The Super Blowouts : The AFC Loses Big, Particularly in New Orleans

With three seconds left in the first quarter of the 1990 Super Bowl in the New Orleans Superdome, Brent Jones caught a 3-yard pass from Joe Montana to give San Francisco a 13-3 lead over Denver.

“It’s over,” said Bill Walsh, who had stepped down as the 49ers’ head coach as leading San Francisco to the title a year earlier.

Walsh was right. San Francisco beat the Broncos, 55-10.

The 45-point margin is the biggest in the NFC’s run of a dozen straight Super Bowl victories. Previously, the biggest was Chicago’s 46-10 win in 1986 over New England, which is back in the title game for the first time since that debacle.

When it comes to the Super Bowl, NFC teams don’t just win, they win big.

The only exceptions are the Giants’ 20-19 win over Buffalo after the 1990 season and the 49ers’ 20-16 victory over Cincinnati in the 1989 Super Bowl, won on Joe Montana’s touchdown pass to John Taylor with 39 seconds left. There’s also Dallas’ 27-17 win over Pittsburgh last year.

Both the big Super Bowl blowouts have come in New Orleans. And the winners, the 1989 49ers and the 1985 Bears, were probably the best of the NFC teams, although the 1986 Giants, 1991 Redskins and 1992 Cowboys are close.

The New Orleans games were mismatches from the start.

Chicago had easily the best defense of the era, and those 49ers featured their best offense--Montana at his peak, Jerry Rice and the versatile Roger Craig--and an unsung defense led by Ronnie Lott and a young Charles Haley.

In 1990, the 49ers were a clear favorite coming in after 41-13 and 30-3 wins over the Vikings and Rams in two playoff games. By contrast, Denver barely got by Pittsburgh by a point at home, then beat Cleveland 37-21 in the AFC title game.

Carmen Policy, the 49ers president, remembered how nervous he and owner Eddie DeBartolo were.

“Well, after that second touchdown, Bill turned to us and told us the game was over,” Policy said. “We were still worrying. Eddie gave Bill a strange look and Bill said ‘No, it’s over. There’s no way they can stop you.’ ”

As it turned out, there wasn’t.

San Francisco was up 27-3 at the half, 41-3 after three quarters and Montana finished with five touchdown passes. That was a record until Montana’s successor, Steve Young, threw six in the 49ers’ 49-26 win over San Diego two seasons ago, another blowout that wasn’t as close as the score.

The statistics in the Denver game demonstrate San Francisco’s dominance, particularly on the offense, run by Mike Holmgren, who will coach the Packers in next Sunday’s game.

The 49ers outgained the Broncos, 461-167, had 28 first downs to 12 for Denver and had the ball 39 minutes and 31 seconds. Montana, the game’s MVP, was 22-of-29 for 297 yards and Rice caught seven passes for 148 yards and two touchdowns.

By contrast, the 1985 Bears won with defense, just as they had all year, shutting out the Giants, 21-0, and Rams, 20-0, in the playoffs.

In the Super Bowl, New England actually led, getting a 36-yard field goal from Tony Franklin just 1:19 into the game. Larry McGrew’s fumble recovery gave the Patriots the ball at the Chicago 19, but they couldn’t move an inch and had to settle for the kick.

New England didn’t score again until the Bears had a 44-3 lead early in the fourth quarter.

The most telling statistic was at the half--the Patriots had minus-8 yards on offense. And the Bears capped the win with a safety, giving them 46 points to match the “46” defense that defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan used to terrorize NFL teams all season.

Chicago coach Mike Ditka made one curious call, giving the ball to William “The Fridge” Perry, the 330-pound rookie defensive tackle and short-yardage blocking back, from a yard out for the Bears’ final touchdown.

Everyone had assumed that Walter Payton, the NFL’s career rushing leader, would get his first Super Bowl touchdown in that spot. The Bears never got back to the Super Bowl, and Payton retired two years later without a TD in the sport’s biggest game.

And Ditka was annoyed that defensive end Richard Dent was named the MVP instead of quarterback Jim McMahon, who was 12-of-20 for 256 yards and ran for two touchdowns.

“How could you guys vote that way?” Ditka snarled the next morning at the postgame media session at which the winning coach is usually at his most relaxed.

McMahon could get another chance in this year’s Super Bowl. Now 37, he’s Green Bay’s backup quarterback.

If Brett Favre gets hurt, who knows what could happen?