San Francisco 49ers: 5 Season-defining moments that led to Super Bowl 54

Week 11 vs. GB: Measuring up to TitleTown

At 8-1, the 49ers stood as the best team in the NFC and were ahead of the Seahawks for the division title. You would think the media would have stopped doubting the 49ers by now, but the skeptics rose to the top and a similar narrative we heard at the beginning of the season reared its ugly head. The storylines suggested that San Francisco had not beaten any good teams and would be exposed against their next three opponents.

The 49ers were about to enter a gauntlet on their schedule, as their next three opponents all had eight or more wins; this was a record for any stretch of games this late into the season. These next three games were supposed to be a measuring stick for San Francisco to prove how they would stack up against the league’s best teams.

With the 8-2 Green Bay Packers first up on the schedule, could the 49ers defense stop an MVP quarterback like Aaron Rodgers?

Well, not only did they stop him, they crushed him. The 49ers ran over the Packers en route to a 37-8 victory, behind George Kittle’s 129 yards receiving and a pair of touchdowns from their running back committee. The defense relentlessly pressured Rodgers, hitting the quarterback 10 times and sacking him five times. Rodgers barely eclipsed 100 passing yards in this outing.

Once again. the 49ers proved they were a dominant team on prime-time and that they could measure up to those with similar winning records. Not only could they compete with the best, but they could bulldoze them. No one could doubt the 49ers anymore.