San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Walsh made former team pay for snub
Bill Walsh spent the days leading up to the 49ers’ game against Cincinnati in Week 14 of the 1981 season praising the Bengals, calling them the best team in football and insisting that the game was nothing personal, just strictly business. Horse hockey.
When Paul Brown — a cofounder of the Bengals and their head coach for the franchise’s first eight seasons — retired from coaching on Jan. 1, 1976, he chose Bill “Tiger” Johnson as his successor. Walsh, who had been on Brown’s staff for those eight seasons, was crushed. He resigned and joined the Chargers.
After a year in San Diego, Walsh was Stanford’s head coach for two seasons before the 49ers hired him in January 1979. But Walsh never forgot what happened in Cincinnati.
The 1981 game was personal. And while Walsh was reluctant to give the idea credence, his team was well aware.
“The players knew that he wanted this game bad,” quarterback Joe Montana said. “I don’t think it needed to be said.”
The 49ers — in particular their defense — did all the talking in a 21-3 victory that not only proved which team was the NFL’s best in 1981 but gave Walsh the win he so dearly sought.
Naturally, he deflected such postgame talk.
“I think it was a hard-fought game and the better team won,” Walsh said in a corner of the 49ers’ locker room. “It was a pleasant victory ... in particular for some of us who have represented the Bengals in the past . ... Certainly there wasn’t any revenge aspect.”
Did we mention horse hockey?
In improving to 11-3 with their franchise-record fifth consecutive road win, the 49ers forced six turnovers against a team that entered the game having committed an NFL-low 15 to that point.
It was the fourth time the 49ers had forced at least five turnovers and lifted their season total to 45. For context, Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers have 46 turnovers in their past 37 games — two-plus regular seasons — and San Francisco’s defense hasn’t had a five-turnover game since Week 11 in 2014, a span of 114 games.
Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson — who had been tutored by then-quarterbacks coach Walsh from 1971-75 — threw three interceptions and was knocked out of the game by a sprained toe in the third quarter.
“All year we’ve been forcing teams to make turnovers,” said Anderson. “Today we were forced to make ’em.”
Ronnie Lott, Keena Turner and Eric Wright had the interceptions. Lott also recovered a fumble and forced two others that were recovered by Dwight Hicks (giving him 12 turnovers — nine interceptions, three fumble recoveries — in 14 games).
“We go out there with the idea of getting the ball for our offense,” said Lott. “We’ve got an aggressive secondary. We’re always looking for the ball.”
The defensive aggressiveness resulted in Anderson — who entered the game as the NFL’s leading passer — completing 11 of 20 passes for 97 yards for a QB rating of 28.5. His replacement, Jack Thompson, was slightly better (10for-18, 144 yards) but threw an interception and was sacked twice as the 49ers held the league’s second-highest scoring team without a touchdown.
Montana fared better than both, completing 23 of 36 for 187 yards, one interception and first-half touchdown passes to Bill Ring (4 yards) and Dwight Clark (15 yards). Montana completed the scoring with a 1-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
Clark finished with 78 receiving yards (on six receptions) and became the 49ers’ first 1,000-yard receiver since Gene Washington in 1970.
The day was notable, as well, for Ring — a special teams standout asked to help fill in for the injured Paul Hofer. The TD was the first of what would be a six-year career.
“I didn’t expect to be in this position,” said the rookie out of BYU. “I’m kind of overwhelmed by the whole thing.”
The same likely could have been said about Walsh, though he would never admit it.
But if he thought a regularseason defeat of the Bengals was special, a much bigger game against Cincinnati was looming for him and the 49ers seven weeks down the line.