the 29th of January, 1995 to find the last time the San Francisco 49ers won a Super Bowl title. They have, of course, come agonizingly close since then having lost the 2012 and 2019 finals which ruined their 100 percent record of winning every Super Bowl final they had played in. In short, it has turned out to be a long wait for American football’s ultimate prize but there are early signs that the 2022/2023 season could be a memorable one for the 49ers.
The 49ers pick up where they left off
In particular, their defence has proved to be the best in the league albeit after only a handful of games. Admittedly, the argument may be that it is too early to make any sweeping calls about the effectiveness of the 49ers’ defence given that the autumn leaves haven’t yet begun to drop in the Bay Area. While this assessment may carry a degree of truth, it’s also worth noting that the 49ers had the fourth-best defensive record in the NFC last season having only conceded 365 points in 17 games.
Nick Bosa — The #NFL Defensive Player of Year?
Leads league in:
Sacks — 6
Pressures — 30 (next closest at 22)
QB hits — 16 (next closest at 9)
Pass rush pressure rate — 22.9% (next closest at 18.6%)#49ers #FTTB pic.twitter.com/bzDRUgUS7m— Jeff Kerr (@JeffKerrCBS) October 4, 2022
Essentially, this tells us that the 49ers have been able to improve upon their impressive defensive record over the course of the offseason and look set to be hard to score against during the current campaign. Indeed, this was the case recently against the Los Angeles Rams when they obliterated their local rivals by 24 points to nine.
It was a seismic result when you consider that the Rams are the reigning Super Bowl champions and that their typically explosive offensive line was shut out for almost the entire game. Perhaps a better way to put this victory in context is to check the Vegas NFL lines, which will give you the latest spread betting odds for the upcoming fixtures in the NFL. Once you have subsequently become familiarized with spread betting (essentially one team winning or losing by a certain number of points), you should keep in mind that before the 49ers kicked off against the Rams, they were at a spread of -2. This meant that yes, they were the favourites to win, but only by a small margin. As we now know, on this occasion, you would have won your bet had you backed the 49ers to win by more than two given that they walked away with a dominant 15-point win.
Again, it was a result against the 2022 Super Bowl Champions that would have sent out an ominous warning sign to this season’s Super Bowl hopefuls that the 49ers have the team that could potentially go all the way.
Goodnight Faithful ❤️💛 pic.twitter.com/VE0eWzB9ku
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) October 4, 2022
It goes without saying that there is a long way to go still and the task for the 49ers is now figuring out how to turn this watertight defence into a campaign that ends with a Super Bowl win. Indeed, game management is their priority now and over the remainder of the season (given that this team certainly has what it takes), it’s about taking one step at a time on the road to Glendale, Arizona for the playing of the Super Bowl LVII.