San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
From among NFL’s worst to best in the West
Only the most dedicated — OK, let’s be honest, delusional — 49ers fan went into 1981 confident that the team would catch the NFL by surprise and put together, to that point, the greatest season in franchise history.
A team that won 10 games in the previous three seasons
combined was going to equal that total by Week 13? Not likely.
And yet, when the 49ers walked off the sod-challenged Candlestick Park field they had done just that after subduing the Giants 17-10 to win — for the first time since 1972 — the NFC West championship.
“There were many times in the last eight years I never thought I’d see this day — many times,” said right tackle Keith Fahnhorst, who to that point had enjoyed one winning season (8-6 in 1976).
So, naturally, the emotional release was tectonic, right? Victory laps ... bottles of celebratory Champagne ... perhaps locker room music played at ear-splitting levels? Nothing of the kind. “Everybody was pretty happy out on the field, but (they) just came in and sat down on their stools,” said Randy Cross, a 49er since 1978 who sipped on a postgame Coke while talking to the media. “I think everyone was a little shocked.”
Added Fahnhorst: “The way it was right after the game, you’d have thought this was old hat for us, like it was the seventh time in the last eight years we’d won it.”
If the division title was decidedly unfamiliar to the 49ers and their fans, the formula followed to beat the Giants was predictable: blend a stifling defense with an opportunistic offense and wait for the dynamic rookie defensive backs to make plays. On this day, Ronnie Lott, Eric Wright and Carlton Williamson all made key contributions.
The 49ers opened the game seemingly intent on avoiding the kind of drama that had seen their previous five games decided by three or fewer points.
After Ray Wersching’s 36yard field-goal attempt was blocked to foil the 49ers’ first drive, they cashed in on their second when — after a Dwight Hicks interception — Johnny Davis scored on a 1-yard blast up the middle.
San Francisco began its first drive of the second quarter on New York’s 40 when Keena Turner recovered a Rob Carpenter fumble. Six plays later, Joe Montana scored on a 20yard draw — it would be the 49ers’ longest rushing TD of the season and would stand as the longest scoring run of Montana’s career — and it was 14-0.
But the offense bogged down as the Giants got close on Joe Danelo’s 52-yard field goal in the second quarter and a 3yard TD run from Carpenter on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it 14-10.
San Francisco finally found the scoreboard again in the fourth on a Wersching 23-yard field goal that capped 72-yard, 16-play drive that took 7:17 off the clock.
The Giants had the ball three times in the final 7 minutes, needing a TD to knot the score. Enter that 49ers rookie secondary.
On the first of those possessions, Williamson and Turner broke up a seconddown pass and Lott and Hicks did the same on third down. New York’s second possession stalled when Wright broke up a first-down pass and Hicks nearly intercepted Scott Brunner’s second-down throw.
The third was the game’s last and ended when Brunner’s desperation final-play heave was intercepted by Williamson.
Williamson’s second pick of the day was the Giants’ fifth turnover, a big factor in the 49ers enjoying a near 2-to-1 time-of-possession advantage (38:16 to 21:44).
NFC West title secured, the 49ers were quick to say they were anything but satisfied.
“I think everybody realizes how far we have an opportunity to go,” said Fahnhorst. “It feels good to have it wrapped up, but none of us are going to be satisfied with just the Western Division championship.”
Thirteen weeks into the season, that no longer sounded so delusional.