Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501300020
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Super Bowl III made the young game intriguing, and Miami - the site of that stunning upset of the Baltimore Colts by the New York Jets - traditionally has been the home of the best Super Bowls. Although the site has changed from the Orange Bowl to Joe Robbie Stadium, it's the city where Jim O'Brien kicked his field goal and where Jackie Smith dropped his pass.
It's also where San Francisco won its third NFL championship in Super Bowl XXIII, going 11 plays and 92 yards on a drive through Cincinnati's defense that Joe Montana and John Taylor punctuated with 34 seconds left. 49ers 20, Bengals 16.
The AFC's not-so-Super losing streak has reached a decade, and San Diego is the Super rookie that's supposed to get buffaloed this time. Most of the millions of party people who have turned Super Bowl Sunday into a national holiday are past picking which team to root for on the last Sunday of January. They root for a good game.
Anything's possible, as the Super Bowl XXIX coaches' resumes prove. San Diego's Bobby Ross is a graduate of VMI, the smallest Division I school playing football. San Francisco's George Seifert was hired as head coach at Cornell 20 years ago by Dick Schultz - yes, that Dick Schultz - and fired 18 years ago by Schultz.
The Chargers are the biggest underdogs in Super Bowl history - by more than three touchdowns - and for good reason. Make that reasons.
San Diego is going to have to run the ball and control the clock to have a chance to win. If it's a low-scoring game - and that's up to the Chargers, too - then San Ysidro Stan has a chance to play Broadway Joe.
The good news for the Chargers is that although the Niners ranked second in the league against the run in 1994, they really have had difficulty stopping quality ground games. The glossy statistic is more a function of so many teams falling behind early against San Francisco and having to pass.
San Diego must get bullish back Natrone Means outside San Francisco's superb young inside duo of Bryant Young and Dana Stubblefield and into the Niners' secondary. Ross must utilize the versatility of reserve Ronnie Harmon to force San Francisco to play more than Humphries' deep-throw desires. While the Chargers figure to pass away from Sanders, one of three Pro Bowl players in the Niners' secondary, they are just as likely to try to run at him.
Then, San Diego must convert possessions in the red zone into touchdowns more often than the 41.8 percent it managed during the regular season. The Chargers have more field goals than touchdowns from inside the 20, an incredible statistic for a power team that general manager Bobby Beathard and Ross have built in the slug-it-out style of play the NFC has favored.
In two previous playoff victories, the Chargers' defense has taken away a chunk of the Miami and Pittsburgh offenses. It wasn't so difficult against the Dolphins, who are run poor, but San Diego also stopped Pittsburgh's ground game, so Neil O'Donnell threw a record 54 times. That was good enough, until the end.
Pittsburgh completed slant patterns and over-the-middle passes all afternoon against San Diego in the AFC championship game. That's San Francisco's offense, the short-passing game, and there's no one better at turning short completions into long gains than Jerry Rice and Taylor.
San Diego ranks 22nd in the NFL in pass defense, and if the Chargers plan to sit back in zone coverage to prevent the big play, then Steve Young might dink them into AFC history with his wideouts and tight end Brent Jones. The Steelers and Dolphins aren't the Niners, who have more versatility in their attack, and perhaps the greatest collection of skill-position players in the NFL's 75 years.
O'Donnell and Dan Marino were no threat to run. Young is. Neither of San Diego's AFC playoff foes had a fullback like William Floyd or a running back with the speed of Ricky Watters. In the regular-season meeting between these Super Sans, Means averaged 2.7 yards per carry in a 38-15 victory by the Niners.
It shouldn't be that different seven weeks later. The guess is San Francisco 41, San Diego 20. The average NFC victory margin in 10 consecutive Super victories is 22.4, so, in one way, that score does beat the spread.
Keywords:
FOOTBALL
by CNB