Not Everybody Sees Super Bowl as High Scoring

It shapes up as one of the wildest Super Bowls in history, but Riki Ellison doesn’t see it that way.

The San Francisco linebacker has the highest respect for Miami quarterback Dan Marino but said, “Truthfully, I don’t think it’s going to be a high-scoring game. I think our offense will score, but I don’t see them scoring more than 20 points.”

San Francisco has allowed an average of only 13 points a game, but Miami is averaging 35 points a game. Its lowest total came in an early-season 21-17 win over Buffalo.

Said Ellison: “It’s part of our motivation believing we can stop team. In our pass defense, in the zone drop, I have to really come up and make big hits.

“We can’t allow Marino to dictate. We can’t allow him to play the whole field.”

Add Ellison: He’ll be playing across from Miami guard Roy Foster, a former USC teammate, and said: “I can’t wait until all this is over so he can be a friend of mine again.”

Note: At USC, Ellison played under the name of Riki Gray. In the 1980 Rose Bowl, he made the big plays on a goal-line stand against Art Schlichter and Ohio State as the Trojans pulled out an 18-17 win.

For What It’s Worth: Linebackers Jack Reynolds of San Francisco and Bob Brudzinski of Miami are playing in their third Super Bowls in five years.

They were teammates on the Ram team which lost to Pittsburgh, 31-19, in the 1980 Super Bowl. Reynolds played for the 49er team which beat Cincinnati, 26-21, in 1982 and Brudzinski played for the Dolphin team which lost to Washington, 27-17, in 1983.

Add Reynolds: Once again, he’ll be matched against Pete Johnson, the fullback he stuffed in San Francisco’s pivotal goal-line stand against Cincinnati in the Super Bowl. Johnson, now of Miami, is used by the Dolphins in short-yardage situations.

Add Marino: Says Raider cornerback Lester Hayes, who has 200 videotapes is his collection of NFL games: “Dan Marino can do anything. Of the thousands of game films I’ve watched in my eight years in the league, I’ve never seen a quarterback as good as Dan Marino.”

Although Pittsburgh couldn’t make them work, Steeler defensive coordinator Tony Dungy said you still have to employ blitzes against the Dolphins.

“You have to challenge them,” he said. “You may not win, but if you don’t challenge them, you really don’t have a chance.

“We showed some looks to them that we had done stuff out of all year. We gave them the same looks, but we did different things out of them. It confused them for a few minutes, but then they figured out what we were doing.

“I don’t think you can overestimate the kind of coaching they get, at all.”

Said San Francisco assistant coach Bobb McKittrick, explaining the improvement in the offensive line since the the team’s last Super Bowl: “The same blocking for Ricky Patton looked better when Wendell Tyler started carrying the ball.”

Quotebook Lee Trevino, on why he pulls out a one-iron and holds it over his head when he sees lightning on the course: “Because even the Good Lord has trouble hitting a one-iron.”