Rams to Super Bowl; Niners to great unknown

The better team won. As difficult as it is for 49er fans to admit it. “All-stars and super stars,” 49ers receiver George Kittle said of the Los Angeles Rams.    

They were built to go to the Super Bowl, which will be held in their multi-billion-dollar SoFi Stadium in two weeks.

Construction obviously is a success. If not by much.

Six straight the Niners had beaten the Rams. One of those games was as recently as a few weeks ago. But there would be no lucky seventh for San Francisco.

The semi-glorious season of 2021, with its agonizing about Jimmy Garoppolo; with its marvelous comebacks (down 17 to the very same Rams in the last game of the regular schedule); with its misbegotten belief of another Super Bowl, came to an end Sunday, with a 20-17 loss to the Rams at SoFi.

It is L.A. going to a Super Bowl in its home stadium (that hadn’t happened in the first 54 years of the game, and now it's two in a row). The Niners go to the great unknown.

It was one of those “if only” games for the Niners — if only the offensive line had protected Garoppolo better when the Niners had a 17-7 lead heading into the fourth quarter, if only Jaquiski Tartt had held on to the apparent interception that would have halted a drive that resulted in the field goal which tied the game, 17-17.

But losers always think that way. Winners just do what is required.

Which is what the Rams did, starting with the stunning off-season trade of quarterback Jared Goff, the onetime overall No. 1 pick from Cal, for Mathew Stafford and adding all-pro defensive lineman Von Miller.

Stafford did what Garoppolo couldn’t do Sunday, unload long passes when needed, completing 31 of 45 for 337 yards and two touchdowns. Niners coach Kyle Shanahan rightfully did not belittle Garoppolo, who got him to one Super Bowl and was one game from another. Yet he and management did trade up in last spring’s draft to take a quarterback, Trey Lance.

Now, after mostly watching during his rookie season, Lance presumably will be the Niners’ starter next fall, and Garoppolo, so maligned, so adept at handling criticism as well as reacting to a heavy pass rush, will be traded. Presumably.

Still, a great quarterback is not always the answer. The Kansas City Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes, and on Sunday, a couple hours before the Niners were eliminated from the playoffs, KC was eliminated by the Cincinnati Bengals.

Who, as Niner supporters know, twice made it to a Super Bowl and twice were beaten by the Niners.

This time it will be the Rams, even though the majority of fans Sunday at SoFi seemed to cheering for the Niners. San Francisco played tenaciously but too often couldn’t make the critical play, and the Tartt drop was just one of the examples. 

At their best the 49ers hang on to the ball for a long while, and then if they do give it up without a score, get it right back. But it was the Rams who controlled the ball — L.A. had it more than 35 minutes of the total 60 — in effect, using Niner style and play-calling to beat San Francisco.

“That is a good team we played,” said Shanahan, still appearing somewhat bewildered by the result, “but we had opportunities we didn’t use.

“We’re hurting in that locker room. We came up short. That’s part of sports you have to learn to deal with.”

Just not the part the Niners are used to against the Rams.