"Close" only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades, breh. There's no such thing as a moral victory in sports. Sitting at home during the superbowl was exactly the same for the 9ers, Raiders, Bills, Bengals, everyone. There's only one game all season that counts more than the rest, and that's the super bowl. When the history book is written there isn't going to be a chapter about the 9ers coming up short 3 years in a row unless it ends with a SB win, ask Jim Kelly how kind history is to the 'loser', and he actually went to the super bowl.