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
Super Bowl XLVI the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s) and the second and third to appear in Super Bowls in four consecutive decades (joining the Pittsburgh Steelers). The Giants became the first team in Super Bowl history to win Super Bowls in four different decades (1986, 1990, 2007, 2011). The Patriots became the first team in Super Bowl history to lose Super Bowls in four different decades (1985, 1996, 2007, 2011). Dan Shaughnessy said in a piece in "The Boston Globe" about Boston on the loss to the Giants under the headline, "History Repeats": "Instead of celebrating a grand slam–championships in every major