49ers’ Super Bowl run has similarities to 1981 title team
SANTA CLARA >> A first-time NFL coach turning a losing franchise into a contender in his third year and getting the label of an offensive genius.
A charismatic quarterback in his third season in San Francisco emerging as a leader and a face of the franchise.
A talented defensive rookie who transformed a defense from a struggling one into a dominant unit.
What coach Kyle Shanahan, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, defensive end Nick Bosa and the rest of the San Francisco 49ers are doing this year harkens back to 1981 when Bill Walsh, Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott led the franchise to its first Super Bowl title.
“No one expected us to be where we wound up in terms of the playoffs,” longtime 49ers executive Carmen Policy said about the 1981 team. “The truth of the matter is no one expected these 49ers to be in the playoffs, either. They were hoping for a good solid year and maybe just maybe, depending on what happened in the NFC West, then sneak into a wild-card spot.
“Absolutely no one would have been able to credibly predict that we would be able to be the No. 1 seed this year. I feel that the harmony that existed in the 1981 season in the front office, on the field and in the locker room is the same as this iteration.”
Both versions of Super Bowl-bound 49ers teams got there after long stretches of losing. They are two of the three Super Bowl teams to make it that far after losing double-digit games for three straight seasons.
Walsh and Shanahan both took over two-win teams that had been on a coaching carousel and lacked any stability. The first steps were installing the innovative offenses both coaches became known for and instilling a selfless ethos in the locker room.
Then came the quarterbacks, with Walsh picking Montana in the third round of his first draft and Shanahan acquiring Garoppolo midway through his first season for a secondround pick.
The two quarterbacks each started only eight games those first two seasons. Montana needed time to supplant Steve DeBerg, and Garoppolo was sidelined three games into his second year by a seasonending knee injury.
But each showed enough to provide at least a little hope heading into the third year of the new regime.
“I think ‘81, didn’t exactly sneak up on us,” Policy said. “Once Joe started in 1980, that was a little spark there toward the end of that season. Bill was actually thinking of quitting after the first year. That’s how bad it got. During the beginning of the second year he was having some problems, like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on here? Do I have this in me?’ But then Joe took over at the quarterback position and there was a little bit of a spark. Then we had the draft.”
The Niners upgraded their defense when they drafted Lott eighth overall. As a rookie, he had seven interceptions, with three returned for touchdowns.
That’s the kind of impact Bosa made on this year’s version as the No. 2 overall pick, recording nine sacks and turning the unit into a fearsome one.
Then the victories started mounting. The 1981 team won seven in a row following a 1-2 start and this year’s version started the season 8-0.
“When you beat certain teams you feel pretty good about yourself,” Lott said. “We beat the Steelers early in the year and we felt pretty good about ourselves. We beat the Cowboys and we felt pretty good about ourselves. You only measure when you have a chance to beat certain teams. This year, for this team, I think early on they beat certain teams and they got really confident and the defense continued to grow. They kept getting better and playing faster. They’re probably the toughest defense in the league right now.”
Shanahan has likened a win in October at the defending NFC champion Los Angeles Rams as having the same kind of impact that the victories over Dallas and Pittsburgh had 38 years ago.
For Policy and thenowner Eddie DeBartolo, who grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, it was winning 17-14 against the Steelers, who had won four of the previous seven Super Bowls that really signaled the Niners had arrived.
East vs. West, 7:30 p.m.
Lakers Clippers Phoenix Sacramento Golden State
SOUTHWEST DIVISION
Houston Dallas Memphis San Antonio New Orleans
NORTHWEST DIVISION
Utah
Denver Oklahoma City Portland Minnesota
Toronto Boston Philadelphia Brooklyn New York
SOUTHEAST DIVISION
Miami Orlando Washington Charlotte Atlanta
CENTRAL DIVISION
Milwaukee Indiana Detroit Chicago Cleveland
Friday's games
Milwaukee 116, Charlotte 103 Boston 109, Orlando 98 Memphis 125, Detroit 112 Toronto 118, New York 112 Oklahoma City 140, Atlanta 111 Denver 113, New Orleans 106 Houston 131, Minnesota 124 Clippers 122, Miami 117 Sacramento 98, Chicago 81 Phoenix 103, San Antonio 99 Indiana 129, Golden State 118
Saturday's games
Utah 112, Dallas 107
Brooklyn at Detroit, (n)
Chicago at Cleveland, (n) Oklahoma City at Minnesota, (n) L.A. Lakers at Philadelphia, (n)
Sunday's games
.711 .689 .587 .413 .333
Houston at Denver, 12:30 p.m. Toronto at San Antonio, 1 p.m. Boston at New Orleans, 3 p.m. Brooklyn at New York, 3 p.m. L.A. Clippers at Orlando, 3 p.m. Phoenix at Memphis, 3 p.m. Washington at Atlanta, 3 p.m. Indiana at Portland, 6 p.m.
Monday's games
36 32 19 16 10 28 28 21 20 17 32 31 27 19 15 31 30 29 18 12 31 21 15 15 11 40 30 17 17 12 9 14 26 29 37 16 17 24 24 29 13 14 19 27 30 14 14 17 25 34 14 25 29 31 35 6 16 29 30 33 .800 .696 .422 .356 .213 .636 .622 .467 .455 .370 .689 .682 .630 .419 .261 .689 .457 .341 .326 .239 .870 .652 .370 .362 .267
Cleveland at Detroit, 4 p.m. Orlando at Miami, 4:30 p.m. Dallas at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m. Sacramento at Minnesota, 5 p.m. San Antonio at Chicago, 5 p.m. Houston at Utah, 6 p.m.
— 41⁄2 17 20 27
— 1⁄2 71⁄2
8 12
— 1 51⁄2 131⁄2
17
— 1⁄2 21⁄2 12 191⁄2
— 101⁄2 151⁄2 161⁄2 201⁄2
— 10 23 231⁄2 271⁄2
1. South Carolina (18-1) did not play.
2. Baylor (17-1) beat Texas Tech 87-79.
3. UConn (18-1) beat East Carolina 98-42.
4. Oregon (16-2) did not play.
5. Louisville (19-1) did not play.
6. Stanford (17-2) did not play.
7. Oregon State (16-3) did not play.
8. N.C. State (18-1) did not play.
9. Mississippi State (17-3) did not play.
10. UCLA (17-1) did not play.
11. DePaul (18-2) did not play.
12. Kentucky (15-3) did not play.
13. Gonzaga (20-1) beat Loyola Marymount 78-52.
14. Florida State (16-3) did not play.
15. Texas A&M (16-3) did not play.
16. Arizona State (15-5) did not play.
17. Indiana (15-5) did not play.
18. Arizona (16-3) did not play.
20. Maryland (15-4) did not play.
21. Arkansas (15-4) did not play.
22. Northwestern (17-2) did not play.
23. Tennessee (15-4) did not play.
24. South Dakota (18-2) did not play.
25. West Virginia (13-4) did not play.
BYU 71, Santa Clara 48
Colorado St. 56, Utah St. 55
Fresno St. 85, Boise St. 80
Gonzaga 78, Loyola Marymount 52 Grand Canyon 66, Utah Valley 59 Idaho 57, N. Colorado 46
Long Beach St. 56, UC Irvine 46 Montana 85, Weber St. 57 Montana St. 67, Idaho St. 59
New Mexico 87, Nevada 67
Pacific 68, Saint Mary's (Cal) 66 Portland 69, Pepperdine 67 Portland St. 66, N. Arizona 54 S. Utah 71, E. Washington 50
San Diego 54, San Francisco 50 San Diego St. 48, UNLV 39
San Jose St. 68, Air Force 60 Seattle 63, CS Bakersfield 57 UC Davis 42, Cal Poly 36
Vancouver Edmonton Calgary Arizona Vegas Sharks Anaheim Los Angeles 49 49 50 51 52 50 48 50
CENTRAL DIVISION
27 26 26 26 25 21 19 18
GP W
18 18 19 20 20 25 24 27 4 5 5 5 7 4 5 5 58 162 149 57 155 153 57 135 147 57 146 138 57 161 159 46 130 167 43 122 150 41 125 158
Saturday s-Torrey Pines GC (South -Host Course); 7,765 yards; Par 72 n-Torrey Pines GC (North); 7,258 yards; Par 72
San Diego
$7.5 million
Purse:
Third Round
Jon Rahm ................... 68n-71s-65s_204 -12 Ryan Palmer .............. 72s-62n-71s_205 -11 Rory McIlroy ............... 67n-73s-67s_207 -9 Sung Kang ................... 69n-71s-67s_207 -9 Harry Higgs ................. 70n-68s-69s_207 -9 Cameron Champ ........ 71n-68s-68s_207 -9 Tyler McCumber ........ 72n-68s-68s_208 -8 Tony Finau ................... 70s-70n-68s_208 -8 Marc Leishman ........... 68n-72s-68s_208 -8 Patrick Reed ................ 69n-69s-70s_208 -8 Sebastian Cappelen .. 66s-71n-71s_208 -8 Brandt Snedeker ........ 69n-67s-72s_208 -8 J.B. Holmes .................. 68s-69n-71s_208 -8 Tiger Woods ................ 69n-71s-69s_209 -7 Tom Hoge ...................... 71s-71n-67s_209 -7 Mark Anderson ........... 74s-66n-69s_209 -7 Bubba Watson ............ 67s-73n-69s_209 -7 Jamie Lovemark ......... 73n-68s-69s_210 -6 Cameron Davis ........... 76s-65n-69s_210 -6 Zac Blair ....................... 72s-66n-72s_210 -6 Jimmy Walker .............. 71n-70s-70s_211 -5 Joaquin Niemann ........ 71n-70s-70s_211 -5 Ben Taylor .................... 71s-69n-71s_211 -5 Brandon Wu ................ 68n-72s-71s_211 -5 Maverick McNealy ...... 71s-71n-69s_211 -5 Kevin Streelman ......... 72s-71n-68s_211 -5 Sungjae Im ................... 67n-73s-71s_211 -5 Patrick Rodgers .......... 70s-69n-72s_211 -5 Beau Hossler ............... 72s-66n-73s_211 -5 Keegan Bradley .......... 66n-72s-73s_211 -5 Max Homa ................... 73s-68n-71s_212 -4 Joseph Bramlett .......... 71n-70s-71s_212 -4 Joel Dahmen ................ 67n-73s-72s_212 -4 Jason Day .................... 73s-67n-72s_212 -4 Aaron Baddeley .......... 71s-72n-69s_212 -4 Jason Kokrak .............. 69n-74s-69s_212 -4 Will Gordon ................. 75s-68n-69s_212 -4 Cameron Tringale ...... 68n-75s-69s_212 -4 Jhonattan Vegas ........ 69n-68s-75s_212 -4 Russell Knox ................ 69s-74n-69s_212 -4 Zack Sucher ................ 70s-73n-69s_212 -4 Jason Dufner ................ 70s-71n-72s_213 -3 Matthew Wolff ........... 76s-66n-71s_213 -3 Jordan Spieth ............... 70s-70n-73s_213 -3 Lucas Glover ............... 73n-67s-73s_213 -3 Pat Perez ...................... 69n-74s-70s_213 -3 Robby Shelton ............. 71n-72s-70s_213 -3 Collin Morikawa .......... 70n-69s-74s_213 -3 Matthew NeSmith ....... 67n-70s-76s_213 -3 Denny McCarthy ......... 70n-71s-73s_214 -2 Chris Baker ................... 72s-68n-74s_214 -2 Hideki Matsuyama ...... 73s-67n-74s_214 -2 Martin Laird ................. 71s-71n-72s_214 -2 Rhein Gibson ................ 69n-73s-72s_214 -2 Scott Stallings ............. 71s-69n-74s_214 -2 J.J. Spaun ...................... 73s-67n-74s_214 -2 Stewart Cink ................ 68n-71s-75s_214 -2 Charley Hoffman ......... 69n-74s-71s_214 -2 John Huh ....................... 70n-73s-71s_214 -2 CameronSmith ........... 70n-71s-74s_215-1 Cameron Percy ............ 68s-73n-74s_215 -1 Kevin Tway ................... 67n-74s-74s_215 -1 Bill Haas ........................ 72n-70s-73s_215 -1 Talor Gooch .................. 71n-72s-72s_215 -1 Grayson Murray .......... 70n-73s-72s_215 -1 Xinjun Zhang ................ 67n-76s-72s_215 -1 Luke List ....................... 73s-70n-72s_215 -1
“No one expected us to be where we wound up in terms of the playoffs.”
— Longtime 49ers executive Carmen Policy on the 1981 team.
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