DRIVE TIME
JOE MONTANA didn’t take a plane, train or automobile but chose to drive instead.
The ultimate football Super hero drove the San Francisco 49ers 92 yards in the waning moments of Super Bowl XXIII to beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 20-16, for their third title of the decade.
And it all started with an assist from John Candy. Trailing by three points and standing at his own 8-yard line, Montana broke the ice in a tense huddle by pointing out the Canadian comic actor in the stands. From there, Montana cemented his Super Bowl legend, completing 8-of-9 passes on the 11-play drive that ended with a 10-yard TD strike to John Taylor with 34 seconds left.
Montana led the winning drive, and Taylor caught the winning pass, but Jerry Rice was named MVP. Rice caught 11 passes for 215 yards and a touchdown. He caught three passes for 51 yards on the last drive, including a 27-yarder on secondand-20 from the Bengal 45. On the winning play, Rice went in motion to the left side and turned upfield right next to Taylor. That drew double coverage to Rice, leaving Taylor room to cut to the post and get open for the winning score.
Rice arrived as a first-round draft pick in 1985, three months after the Niners routed the Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX. After getting roughed up a couple years in a row by the Giants and then getting upset by the Vikings in the playoffs, the Niners were back to stake their claim as the team of the 1980s.
In the ’88 playoffs, Rice had five touchdowns and 194 receiving yards as the Niners hammered the Vikings and Bears by a combined 62-12 to set up a rematch of Super Bowl XVI, the third rematch in Super Bowl history. The Bengals were led by NFL MVP Boomer Esiason, who threw 28 TD passes and just 14 interceptions, and coach Sam Wyche, who had been a Niners assistant in Super Bowl XVI.
The game started with a bad break for the Bengals, literally. Pro Bowl defensive tackle linebacker Tim Krumrie shattered his left tibia and fibula and had to be carted off the field, his mangled leg in an air cast.
The expected fireworks never arrived. Both defenses dug in, resulting in the first halftime tie in Super Bowl history at 3-3. Esiason turned in a heroic effort in defeat as a shoulder injury limited him to attempting just 25 passes. He completed 11 for 144 yards with one interception.
Montana completed 23 of 36 passes for 357 yards and two touchdown passes. Roger Craig caught eight passes for 101 yards, the first running back to have 100 receiving yards in a Super Bowl. Taylor’s TD grab was his only catch of the game, but he did return three punts for 56 yards and a Super Bowl-record 18.7 average. Bill Walsh stepped down as head coach after the Super Bowl, leaving behind a long legacy of assistant coaches who would make sure the short passes of his West Coast offense would go deep into the heart of pro football for years to come.
And although it would be another year before the Niners would cap off the 1980s by thrashing the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXIV, unconfirmed postgame reports had Candy ordering up three orange whips, one each for Montana, Rice and Taylor.