49ers Get Left in San Francisco

The 49ers had been here dozens of times, watching a muddied team limp from the Candlestick Park field with their Super Bowl hopes stolen.

It brought some of them to tears Saturday afternoon when that team was them.

Somebody get the ghosts on the line. After a 27-17 victory over the defending Super Bowl champion 49ers, the Green Bay Packers are going to a championship game for the first time since Fuzzy Thurston was still fuzzy.

“Before the game, somebody was using that high school term--’They put their jocks on the same way we do,’ ” said Packer quarterback Brett Favre, grinning behind his usual stubble. “I guess they do.”

And as it turns out, they also mourn the same.

“On this team, winning the Super Bowl is the only standard of excellence,” said 49er guard Jesse Sapolu, still dabbing moisture from his eyes. “What happened today, I will not accept it. I will not.”

In a game that was finished after 19 minutes--when the Packers held a 21-0 lead and had outgained the 49ers by 171 yards--the official ending was even more revealing.

On one side of the field, a man was running up and down in front of the stands, slapping hands, waving his fist, a one-man parade.

Last year after the NFC championship game here, that man was 49er quarterback Steve Young.

This year, it was Packer defensive end Reggie White.

“We’ve made a very big step today,” said White after his team advanced to the NFC championship game, Green Bay’s first title appearance since 1967.

On the other sideline, a man limped toward the locker room with dirt falling off his face, his head bowed.

Last year, that man was a visiting quarterback named Troy Aikman.

This year, it was hometown hero Steve Young.

“We could find plenty of excuses but we can’t take them,” Young said. “We’ll take it on the nose.”

And off the ears, and between the eyes, and off the top of the head, and everywhere else after being victimized by a Three Stooges-style beating and embarrassment by the better-prepared Packers.

Under a new plan by defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur--the former Los Angeles Ram coach who has made a career out of the unexpected--the Packers made the 49er offense look like it was playing in a backyard.

Sometimes the Packers rushed seven men. Other times they played with seven defensive backs. Each time, they pushed, punched, and prodded the 49ers into blown routes, dropped balls and eventually fights.

“Coming in here we got no respect, so we showed no respect,” said Packer receiver Robert Brooks.

The result was a disorganized mess featuring an NFL-playoff record 65 passes by Young, who completed 32 while throwing the rest to heaven-knows-where.

Young threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. Fullback Adam Walker lost a fumble that was returned 31 yards by Craig Newsome for the game’s first score.

Young was sacked three times. And in the world’s most efficient passing offense, nobody even came close to catching a touchdown pass.

By the time docile tight end Brent Jones was taking wild swings at defenders, while untouchable receiver Jerry Rice was stuffing his shoulder pads back in, it was clear the mighty 49ers had been spooked.

And this was still in the first half.

“We saw some desperation in their eyes,” Packer safety Leroy Butler said. “You don’t want any small-town guys from Green Bay to kick your tail like that. I’d be frustrated too.”

Then there was Favre, who only had the best game of his best season.

He completed 11 of his first 12 passes, one of those completions being a three-yard touchdown pass to Keith Jackson.

That gave the Packers an early two-touchdown lead while capping a four-play drive in which all 62 yards came on Favre passes.

Another completion was a 13-yard touchdown pass to Mark Chmura that, with the extra point, gave the Packers a 21-0 lead only four minutes into the second quarter. On that drive, 69 of 72 yards came on Favre passes.

During the afternoon he completed one 11-yard pass to Antonio Freeman on a blind lob after being spun around by a blitz.

Later, he completed a 28-yard pass to Jackson after having slipped to the ground. Instead of staying there, though, Favre jumped to his feet and threw without seemingly looking.

That first great pass is what stunned 49er Coach George Seifert.

“That was a statement. . . . I mean, that ball was literally up for grabs and they came down with it,” he said, shaking his head.

That second great pass is what stunned Gary Plummer, the 49er linebacker beaten by Jackson for most of 101 yards worth of catches in the tight end’s best day as a Packer.

“This is why [Favre] is the league MVP,” Plummer said. “The guy is unbelievable.”

Favre believes people will continue to find his team not worth believing. He says he likes that. He says it’s more fun that way.

Regarding the Packers’ possible foe in the NFC championship game next Sunday, Favre said, “I’m sure everybody is going to think that Dallas will beat Philly [today], then Green Bay will go on to Dallas next week and the same thing will happen.”

The Packers, by the way, have lost in Dallas five times in the last three seasons, including twice in the last two postseasons.

“That’s fine,” Favre said. “But I think we opened some eyes today.”

And caused some serious shouting by the frustrated 49ers who, for once, were shouting at each other.

After beginning the second half with a trademark 14-play touchdown drive that closed the gap to 21-10, the 49ers had the ball again on their 20-yard line late in the quarter with a chance to keep it going.

But that drive lasted only four plays, which included one offsides penalty and dropped passes by J.J. Stokes and Walker, who at that point had mishandled the ball 10 of the last 12 times he touched it.

The Packers regained possession, Favre started a drive with that slip-and-recover pass, and they eventually added three points on Chris Jacke’s 27-yard field goal at the end of the third quarter to finish off the champions.

For the first time in three years, there is a chance that someone other than the 49ers or Dallas Cowboys will be going to the Super Bowl from the NFC. Which means there is a chance somebody else can win it.

By the time you are reading this, the 49ers still aren’t believing it won’t be them.

“I never expected to lose,” said cornerback Eric Davis softly. “Never, ever, ever.”