Miami Is B-Fenseless Against Montana : 49er Offense Rolls, 38-16, in Super Bowl

Joe Montana had the kind of game other quarterbacks only dream of, and his San Francisco 49ers crushed the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX here Sunday, 38-16.

Montana, ever cool, calm and collected, passed for three touchdowns and ran for a fourth in the victory. He so controlled this game that, in years to come, many will forget that the touted quarterback coming into this one was the other guy, Miami’s Dan Marino.

Montana completed 24 of 35 passes for 331 yards, breaking Pittsburgh quarterback Terry Bradshaw’s Super Bowl record of 318 yards set six years ago. Montana also ran for 59 yards, breaking the record of 37 set by Dallas’ Roger Staubach in Super Bowl XIII.

Montana also broke the hearts of Dolphin fans, whose team was losing for the second time in three years in this game. They lost at Pasadena in 1983 to the Washington Redskins.

Montana had help from fullback Roger Craig, who caught two touchdown passes and ran for a record third, and from a defense whose pressure on Marino exceeded anything a Dolphin opponent had been able to do in this record-breaking season.

Marino didn’t have that bad a day. He had two passes intercepted in the second half, but by that time, everybody in the place, especially the 49er defensive backs, knew what he had to do.

The real breakdown in the Miami effort was its defense, the Killer B’s, which was manhandled by Montana.

It was the second Super Bowl victory in four years for the 49ers, who finished with an NFL-record 18 victories against one loss. The Dolphins finished 16-3.

The first half had more action than a Clint Eastwood movie, and almost as many victims.

The 49ers took a 28-16 lead into the locker room. But they also had to take with them the feeling that they had, at least partially, messed up a good thing. The good thing was a 28-10 lead they had going into the final minute of the second period.

They had stopped a long Dolphins’ drive--72 yards in 12 plays--and made Marino settle for a 31-yard field goal from Uwe von Schamann.

Marino had tried an alley-oop pass to Mark Clayton on third down from the 49er 13. But Ronnie Lott, right in Clayton’s face as he tried to jump high and take the ball, was able to swat the pass away on the way down as Clayton got his hands on it.

That meant that von Schamann’s field goal for 28-13 was really a moral victory of sorts for the 49ers. That was, until the ensuing kickoff.

The Dolphins booted a squirter that came up short of the sure-handed backs lined up deep to receive. Somehow, it worked its way to non-heralded special team’s player Guy McIntyre, an offensive guard.

McIntyre scooped the ball up just fine, then knelt to the ground, waiting for officials to blow the whistle. Not being a running back, he obviously was unfamiliar with the rule that says you aren’t down, even if your knee is, until a member of the opposing team puts you there.

The fact that there were no Dolphins as close as San Jose finally prompted a couple of McIntyre’s teammates to persuade him verbally to get up and run. About that time, as he began to rise to sprint position, one Dolphin blasted him, then another.

Once again, unfamiliar with this sort of predicament, McIntyre dropped the ball.

Jim Jensen, a part-time wide receiver and third-string quarterback, pounced on the ball and, with four seconds left, the Dolphins had a Christmas present about a month late.

Von Schamann kicked a 30-yarder this time, and the 49ers’ 28-16 cushion looked lumpy all of a sudden.

San Francisco got that cushion mostly because Montana was sensational. He completed 13 of 18 for 168 yards and 2 touchdowns. Then, on the side, he rushed four times for 47 yards and another touchdown. Not a bad half. Not a bad season for some guys.

Marino didn’t do all that badly himself, clicking on 17 of 27 for 179 yards and a touchdown. But Marino had the misfortune of being on the same team with the Dolphins’ defensive unit, the sieve kids. They stopped Montana and the 49ers in the first half like a goalie with bad hands.

After Von Schamann opened the scoring with a 37-yard kick, Montana scrambled for 15 yards on a big third-down play and then finished what he was shooting for on the next play with a 33-yard scoring pass to running back Carl Monroe.

On the play, Montana had his choice of Monroe or Renaldo Nehemiah, who was wide open in the end zone. Such was par for the Dolphin defense in this first half.

Marino struck back immediately. Or, to be more exact, 2:27 after Montana connected with Monroe. He marched the Dolphins to the two in five plays, then tossed a little pass to tight end Dan Johnson in the end zone, and Miami led, 10-7.

At this point, it appeared as if the experts would be right; that the winning team would be the last team to have the ball in an all-out shootout.

But Montana wrecked that, at least temporarily.

Three times, the 49er defense stopped Miami and forced a punt by Reggie Roby. And all three times, Montana directed a scoring drive.

The first one was an eight-yard touchdown pass to Craig, who caught the ball on the two and kind of stumbled into the end zone.

Next, Montana marched his team 55 yards in six plays. On the touchdown play, Montana checked off a play on the line of scrimmage, dropped back to pass, saw that his audible hadn’t really been that neat an idea, and merely tucked the ball away, skipped around left end and dived into the end zone. Ray Wersching’s kick made it 21-10.

Again, Marino came up short, the 49ers took over and Montana marched his team to a score. This one took 52 yards and nine plays, and it also was successful partly because of an officiating call that appeared, after the instant replay, to be incorrect.

Montana, throwing to Freddie Solomon on second and three from the Miami 30, hit him, and Solomon appeared to take three steps before being hit. When he was, the ball popped loose, Lyle Blackwood of Miami picked it up and headed the other way. But the officials said the apparent fumble was merely an incomplete pass.

That allowed Montana to get a first down on the next play, and to get the 49ers into position for Craig’s two-yard scoring run.

That made it 28-10, and all seemed rosy for 49er fans until the ball found its way into McIntyre’s hands.

First half statistics of note included San Francisco’s 125-9 rushing edge and the 44 points totaled by the two teams that set a Super Bowl record for one half of play. The old mark was 35 by Dallas and Pittsburgh in 1979.

One other statistic. Only two teams scored more than 28 points against the 49ers this season, the Raiders and the Chargers. So, even with McIntyre’s mishap, the Dolphins appeared to have a tough climb in the second half.

The 49ers increased their lead to 38-16 at the end of three quarters, and the celebration had already begun in the stands.

Miami had first possession of the third period but went nowhere. And the 49er crowd got an extra treat when the San Francisco defense began getting to the normally well-protected Marino.

They sacked him once on his first series of the period, and twice on the next one. And when the 49ers got to him once more later in the half, it marked the first time Marino had been sacked as many as four times in one game.

While that was going on, the 49ers were scoring twice, once on a 27-yard field goal by Wersching and later on a 16-yard pass reception from Montana to Craig. Craig took the pass over the middle and romped home for his third touchdown of the day.

That made it 38-16, and when Marino had passes intercepted later in the half by Eric Wright and Carlton Williamson, each time when the Dolphins were closing in on a touchdown, it appeared that San Francisco had the game well under control.