If you could have one 49ers mulligan...

Craig's fumble. Not even close for me.

The SB loss was tough but it was all on the coach, not the players. It was the beginning of the end of Harbaugh's time here. It was a big !!!! on his failure as an in-game coach. I don't know how you have a do-over for a coach that was never quite what we all hoped. I don't think you get a mulligan for that. It wasn't like there was an obvious better choice out there.

I wish that we handed the ball of to gore all 4 downs in the super bowl a couple of years ago.

Craigs fumble was huge but that 1990 bills team was pretty good

Pick Rodgers over Smith in the draft.

Would have been a dynasty by now.

I might just change the lack of a holding call during the second have return for a TD in the last Superbowl

Originally posted by DarkKnight1680:
Tough call. Either:

NFC championship game in January 2012 game redo. Team was much better than the giants and it took 2 PR fumbles and an inexplicable forward progress whistle to keep them out of the SB. If they make the title game, good chance they win, and either way it's likely that Smith remains the starter throughout the following season.

The 49ers weren't much better than the Giants. They had a bit more talent on both sides of the ball and a stronger defense, but the Giants by the playoffs recouped their defensive swagger and had Eli Manning while we had Smith (or perhaps to a greater extension we had HaRoman).

Now I'm not one to knock Smith but in his next game against the Giants, it wasn't pretty. Even his game against the Giants while with KC displayed many similar signs, and it wasn't until the game was broke open by a punt return TD and numerous turnovers did Smith finally ice the Giants.

As far as your comments about Smith to Kap, it's interesting. With respect to the Giants, I figure Kap would be better, but as it turns out the Seahawks became the real Niner nemesis over time and in that regard Smith has been undefeated against them since September 2010. So there's that.

If anything, I'd want to see a mulligan of the Dashon Goldson/Tarrell Brown INT that wasn't. We get that pick I think we can ice the game with an Akers FG.

Originally posted by trooper49:

Originally posted by RedAlert:
I would change the play where Montana got crushed by Marshall. Maybe the Craig fumble never happens and we get a few more years of watching the great #16.

This. And probably a couple more Super Bowls, too. Us old timers feel the pain of this game more so than the younger folks do, I'd say.

The pain to me at that time was losing the game. Total shock.

But in hindsight many years later (I was 11 then), the real pain was losing Joe forever and how he went out.

Aaron Rogers instead of Alex
Jake Plummer instead of Druckenmiller
Not putting Lott on Plan B Free Agency

Originally posted by pdizo916:

Craigs fumble was huge but that 1990 bills team was pretty good

Yes, and people need to be reminded of this.

Belichick devised a great defensive scheme to limit the Bills passing attack and he had the rushing attack to sustain a ball control offense. 41 minutes time of possession for the Giants, and guess what?

They still allowed 1 point per minute to the Bills. 19 points in 19 minutes of possession. Theoretically if that held up, with Buffalo maintaining 40-50% time of possession, the Bills could have scored 25-30+ points and won the game fairly easily. And still were wide right from winning it as it was.

I think the 49ers would have had a good shot at winning it, but I can't say it was a slam dunk they would have. The '90 team had a great defense but not quite as good as the Giants. The offense didn't have a great rushing attack since Craig's knee wasn't the same. That's how the Giants were able to slow us down in nickel (exact opposite of how teams slow us down now).

Of course the Buffalo D wasn't like the Giants D.

Overall the Giants coaching staff has admitted they weren't going to beat the Bills straight up unless they figured out a unique strategy. Would the 49ers coaching staff have underestimated Buffalo? Possible.

It's an interesting convo, but people are looking back retroactively at Buffalo being 0-4 in SBs and thinking it was a lock to beat them. It wasn't.

And you look at future 49ers/Bills games and you see how close they were.

Originally posted by CMIO:
Pick Rodgers over Smith in the draft.

Would have been a dynasty by now.

It would have been interesting to see how Rodgers and Mike & Mike got along. We will never know but that 2006 team was considered weaker than the first year Houston expansion team. That was just a train wreck.

Originally posted by dj43:

Originally posted by CMIO:
Pick Rodgers over Smith in the draft.

Would have been a dynasty by now.

It would have been interesting to see how Rodgers and Mike & Mike got along. We will never know but that 2006 team was considered weaker than the first year Houston expansion team. That was just a train wreck.

Yeah, these "pick that player over this player" scenarios are really weak. No telling how Rodgers would have done at that point in his life with the talent and coaching around him in SF. Can make just as strong as an argument that Alex should have gone to GB and he would be the NFL's elite signal caller. Goes both ways.

All the picks given up for an over-the-hill oj simpson.

Originally posted by ElephantHaley:
Roger Craig Fumble in the 1990 NFCCG. It still HAUNTS me to this MOMENT.

This.

I don't want to re-hash anything because basically everything posted within here already about covers it.

The one thing I would add is likely a little vague. A few years ago I remember reading an article pertaining to Neal Dahlen who was once a scout for the 49ers and moved on to the Broncos in 1996. Dahlen ended up with 7 rings as a scout/front office personnel man -- 5 with the 49ers and 2 with the Broncos. As this article stated Dahlen was passed over within the 49ers organization in favor Dwight Clark and he felt slighted. I remember clearly that the 49ers did not have the best drafts in the late 1990's and early 2000's, we got some players in the draft (TO, etc.), but mostly we got them via free agency and still as talent collection goes the cupboards became bare. Coincidentally, or not, the 49ers have not won a Super Bowl for 20 years. I have wondered if the 49ers had made different FO moves during this time, such as not letting guys like Dahlen go, if things would have turned out differently. Of course many other things happened to lead to the 49ers current Lombardi trophy drought, but the talent drain in the FO played a huge role in it as well.

Craig fumble, Hearst ankle or passes to Crabtree. All three cost us rings. Can you imagine if we had three more?

Letting Players like Frank Gore, Delanie Walker, Isaac Sopoaga walk, true Niners should have finished their careers here.