January 20, 1991
New York Giants 15, San Francisco 49ers 13

The 1990 49ers were as stacked as any other team in NFL history. They’d beaten the daylights out of the Broncos, 55-10, in Super Bowl XXIV and then matched their 14-2 record from that year. They finished first in points scored and third in points allowed, and it seemed that the 12-4 Giants were just another minor obstacle to be shooed away. Vegas agreed, making San Francisco an eight-point favorite. But the Giants denied the 49ers the opportunity to become the only team to win three straight Super Bowls in a bruising game that perfectly fit the temperament of head coach Bill Parcells. Big Blue kept the ball for nearly 39 minutes, Matt Bahr kicked five field goals, and Joe Montana suffered a broken finger and bruised sternum late in the game that would have prevented him from playing in the Super Bowl had the 49ers made it. As it turned out, Parcells’ Giants handed the Bills their first of four straight Super Bowl losses with a 20-19 heartbreaker when Scott Norwood’s potential game-winning field goal went wide right.

The Niners were angling for the NFL’s first three-peat of the post-merger era but the Giants had different ideas. They were still stinging from their 7-3 Monday night loss at Candlestick six week earlier. There was a lot of bad blood coming out of that night and the Giants were ready for the Niners’ physical brand of football and met them blow for blow the second time around. It would be the third time in five years the Giants beat Joe Montana in the postseason and the second time they sent him to the hospital.

The Giants’ other two NFC Championship Game appearances were both blowouts — a 17-0 manhandling of the Washington Redskins on January 11, 1987 and the January 14, 2001 41-0 whitewashing of the Minnesota Vikings. Both games were played at Giants Stadium.

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