Which was your "false dawn" moment during the dark years?

Originally posted by ninerfan4life:
I thought singletary was going to take us to a SB. Lol

Me too. I drank the koolaid on the Singletary hire.

Originally posted by paulk205:
OK, it's bye week and therefore slow. Furthermore, both our record and the way we've dominated most opponents so far show that last year wasn't a flash in the pan and that we're definitely back among the elite where we belong. So, why not have a bit of idle reminiscing?

My question is basically to pick the ONE moment during the bad years when you thought that we either turned the corner or that in the very least we would go on a dark horse rampage that year. Let's make it a bit more specific and (1) Define the dark years from 2003 and after, and not since Young retired; (2) Define the false dawn moment as a time within a season, and not e.g. when we apparently had a nice draft or when we "won" the FA in 2007. After all, the Bills this year prove what "winning" the FA really means. Zippo.

I suspect most people will either say the 2-0 start in 2007 or the 3-1 one in 2009. Some will even say the Denver win in the 2006 closer, which was followed by "winning the FA" that following offseason. But my moment was also in the 2006 just after we beat the Seacocks at home 20-14, playing a beautiful first half in glorious sunshine with a mix of nice offensive drives and a couple of nice turnovers . The score didn't really indicate how much we dominated what was then considered the class of the NFC West (for what that was worth a the time ). I really liked that 2006 team despite its flaws. They were inexperienced and, frankly, not very talented overall, but they had some great players coming into their own: Frank obviously, but also Walt Harris and even Bryant up to the Seattle game; and Alex actually looked like a decent NFL QB. That little 3-0 run vs Minny, Detroit (away) and Seattle, after some terrible losses at SD and KC, suddenly got us to 5-5 and hoping. Even ESPN had a tiny article that week titled "Are you surprised at the turnaround of the 49ers?"

And then of course it all went pear-shaped. Bryant got arrested that same night for speeding under DUI, then suspended for substance abuse, then we stupidly gave the game away at STL after running all over them but getting stopped at that infamous "4th and a half inch - take the FG" moment... and that was the end of the false dawn. We lost the next two as well, and despite the victory away at Seattle (Smith's naked bootleg and all that) I never felt the buzz again that season.

This was a great moment and definitely a false dawn moment, but my vote is for Denver. I knew we wouldn't make the playoffs in 2006, but the 3-0 run had me thinking the defense had turned around and the offense didn't get so behind in points that we could really let Frank Gore run. I chose the Denver game however because I believe it was in Denver and they were looking to clinch a playoffs spot and/or a winning record. Going there and beating a pretty good team at the time that wanted to win spoke volumes to me in how far the 49ers had come in two seasons under Mike Nolan. Frank Gore looked like the best back in the league. Alex Smith seemed poised to take the next step. And I felt that we would make a strong push in what I was certain would be Bryant Young's final season. That good feeling carried through free agency, the draft, preseason (remember the TD pass Alex Smith through to Darrell Jackson against Denver in preseason?), and the first two games. Boy were most of us fooled. There was a very small minority of WZ members that were not fooled by the 2-0 start and I was not one of them.

Originally posted by GolittaCamper:
When we dumped Erickson....

The first game with Erickson as HC we thrashed the Bears on opening day 49-7. I remember thinking he was going to orchestrate this high powered offense. Well we all know what happened after that....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hghSimeHSqk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

when BY said he took his SB ring out and was wearing it to inspire guys, 2007. I remember how damn bad i felt for BY. He truly deserved to go out the way he entered this league...

Originally posted by darkknight49:
In 2006, the Thursday night game in Seattle. Although when norv left so late in the off season, I knew 2007 wasn't going to be good. Then it became worse than I imagined.

That was it for me, that got us to .500 and I thought we were going on the win the division. Instead we lose the next 3 including one to the Packers who sucked bad that year.

The entire Shaun Hill era, in 2008/2009. I really thought he was our QBOTF. He was never very flashy, but we just won with him for some reason.

Originally posted by BobS:
That was it for me, that got us to .500 and I thought we were going on the win the division. Instead we lose the next 3 including one to the Packers who sucked bad that year.

The Thursday night game took us to 6-8. It was the game at Candlestick (the one I referred to and you also seem to do) that took us to 5-5. And you're right, losing to the Packers was also as bad as losing the Rams game.

There are some solid answers in here. Brings back some memories. The two that come to mind for me are the game at home against SEA. Where Frank had over 200 and we won. I thought I felt something special and thought we were going to the playoffs. Also, the last game of the year (2007?) where we beat Denver and killed their playoff hopes. I really thought we were going to come back strong and Alex was going to take a big step. Then, he got hurt and all that other misery happened.

When Singletary first took over and started ranting about hitting teams in the mouth, and we won a few games just grinding it out on the ground. I really thought we could dominate the NFC West as an old school team that runs it up the middle thirty times a game

Mike Nolan then JTO, and Singletary

Hmmm...forgot the one time that really had me excited for the niners post Mariucci. It was the hiring of McCarthy to run the offense with Nolan running the defense. Smith's first year and McCarthy was a QB coach with a good pedigree. Seemed like a perfect match.

The Hiring of Nolan.

Originally posted by Sourball:

Originally posted by GolittaCamper:

When we dumped Erickson....

The first game with Erickson as HC we thrashed the Bears on opening day 49-7. I remember thinking he was going to orchestrate this high powered offense. Well we all know what happened after that....

Haha I thought the same thing dude!

Originally posted by bigmur49:

The infamous Eagles game, as the "faithful" were chanting for Carr.

When Smith (or Vernon) stood up to Singletary and got Carr to sit back down on the bench and went on a huge tear to mount the comeback. I thought that was going to be the defining moment of Smith's career, the day he finally said F U to all the doubters and just started slinging it.


........then he made the horrible fumble and they lost.

I have always been a bit of a Smith apologist, but that one made me go from pissed to super excited, to depressed in a span of about an hour.

Lost on a pick