The 49ers joined the elite with their 42-10 win over the Dallas Cowboys, becoming just the sixth team in NFL history to score at least 30 points in each of their first five games to start a season.
The only other teams to ever accomplish this feat are the 2000 St. Louis Rams, 2007 New England Patriots, 2011 New England Patriots, 2013 Denver Broncos and 2018 Los Angeles Rams.
After joining that prestigious list, the good news for the 49ers is that all five of those teams qualified for the postseason, with four of the five reaching the Super Bowl in the same season.
The bad news, however, is that none of the four teams that made it to the Super Bowl won it.
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Teams that begin the season with 30+ points in 5 consecutive games in NFL history:
2023 49ers: ???
2018 Rams: Lost in SB LIII
2013 Broncos: Lost in SB XLVIII
2011 Patriots: Lost in SB XLVI
2007 Patriots: Lost in SB XLII
2000 Rams: Lost in the toilet
above: @First take pic.twitter.com/MUdunIivtt– Odds Shark (@OddsShark) October 13, 2023
All five teams that have previously achieved this feat finished in the top three in both points scored and offensive production at the end of the season, with three of those five finishing their respective seasons as the league’s top-ranked unit in both categories.
But one area where the 2023 49ers stand out from most of the other teams on this exclusive list is an elite defense paired with their top-notch offense.
San Francisco currently boasts the highest scoring defense in the league, allowing just 13.6 points per game, while their explosive offense averages 33.4 points per game.
The other five teams on this list combined to allow an average of 23.34 points per game, with the 2007 Patriots being the only ones to allow fewer than 20 points per game (17.1).
With the exception of the 2007 Patriots, the remaining teams are weak compared to the 2023 49ers when it comes to being elite on both sides of the ball.
In fact, the 2007 Patriots, who famously went undefeated in the regular season, are by far the closest parallel among those teams to this year’s version of the 49ers.
New England finished this season with a top-five offense and a top defense, which the 49ers currently have on their own.
The 49ers will look to emulate that dominant style of football while avoiding the heartbreaking Super Bowl defeat that left the New England team just short of a perfect season over fifteen years ago.
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