For Once, Two Favorites in Super Bowl : In NFC Title Game, Real Monsters Wear Red and Win, 23-0

Leave it to Bill Walsh, the silver fox of offense, to come up with new wrinkles to put his San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl.

A wide receiver at quarterback here, a guard at fullback there. But . . . defense?

Well, why not? The Chicago Bears don’t own the rights, and on a day when the 49ers’ high-tech offense faltered the San Franciscans proved it by throttling the more mild-mannered Monsters of the Midway, 23-0, to win the National Football Conference championship Sunday.

The victory, cheered by a Candlestick Park-record crowd of 61,040, set up a Super Bowl XIX match down the road at Palo Alto at 3 p.m. on Jan. 20 between the 49ers and Miami Dolphins, the teams that had emerged during the regular season as the best in their respective conferences.

There is hardly a soul this side of Florida who would suggest the Dolphins can contain Joe Montana and the 49er offense. The score was only 6-0 at halftime on a pair of Ray Wersching chip shots because Montana mostly stopped himself.

But the question is whether the 49ers can keep Miami quarterback Dan Marino under control.

“We’re sure gonna try,” said Gary Johnson, the 49er defensive end who collected two of the eight sacks of the Bears’ Steve Fuller.

Walter Payton also was dropped for a loss attempting to pass, giving the 49ers a season-high of nine and a new dimension of respect.

“I’ll tell ya,” said Bear defensive tackle Steve McMichael, “everybody talks about our pass rush. Shoot!”

He didn’t say “shoot” but the message got through, especially to Fuller.

“This was the most pressure I’ve faced all season,” Fuller said.

Granted, the Bears were operating without a full deck on offense. Following last week’s 23-19 playoff win at Washington, it was only Fuller’s second game since missing three with his second shoulder separation of the season--and the Bears’ best quarterback, Jim McMahon, was out with a lacerated kidney.

But when the 49ers’ fast-starting offense self-destructed in the early going, the Bears showed little inclination to take command. They played it so close to the vest they all but smothered themselves. They came to the party but were afraid to dance.

Fuller threw only seven passes in the first half, completing 4 for 16 yards, and 3 sacks for 16 yards canceled out that small success.

Until the 49ers forced the Bears’ hand with a 13-0 third-quarter lead, Fuller threw only two passes to wide receivers, both in the first quarter.

One went to Dennis McKinnon, who dropped it. The other he aimed at speedster Willie Gault, who tipped it to 49er defender Dwight Hicks for a diving interception.

Fuller didn’t throw to Gault again all day.

He did throw again to McKinnon, but only in desperation after Wendell Tyler’s nine-yard touchdown run had put the 49ers in position for a blowout.

Starting from his 19-yard line, Fuller hit McKinnon for 16, 11 and 21 yards. Payton saved the drive by fighting for a first down on fourth-and-a-foot at the 49ers’ 22-yard line, but then Dwaine Board and Johnson sacked Fuller for 8- and 11-yard losses on successive plays to shove the Bears even out of field-goal range.

“They got close enough to the goal line,” Board said. “It was time to throw ‘em back.”

Hey, that’s Bear talk. Do the 49ers really play defense that way?

Johnson said: “Through the year you never heard much about our defense, so why start now? It’s not my job to shoot off my mouth. It’s my job to play football.”

It was the 49ers’ second shutout of the season, following a 33-0 stuffing of the Rams in mid-season. They now have played 10 quarters without yielding a touchdown.

Bear Coach Mike Ditka took that into account in defending his game plan.

“You hate to make changes,” he said. “We didn’t get into this game throwing 50 passes. We run the ball. That’s what we do. Steve (Fuller) was under pressure all day. He had people in his face and he was running for his life.”

But so was Montana. The Bears, who set an NFL record of 72 sacks, dropped him three times, but his quick drops and sprintouts bought him enough time to complete 18 of 34 passes for 233 yards--not Dan Marino numbers but effective.

Montana put the game away early in the last period with a 10-yard scoring pass to Freddie Solomon, who caught six of his seven passes in the first half.

Before their last aborted drive, the nearest the Bears came to scoring was when Bob Thomas missed a 41-yard field goal at the end of their opening drive, wide right, snapping his streak of 12 in a row.

That crippled one part of the Bears’ plan: to get in front and let their defense hold on.

They were able to run the ball well enough, Payton gaining 92 of their 149 rushing yards and Fuller improvising for a total of 39 yards the six times the 49ers flushed him out of the pocket.

For a while, Bear free safety Gary Fencik was campaigning for player-of-the-game honors. He made the right call to win the coin flip (heads) and then watched the offense march smartly for 54 yards, most of that on 20-yard bursts by fullback Matt Suhey and Payton.

Thomas’ miss wasted that drive, but the 49ers had to settle for a 3-0 lead when Montana fumbled a third-down snap at the Bears’ two-yard line.

A minute later Hicks got the interception--TV replays indicated he may have trapped the ball--to give the 49ers possession at the Bears’ 39. After Tyler ran 25 yards to the two, Solomon broke free in the end zone, but Montana underthrew him just enough for Fencik to fall back and make a leaping interception.

The 49ers’ next drive resulted in another field goal when Bear tackle Dan Hampton batted away Montana’s third-down pass to Dwight Clark at the five, and the 49ers’ frustration continued when Fencik’s second interception stopped them at the Chicago 27 shortly before halftime.

At that point, the Bears had passed for zero net yards, but were still in the game. It started to slip away when Dana McLemore returned a punt 15 yards to the Chicago 35, from where the 49ers suddenly shifted gears to the ground.

“Bill (Walsh) thought he’d use some running plays to throw ‘em off,” Tyler said. “They didn’t think we could run. You never know what’s going on in Bill’s mind.”

On a five-play surge, Tyler ran for 5, 11 and the last 9 yards off right tackle, holding the ball precariously loose all the way.

“I bounced off a couple of players like a bumper car and wound up in the end zone,” Tyler said, laughing.

That got the Bears to open up, but when the 49ers threw them back the 49ers ended all suspense.

Starting from his own 12, Montana passed to Mike Wilson and Tyler twice to reach midfield. Then fullback Roger Craig, cutting back against the Bears’ lateral flow, exploded for 39 yards--his longest run of the season--and three plays later Montana rolled right and hit Solomon in the end zone.

Solomon also played quarterback for one play early in the second quarter. Unlike the Bears, Walsh was pulling out all stops.

Solomon, a 10-year pro, was an option quarterback in high school and at the University of Tampa, and that’s what he ran--an option--sliding down the line of scrimmage before pitching out to Craig, who was stopped for no gain.

On the play, Montana took Solomon’s position wide left, his assignment being, he said, “to get out of the way.”

Cute. And typical of Walsh.

On Tyler’s touchdown and two other plays, reserve guard Guy McIntyre lined up in the backfield as a blocker.

“We’ve been working on that play,” McIntyre said. “Coach thought with my size (6-3, 271) and speed I stood a better chance of knocking them back off my block.

“We call it ‘Angus.’ It got its name from the Black Angus restaurant. I used to hang out there a lot. Coach Walsh liked to joke with me about it.

“When we tried it in practice the other players started yelling, ‘Angus left, Angus right,’ so we started calling it the Angus formation.”

Solomon took the win in stride.

“I try not to get too excited about anything,” he said. “It was a play (when) we felt we could catch ‘em off guard.”

Montana should be more excited. Reaching the Super Bowl gives him a $250,000 bonus.

“I was frustrated at the end of the half because I had given up points,” Montana said.

Solomon said he spoke to Montana after the end-zone interception by Fencik.

“We all make mistakes,” Solomon said. “My comment to him was, ‘Keep cool. You’re a quarterback. Let’s do it.’ He’s my friend and I want to see him do well.”

Rookie nose tackle Michael Carter also sacked Fuller twice--and no, he said, it wasn’t as big a thrill as winning the Olympic silver medal in the shotput.

“When we win the Super Bowl, I’ll say yes,” Carter said.

Johnson, who came to the 49ers from the Chargers early this season, played his best game but thought he had an advantage after looking at high-powered American Conference offenses for most of his 10-year career.

“It’s like throwing in a wolf among sheep,” Johnson said.

The Bears’ unique defensive alignment, with its seven- and eight-man fronts, held few mysteries for the 49ers, who totaled 387 yards, topping the Rams’ previous season high of 370 against the league’s top-ranked defense.

Walsh’s top offensive assistant, Paul Hackett, said: “We spent a lot of time (studying film) on that front, and we had certain plays we thought would work against it.

“We were kind of laying for the defense on two running plays by Wendell. We hoped we would catch them in the blitz in the course of the afternoon, and we were fortunate.”

The 49ers, 17-1 with 11 straight wins, are NFC champions for the second time in four years. In ’81 they went on to defeat Cincinnati in the Super Bowl. The Bears finished 11-6.

Walsh said it all: “There is no doubt that the two best teams will be playing in the Super Bowl.”