Broncos Advance; Giants Hang 49 on 49ers : N. Y. Defense Adds Montana to Hit List

The Pasadena Express is a locomotive in blue bunting, and Sunday it did some number on the unfortunate San Francisco 49ers, a good team despite appearances, whose only crime was winning the NFC West and drawing the wrong playoff opponent.

Forced to appear at the Meadowlands, they were run over by the New York Giants who knocked out Joe Montana, reduced the rest of the 49er squad to its constituent parts and won in a 49-3 rout. The Washington Redskins will be next in the NFC final and that will be played here, too.

All that remained was to see if the 49ers could smile through their tears and bruises. Did Coach Bill Walsh call the last meeting between these teams his toughest loss as a head coach? That was a 2-1 pitcher’s duel compared to this one. What’s tougher than your toughest loss?

“Well, life is full of experiences,” said Walsh, trying a little smile.

“We were just shattered by a great team. We were very anticipatory for this game. We just got shattered. . . . As well-meaning as we were, as intent on winning, it was just one of those things.”

Those were his exact words. He used “shattered” several other times in brief remarks. His players offered others.

“Use whatever word you want,” said linebacker Jim Fahnhorst. “Shattered, stunned. We got dogged. Shattered, embarrassed, whatever.”

They may have been in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time. Six weeks ago, the 49ers had a 17-0 lead on this team at halftime. Of course, the Giants won, 21-17, a rally considered a landmark in their development from contenders to the latest nominee for Greatest Ever (This Year).

How far have the Giants come in six weeks, or what did the home field mean?

--Joe Morris, held to 13 yards in 14 carries at Candlestick Park, had 116 by halftime and 159 in the three periods he played. This isn’t surprising since he’s known to be a long day’s work on artificial turf. Bad news for the Redskins.

--Phil Simms, who threw three touchdown passes in the Candlestick rally, threw four more.

--Bill Parcells one-upped Walsh, the crown prince of innovation, having his field goal unit shift into a passing formation, leading to Jeff Rutledge’s pass to a wide-open Mark Bavaro and an ensuing touchdown. What do you call someone who out-thinks a genius?

--Montana, holding the fierce Giant rush at bay by unloading ever faster (CBS caught him at 1.6 seconds on one completion which seemed typical), was unloaded upon and knocked woozy by nose tackle Jim Burt late in the first half, while throwing a looping pass that Lawrence Taylor intercepted and returned for a touchdown.

Montana left the game with a concussion and was later taken by stretcher to the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan for observation.

“He is in stable condition and he’s going to stay overnight for observation, but I don’t foresee any problems,” said Dr. Peter Tsairis, chief of neurology at the Hospital for Special Surgery. “He has a mild to moderate concussion. We ran a brain scan, and it was normal.”

In view of later developments, it seems incredible to remember that the 49ers had the game’s first great opportunity. They flubbed it spectacularly, of course.

It was the first 49er possession. Remember, they were also considered a coming team, the one that could neutralize the Giant rush, an upset possibility. Montana got them a first down and then, at the 50, hit Jerry Rice running a slant-in that dazzled the Giant corner, Elvis Patterson. Rice caught the ball, streaked past free safety Herb Welch and was all set to tear untouched into the end zone when he . . .

Fumbled?

Yes he did. Hit by no one, Rice lost the ball at the Giant 27. It rolled on ahead of him toward the Giant goal. If he could pick it up, he was still in business. So instead of falling on the ball, as the coaches instruct, Rice tried to scoop it up on the dead run. He missed. Kenny Hill recovered in the end zone, and the Giants had dodged a bullet.

It was just about the only bullet the 49ers brought, it turned out.

“That hurt,” Fahnhorst said. “But there were a lot of hurts. That was just the first heartbreak in a long day.”

Said Lawrence Taylor, asked about the impact of a 49er touchdown:

“That would have made it 49-10.”

And the hurts just kept happening. Montana tried to throw a long pass to Rice, who saw both Giant safeties sitting deep and broke off his pattern. Montana must not have seen it because he threw the ball down the field, hitting Welch, a 12th-round draft pick from UCLA starting in place of the injured Terry Kinard. One reason Montana might have read incorrectly was that another of those linebackers, Carl Banks, was bearing down on him.

On the next play, Morris ran 45 yards for a touchdown and the Giants were up to 14-3.

Late in the half, they drove to the 49er 28. There, with a fourth and six, Parcells sent out Raul Allegre, ostensibly to kick a field goal. The 49ers sent out their kick-block team. Suddenly the Giant holder, backup quarterback Rutledge, a former Ram, dropped back into a shotgun formation and Allegre deployed as a receiver on the left side.

Special teams are rarely called upon to defense conventional plays and the few they see generally come off fake kicks. That the 49ers were in trouble was evident in the finger-pointing that was going on all over the field.

They covered Allegre all right, but they let Bavaro saunter into the secondary all by himself. Rutledge hit him for a 23-yard gain. Three plays later, Simms threw a touchdown pass to Bobby Johnson.

Was 21-3 a safe lead? The Giants didn’t have to worry about it for long. Two plays later, Montana, about to be levelled by Burt, unloaded a high pop fly that Taylor intercepted easily, after which he loped 34 yards untouched into the end zone.

“I talked to him (Montana) at halftime,” Dwight Clark said. “He didn’t really know what had happened to the ball. He asked me what happened. I told him LT caught it. He didn’t know they’d scored a touchdown. I think he was TKOd there for a little while.

“At 28-3, you’re not really out of it, but it wasn’t looking good. I don’t know that we could beat them on any day. We surely couldn’t today.

“The way the balls were coming, it seemed like our quarterbacks were being overwhelmed. I don’t know what was happening up front, whether they were blitzing or not. Our running game--we couldn’t get back to the line of scrimmage.

“Bill (Walsh) said he didn’t know if we could come back or not but that we should just go back out and play our game. That’s a good team. A lot better than I saw on film.

“Was that our worst beating? My first year here, we were tortured. Dallas beat us, 59-13, or something like that. But we’re supposed to be good now. We were on a roll, healthy.”

For those keeping track, Montana was the fourth quarterback the Giants have knocked out of a game this season. This ties them with last season’s four.

“That kind of put a damper on the day,” Burt said. “He doesn’t have the most talent but I feel he’s the best quarterback in the league. He’s so smart, he has so much desire. To come back from that injury (back surgery), the same injury I had. I just have so much respect for him. I know how hard he’s worked to come back.”

There was a second half. The 49ers didn’t play their game in this one, either. There were three more touchdowns, all by the Giants.

Finally, it ended. In between “shattereds,” Walsh called the Giants “great” a few times. Would he explain why?

“I just said they were great and we wish them the best of luck,” Walsh said, his enthusiasm for the topic waning rapidly. “We think they’ll go all the way. I just said all that.”

So we bid farewell to the champions of the NFC West, remembering what a man named Wavy Gravy said at Woodstock: There is always a little bit of heaven in a disaster area.

What was Sunday’s silver lining?

There but for a late-season slump might have gone the Rams. Had they won one of their last two regular-season games, it would have been them in the Meadowlands Sunday. Sometimes it’s better watching on television.