NEW ORLEANS: For the second straight year, the San Francisco 49ers wrapped up the Super Bowl with 34 seconds remaining ‘on the clock.
This time, however, it was still the second quarter.
‘Super Bowl XXIV was settled Sunday even before the halftime show. Taken to the limit last January by the Cincinnati Bengals, the 49ers repeated as champions of professional football with an early, awesome knockout of the Denver Broncos.
‘A touchdown pass from Joe Montana to Jerry Rice made it 27-3 with 34 seconds left before the half.
It ended up 55-10, the most lopsided ‘Super Bowl in history.
“Our “84 team was a great football team,” said George Seifert, completing his first year as the 49ers head coach. “But this is one of the fine teams ever to play, there’s no question.”
In a town known colloquially as The Big Easy, the 49ers challenge amounted to child’s play. Not since 1954, when Cleveland mauled Detroit, 56-10, has an NFL championship been decided by 2 bigger margin. Not since 1815, when Andrew Jackson routed the British has New Orleans known a more one-sided battle.
“You have to be a great team to win a championship,” Denver coach Dan Reeves said. “When you win a back to back championship, that takes you up a notch, they have got a level of performance right now that’s going to be hard for anybody in the league to match.”
It was a peak performance by a team for the ages. Montana, quarterbacking his fourth successful Super Bowl and earning his third Most Valuable Player award, completed 22-of-29 passes for 297 yards and a record five touchdown passes. Rice, his brilliant receiver, caught three of them and seven passes altogether worth 148 yards.
But they were hardly more impressive than San Francisco’s widely overlooked defense. It permitted Denver only 167 yards, and confounded quarterback John Elway. It allowed him 10 completions in 26 attempts, intercepted two passes and recovered two Bronco fumbles.
“We never allowed him to set his feet (before throwing),” 49ers’ linebacker Matt Millen said. “He had happy feet all day. A quarterback with happy feet makes a happy defense.”
The 49ers did their best not to giggle, but this one was out of hand almost from the outset. Except for Montana’s incorrect call on the coin toss he said tails, it came up heads the 49ers played with much the same precision that distinguished their earlier playoff routs of Minnesota and the Los Angeles Rams. In its three posts season ‘games, San Francisco, outscored its opponents, 126-26,
‘The Broncos appeared resigned to their fate by the middle of the second quarter. When 49er running back Roger Craig crashed the center of the line on a first and goal play from the 2, Denver safety Steve Atwater instinctively raised his hands to signal touchdown.
Strangely, the Broncos stopped Craig short of the end zone on this play, but Tom Rathman plunged across the goal on the next to make it 20-3. With nearly half the second quarter remaining, the 49ers had covered the 12½ point spread.
“I don’t think we put everything together, offensively and defensively,” Montana said, ominously. “But if we can play any better than that, I hope we save it for next year.”
Article extracted from this publication >> February 2, 1990
