Super Bowl XXIV coaches; rookie head coach George Seifert took over after Bill Walsh retired following the previous season's Super Bowl. The 49ers finished the 1989 regular season with a league best 14–2 record. The Broncos, who posted an 11–5 regular season record, entered the Super Bowl looking to avoid tying the Minnesota Vikings with four Super Bowl losses as well as the Vikings record of losing three Super Bowls in four years. This game remains the most lopsided game in Super Bowl history. San Francisco's 55 points were the most ever scored by one team, and their 45-point margin of victory was
The Catch (American football) West titles (1970–1972), but spent the remainder of the decade as a losing team. San Francisco went on to win four Super Bowls in the 1980s, and made the playoffs eight out of the next ten seasons, making the 49ers a dynasty. 49ers quarterback Joe Montana went on to gain a reputation as a clutch performer. Meanwhile, the Cowboys, one of the most successful NFC teams in the 1970s with five Super Bowl appearances (and two wins), never made it back to the Super Bowl in the 1980s. In the following season, the Cowboys reached their third straight NFC Championship