49ers Crush the Rams, Head for Super Bowl : Pro football: Joe Montana has a nearly perfect day in 30-3 victory. Showdown against Denver is next.

Joe Montana added a near-perfect Sunday to a near-perfect season.

And with near-perfect defensive help, the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Los Angeles Rams, 30-3, for the NFC championship and moved within one game of joining the Pittsburgh Steelers as the dominant team of the Super Bowl era.

“The burden’s on all of us and we accept it and look forward to it,” said Coach George Seifert, who in his first year went 14-2 in the regular season and won two playoff games by a combined score of 71-16.

Against the AFC champion Denver Broncos Jan. 28 in New Orleans, the 49ers will try to become the first team since the Steelers in 1979 and 1980 to win two consecutive NFL titles and the only other team to win four Super Bowls. Before they were even out of the showers, they had been installed as 10-point favorites.

Montana got his slice of playoff history a game early on Sunday.

After an MVP season in which he set a record for quarterback efficiency rating, Montana completed 26 of 30 passes for 262 yards, 156 of them in a 21-0 second quarter that blew away the division rivals who had split with San Francisco during the season.

Two of those scores came on a 20-yard touchdown pass to Brent Jones and an 18-yarder to John Taylor with 9 seconds left in the half that gave the 49ers a 21-3 halftime lead.

They were his 30th and 31st postseason touchdown passes, breaking a record set by Terry Bradshaw of those four Steeler teams.

“The receivers were able to find the holes and I was able to get it in there,” said a typically modest Montana.

Roger Craig, who rushed for 93 yards, ran one yard for a touchdown and Mike Cofer added three second-half field goals. The defense, meanwhile, had three interceptions against Jim Everett and the Ram passing attack that had bedeviled the 49ers in the past. Everett completed 16 of 41 for 141 yards and was under pressure all day.

Even so, the Rams began well, taking a short punt by Barry Helton to midfield, them moving to the 49ers’ six-yard line in 10 plays. But on third and goal the defense forced Everett to throw the ball away, and the Rams had to settle for Mike Lansford’s 23-yard field goal.

San Francisco moved on its second possession, but Brent Jones fumbled after a completion, guard Guy McIntyre picked it up and fumbled again and Larry Kelm finally got the ball for the Rams. But their drive stalled after Everett hung the ball too high for a wide-open Flipper Anderson, and Ronnie Lott got over to knock it away at the five.

That set up an 89-yard, 13-play drive that put San Francisco up 7 to 3. Montana was five for five for 67 yards on the drive and capped it by finding Jones wide open over the middle from the 20 for the score at 3:33 into the second period.

Tim McKyer, in Seifert’s doghouse most of the season, set up the next score when he picked off a pass that deflected off first Henry Ellard and then teammate Don Griffin and took it 27 yards to the Rams’ 27.

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