X'd, O'd And Ko'd

Trailing 7-0, Anderson completed a long pass to Cris Collinsworth down to the 49er five, but Cornerback Eric Wright stripped the ball from Collins-worth, setting up that 92-yard drive. A familiar pattern was establishing itself. Six turnovers did the Bengals in when the 49ers beat them 21-3 in December, some of them forced, some of them lucky. Now, midway in the second quarter, they had committed two. Cut the field to 95 yards and Cincinnati would have had two touchdowns.

The number rose to three in the third quarter. The San Francisco offense, which had been so pretty in the first half, was now crumbling under the ferocious pressure of strong-safety and linebacker blitzes. Eight plays for four yards was the 49ers' total output for the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Bengals were driving, driving, getting good yardage out of that three-wide-receiver left formation, burning the 49ers with a flea-flicker, stunning them with a 49-yard bomb to Collins-worth, over Wright's coverage.

Now they were down to the three-yard line, first-and-goal, trailing 20-7 in the quarter's dying moments. The Niner goal-line defense—six linemen, four linebackers and Lott in the secondary—bunched in to stop the thrusts of 249-pound Pete Johnson on the first two downs; Inside linebacker Jack Reynolds cracked him one time for the hit of the game, a blow that left Reynolds "groggy and dazed—but I wasn't going to come out." Next, Dan Bunz stopped Charles Alexander on a swing pass, an almost impossible play for a big guy like Bunz. Then he was in the middle of the final surge that stuffed Johnson. "Snapped my chin strap, knocked the screws loose from my face bar," Bunz said.

The goal-line stand bought six minutes for the 49ers. Cincy scored five minutes into the fourth quarter, and now it was a 20-14 ball game with plenty of time left. At. this point the 49ers again showed their amazing knack for doing the unexpected. They threw two passes, the second one the 22-yard completion to Wilson, and with 9:38 showing on the clock their passing attack was over, finito. The team that uses the pass to set up the run went Big Ten. No more passes, not one. Seven straight running plays led to a 40-yard field goal by Wersching and burned more than five minutes off the clock. After Wright intercepted a deep sideline pass for Collinsworth and returned it 25 yards to the Bengal 22, the 49ers ran the ball six more times and kicked another field goal. The clock showed 1:57, they were up 26-14 and the only thing left was a long, concession TD drive for the Bengals, an onside kick that was recovered by Clark, and the trophy presentation ceremony.

How will we evaluate this Super Bowl champion? The 49ers weren't supposed to be able to run the ball, but when they had to they did, most of the time on traps and counters by Patton, occasionally by Cooper. "Great, great guards," Walsh said. "Randy Cross and John Ayers are the two best pulling guards in football. That aspect of the game's been overlooked while everyone's been collecting massive offensive linemen."

Reynolds, the middle man on those superb L.A. Ram defenses, always had been a skeptic. "If we do it again next year I'll be convinced," he had said during the week. Now, dressing slowly after the greatest victory in his life, he conceded that he might have been wrong. "I'm used to the dominating defense loaded with All-Pros," he said. "This team? Well, it has something the Rams have lacked for the last few years. Togetherness, people who are all pulling for each other. Plus a class organization. Repeat—class."

"We're a team of character," Walsh said. "You could see it in our goal-line stand, in the way we played all day. I'm sure a lot of people still aren't convinced. The scouts don't see great talent here. Most of them picked the Bengals to win. Most of the coaches, too, even the coaches in our own division. They were looking at the talent, at the numbers. But most of the players around the league picked us. Their vision was clearer. They could see something that the others couldn't—inspiration."

On Monday the 49ers were to enjoy a motorcade through San Francisco, even the six Pro Bowl players who were supposed to be in Hawaii for NFC Coach John McKay's meaningless Monday-night meeting. Sorry, league, we've got a better thing going for us right here in San Francisco.

"It's only McKay's offense, anyway," said Cross, a UCLA grad. "If guys from USC can learn it, how complicated can it be? We're used to something a little more interesting."