49ers Win Super Bowl --Rout Broncos, 55-10 : Football: A record-setting Joe Montana leads the most lopsided victory in the title game’s 24 years.

Joe Montana and his teammates staked their bids for greatness Sunday as the quarterback led the San Francisco 49ers to a 55-10 rout of the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV.

Montana threw five touchdown passes, a Super Bowl record. He now has a career total of 11, another record.

The 49ers became the first National Football League team to win back-to-back championships in 10 years, since the Pittsburgh Steelers did it.

“He’s probably the greatest quarterback ever to play this game,” said 49er Coach George Seifert.

The 49ers also tied the Steelers with their fourth Super Bowl victory. Like the Steelers, the 49ers have never lost.

The Broncos tied the Minnesota Vikings with their fourth Super Bowl loss. Like the Vikings, the Broncos have never won.

Montana threw touchdown passes of 20, 38 and 28 yards to Jerry Rice; a 7-yarder to Brent Jones, and one for 35 to John Taylor.

Montana, 33, completed 78.3% of his passes in his three postseason games. He threw 11 touchdown passes and no interceptions.

In the three first halves, when the games were marginally more competitive, Montana was even better: 79.3% with nine touchdowns.

Sunday’s game was a mismatch. The Broncos came in 12-point underdogs, the largest spread in 20 years, and promptly fell behind, 7-0, when Montana drove the 49ers 66 yards on their first possession, finishing the drive with a 20-yard pass to Rice.

The Broncos closed to 7-3 on David Treadwell’s 42-yard field goal, then forced a San Francisco punt and took over in good field position, at their 49.

However, halfback Bobby Humphrey fumbled and the 49ers’ Kevin Fagan recovered. Montana drove the 49ers in again, throwing a 7-yard scoring pass to his tight end, Jones.

Montana then drove the 49ers 69 yards for a 20-3 lead. Then, with 1:38 left in the second quarter, he took them 59 yards to score again, requiring 64 seconds to run five plays, the last a 38-yard pass to Rice behind Bronco safety Dennis Smith.

Denver’s John Elway threw interceptions on the first two Bronco possessions of the second half. The 49ers converted both into touchdowns and led, 41-3.

Elway went 10 for 26, was sacked four times and held to 8 yards in his four rushes. Coach Dan Reeves let backup Gary Kubiak finish the last 9:28.

Records fell throughout the second half. The 49ers’ 55 points eclipsed the record 46, set by the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX. Rice’s three touchdowns and Roger Craig’s two gave each a career total of four in Super Bowls, tying them with the Steelers’ Franco Harris.

Seifert became the second rookie coach to win a Super Bowl, joining Baltimore’s Don McCafferty.

The 49ers have won Super Bowls in 1982, ‘85, ’89 and ’90. The National Conference has won the last six Super Bowls, since the AFC Raiders’ victory in 1984.

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