SUPER BOWL XXIX / SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS 49, SAN DIEGO CHARGERS 26 : 49ers Live Up to Their Name : Young, Rice, Watters Lead Record-Breaking Assault Against Chargers, 49-26

Steve Young simply wanted to get out from under the shadow of Joe Montana.

He did more than that Sunday, obliterating it with six touchdown passes as the San Francisco 49ers overwhelmed San Diego, 49-26, to become the first team ever to win five Super Bowls.

Young’s six touchdown passes broke the Super Bowl record of five set five years ago by Montana, who led San Francisco to its first four titles. Jerry Rice caught three of them and Ricky Watters caught two more and ran nine yards for a third score.

This Super Bowl was everything it was supposed to be--a rout. The 49ers, 18-point favorites, became the 11th consecutive NFC team to win the NFL title.

Young, the unanimous most valuable player, finished 24 for 36 for 325 yards without an interception. He also was the game’s leading rusher with 49 yards in five carries before leaving with 5:39 left.

It took exactly 4 minutes and 55 seconds for San Francisco to demoralize the Chargers, playing in the Super Bowl for the first time. Touchdown passes by Young of 44 yards to Rice and 51 yards to Watters did the trick.

But more important to Young, it was a smashing certification in his exorcism of Montana’s ghost. More important to the 49ers, it completed their single-minded mission of winning the Super Bowl after losing NFC title game three of the last four years.

It also gave George Seifert a Super Bowl title he can call his own--his first, in 1990, was with a team handed him by Bill Walsh.

Young demonstrated his elation after his fifth touchdown, a 13-yarder to Rice. He celebrated lying on the ground with his arms signaling touchdown, as Rice trotted into the end zone.

The three touchdowns by Rice and Watters were another reminder of San Francisco’s offensive efficiency over the last 15 years. The only other players to score three touchdowns in a Super Bowl were both 49ers--Rice in 1990 and Roger Craig in 1985.

And the 131 points scored by San Francisco in its three playoff games broke yet another record held by the 1990 team, which scored 126 in its three postseason victories.

Rice, who twice received intravenous fluids before the game for flu-like symptoms, caught 10 passes for 149 yards, and administered the quick shock--splitting the San Diego secondary for the first touchdown only 1:24 into the game. He also caught second-half scoring passes of 15 and 7 yards.

But it was the quick touchdown that probably squelched any thoughts the Chargers might have had of an upset.

Like most teams in their first Super Bowl, they clearly had the jitters.

They dropped passes, took silly penalties, missed tackles and generally did what most AFC teams have done over the past 11 years--lose big. Only two of the 11 NFC victories have been close, with the average margin over the first 10 was 38-15. Coincidentally, that was the score by which the 49ers beat the Chargers on Dec. 11 in a regular-season game.

The highlight for the Chargers came when they were down 42-10--Andre Coleman’s 98-yard kickoff return for a score with 3:01 left in the third period after Young connected with Rice for a 15-yard touchdown.

Then they set a record of their own when Stan Humphries threw to Mark Seay for a two-point conversion, the first in the Super Bowl in this first season the NFL has gone to the two-pointer.

But by the end, it was more a sideshow than anything else. Even Deion Sanders, who accomplished his goal of a Super Bowl title, got in on offense and nearly caught a long pass. Then, with two minutes left, third-string quarterback Bill Musgrave got in and completed a short pass to backup tight end Ted Popson.

Humphries completed the festival of broken records with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Tony Martin with 2:25 left and then hit Alfred Pupunu with another two-pointer. That gave the two teams a combined 75 points, breaking the record set two years ago when Dallas beat Buffalo 52-17.

San Francisco wanted to send a message to San Diego and it sent that message quickly.

A sellout crowd that sat through a numbing Disney laser and light pregame show barely had time to adjust to football when the 49ers had two touchdowns in the first 4:55.

Those two took all of seven plays--a four-yard run by Floyd and an 11-yard pass from Young put the ball at the Chargers’ 44. Then Young found Rice deep over the middle between Darren Carrington and Stanley Richard for the fastest touchdown in Super Bowl history. That broke the record of 1:57 set by Denver on a touchdown pass by John Elway seven years ago.

San Francisco’s touchdown also set three more records for the record-heavy Rice--most touchdowns, most points and most receiving yards lifetime in the Super Bowl.

The Chargers went three and out, and this time it took San Francisco four plays and 1:45 to score. The third play of the drive was a 21-yard scramble by Young, the fourth a 51-yard pass to Watters--also over the middle--who broke tackles by Carrington and Richard for the touchdown.

Then San Diego did what it was wanted to do, but 14 points too late.

The Chargers kept the San Francisco offense off the field for 7:21 while going 78 yards in 13 plays for Natrone Means’ 1-yard touchdown run. It was set up by one of the few plays involving Sanders in the half, a pass interference against Shawn Jefferson on the goal line.

In your face, said Young and the new, trash-talking 49ers.

They simply went down the field--a little more slowly this time--and scored again. This one started with an 18-yarder to Rice and featured only one third-down play, a sneak by Young that put the ball on the five.

On the next play, Floyd snuck through the middle, Young hit him in the end zone and it was 21-7 only 1:58 into the second quarter.

The Chargers went nowhere on their next possession and so did the 49ers, probably because Rice was in the locker room getting a sprained shoulder treated.

But he returned on the next series after one of the Chargers’ silly mistakes--a roughness call on rookie Isaac Davis--set them back to the 9.

After Adam Walker deflected Bryan Wagner’s punt, the 49ers got the ball at the San Diego 49 and they methodically marched to the end zone, the touchdown coming on an eight-yard pass in the flat to Watters. It was one of the 49ers’ favorite plays, one perfected by Montana and Craig, and the Chargers misplayed it--covering Watters with a linebacker, David Griggs.

Then came another series that demonstrated the difference between the teams.

San Diego moved smartly, Humphries finding Mark Seay for 17 yards and Eric Bieniemy for 33 more to put the ball on the 13. But they scored touchdowns only 43% of the time they got inside the 20 this year and this was another failure--three incomplete passes and John Carney’s 31-yard field goal that made it 28-10.

Young finished the first half with 17 completions in 23 attempts for 239 yards and four touchdowns--a game in itself for most quarterbacks. Yet it wasn’t even the best in Super Bowl history--Washington’s Doug Williams had 306 yards in the first half of the 1988 Super Bowl.