49ers pick up 1st win over team other than Rams since Dec. 2015

The San Francisco 49ers’ win over the New York Giants was their first of the season, their first Sunday win since Jan. 3, 2016 and their first win against someone other than the Rams (then St. Louis, now Los Angeles) since Dec. 6, 2015.

Wow.

Add to this the fact that the Rams are the team the 49ers perhaps came the closest to beating this season plus the fact that the Rams are actually good this year (they didn’t figure that out until after beating the 49ers, methinks) makes this whole thing a little odd and a little funny.

I don’t know exactly why it’s funny that the 49ers last beat the Rams and have been awful at beating everyone else, but it’s worth noting the NFC West usually combines for decent games. There were a few years there that the 49ers and Arizona Cardinals were both bad, but kept playing interesting, fun games on Monday Night Football.

The 49ers will play the Rams again in Week 17, and presumably Jimmy Garoppolo will be starting at quarterback by that point. The first game between the two teams is still potentially the best game of the year, and that’s before anybody knew the Rams would be any good.

At that time, it was two bad teams playing a shockingly fun game. Now the Rams are 7-2 and depending on what they have or have not clinched, will be heavily favored to beat the 49ers in the rematch. The Rams are no longer “the only team the 49ers can beat,” but the Giants have filled that role nicely, for now anyway.