Super Bowl History, 3rd Add

After a week of riots within Miami, San Francisco captured its third Super Bowl of the 1980s and became the first NFC team to win three times.

The 49ers outgained the Bengals 454 to 229, but found themselves trailing late in the game. Jim Breech’s 40-yard field goal, with 3:20 remaining gave Cincinnati a 16-13 lead.

San Francisco started the winning drive at its 8-yard line, with quarterback Joe Montana famously scanning the crowd at the beginning of the march and telling his teammates, “Look, there’s John Candy.”

Then Montana took apart Cincinnati’s defense. On the 11th play of the series, Montana hit John Taylor with a 10-yard pass over middle for the winning touchdown with 34 seconds remaining.

At halftime, the score was 3-3, the first time in Super Bowl history the game was tied at intermission. Both teams exchanged field goals and Stanford Jennings’ 93-yard kickoff return gave the Bengals a 13-6 lead with 4 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

The 49ers came back with an 85-yard drive in four plays, concluding with Montana’s 14-yard pass to Jerry Rice. Rice was voted the most valuable player after catching 11 passes for a record 215 yards. Montana completed 23 of 36 passes for a record 357 yards.

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The Washington Redskins, with the greatest quarter in NFL playoff history, scored 35 points in the second period to overcome a 10-0 deficit and win their second Super Bowl championship.

John Elway threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Nattiel on the Broncos’ first play from scrimmage and Rich Karlis kicked a 24-yard field goal on the next possession to take a 10-0 lead.

The Redskins scored five touchdowns on consecutive possessions in the second quarter, four on passes by MVP Doug Williams, who set a record with 340 yards passing in the game. Washington scored the five touchdowns in 18 plays with a total time of possession of only 5:47.

Williams became the first African-American quarterback to win a Super Bowl.

Tim Smith, a rookie backup who gained 126 yards for the entire season, was given the start by Redskins coach Joe Gibbs. Smith rushed for a record 204 yards. Ricky Sanders caught nine passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns, breaking one record and tying another.

Just as in the 1982 season, the Redskins won the title in a season shortened by a players’ strike.

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Phil Simms led the New York Giants to a 30-point second half to beat the Denver Broncos, winning their first Super Bowl and first NFL championship in 30 years.

Simms completed 22 of 25 for 268 yards, including three touchdown passes, and was unanimously voted the Most Valuable Player. He also set a Super Bowl record with 10 straight completions during New York’s second-half tear. His 88 percent completion rate was an NFL playoff record.

John Elway, in his first of five Super Bowls, helped Denver to a 10-9 halftime lead. New York started the second half with three plays for 9 yards, and the Giants’ punting team ran onto the field at its 46. Suddenly, the Giants shifted out of punt formation, and Jeff Rutledge, the second-string quarterback, came up behind center to take the snap and sneak for 1 yard and a first down. Six plays later, Simms hit tight end Mark Bavaro for 13 yards, the Giants led 16-10 and the rout was on.

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The Monsters of the Midway in all their overpowering glory.

And with some brashness: several players made a music video, the “Super Bowl Shuffle,” before heading to New Orleans.

The Chicago Bears won their first NFL championship since 1963 by setting a Super Bowl record for points scored in defeating the Patriots 46-10. The NFC champions, who won by the largest margin in Super Bowl history, broke the mark for points in a game set by San Francisco and the Los Angeles Raiders in the previous two Super Bowls.

New England capitalized on a Chicago fumble to score the quickest points in Super Bowl history on Tony Franklin’s field goal 74 seconds after kickoff. That just made the Bears mad, and they scored 44 straight points.

The Bears’ defense, which allowed only 10 points in postseason play, held New England to 7 yards rushing and 116 yards passing.

Jim McMahon, who passed for 256 yards, became the first quarterback to rush for two touchdowns. Richard Dent, who contributed 1 1/2 sacks, was voted the Most Valuable Player.

Chicago all-time great running back Walter Payton didn’t score, but defensive tackle William “Refrigerator” Perry had a 1-yard TD run.

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Billed as a matchup of the NFL’s top two quarterbacks, Joe Montana easily got the better of Dan Marino.

Montana completed 24 of 35 passes and threw for a Super Bowl record 331 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed five times for 59 yards and a touchdown. Running back Roger Craig caught two of Montana’s touchdown passes and ran for another to set a Super Bowl record.

The San Francisco defense sacked the record-setting Marino four times in the game and held the Dolphins to 25 yards rushing.

Montana joined Green Bay’s Bart Starr and Pittsburgh’s Terry Bradshaw as the only two-time Super Bowl most valuable players. Montana was the MVP in the 1982 Super Bowl against Cincinnati.

Marino would never make the Super Bowl again in his Hall of Fame career.

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Marcus Allen rushed for a Super Bowl-record 191 yards on 20 carries and scored two touchdowns as the Raiders trounced the Redskins, 38-9.

The Raiders took a 7-0 lead 4:52 into the game when Derrick Jensen blocked Jeff Hayes’ punt and recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown.

Jim Plunkett hooked up with Cliff Branch for a 12-yard TD pass and a 14-0 lead. Washington cut the margin to 14-3 on a 24-yard field goal by Mark Moseley, but with 7 seconds left in the half, Washington coach Joe Gibbs called for a screen pass. Raiders linebacker Jack Squirek saw it coming and intercepted Joe Theismann’s throw, jogging 5 yards into the end zone to give Los Angeles a commanding 21-3 halftime advantage.

Allen, voted the game’s most valuable player, scored on runs of 5 and 74 yards, the latter a Super Bowl record and a brilliant effort, putting the Raiders ahead 35-9.

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Fullback John Riggins churned out a Super Bowl-record 166 yards on 38 carries to spark the Redskins to a come-from-behind 27-17 win over the Dolphins.

For Riggins, voted the game’s most valuable player, it was his fourth consecutive 100-yard rushing game during the playoffs, also a record.

Riggins gave the Redskins their first lead with 10:01 remaining when he ran 43 yards off left tackle for a touchdown on fourth-and-1.

The Dolphins had built a 17-10 halftime lead on a 76-yard touchdown pass from David Woodley to wide receiver Jim Cefalo in the first quarter; a 20-yard field goal by Uwe von Schamann; and a Super Bowl-record 98-yard kickoff return by Fulton Walker just before halftime.

Mark Moseley cut the Miami lead to 17-13 with a 20-yard field goal in the third quarter.

After Riggins’ run put the Redskins on top, Theismann capped the scoring with a 6-yard pass to wide receiver Charlie Brown with 1:55 left.

The Redskins and Dolphins survived a strike-shortened season to reach the Super Bowl.

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The first Super Bowl held in a cold-weather city — but in the Pontiac Silverdome — was preceded by the 49ers’ bus getting caught in traffic and several players needing to walk into the stadium.

Didn’t bother them much: Ray Wersching kicked a Super Bowl record-tying four field goals to help lift the 49ers to their first NFL championship with a 26-21 win over the Bengals.

The 49ers built a game-record 20-0 halftime lead on the strength of two long touchdown marches led by Joe Montana, and two Wersching field goals.

The Bengals came back in the second half, narrowing the margin to 20-14 on quarterback Ken Anderson’s 5-yard run and 4-yard scoring toss to Dan Ross. But Wersching connected on early third-quarter field goals of 40 and 23 yards to increase the 49ers’ lead to 26-14, making meaningless Anderson’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Ross in the final seconds.

Montana completed 14 of 22 passes for 157 yards; Anderson established game records for completions and completion percentage .

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Jim Plunkett’s two first-quarter touchdown passes, including a Super Bowl-record 80-yard strike to running back Kenny King, led the Raiders.

Philadelphia, which had defeated Oakland 10-7 several weeks earlier, never got on track until late in the third quarter. Linebacker Rod Martin set up Oakland’s first touchdown with his first of three interceptions, a Super Bowl record for one player.

Before the first quarter ended the Raiders upped their lead to 14-0 when Plunkett hit King near midfield to record the longest play in Super Bowl history. In all, Plunkett completed 13 of 21 passes for 261 yards and three touchdowns. The game capped a storybook season for Plunkett, the game’s MVP.

The journeyman quarterback took over the reins of the Raiders’ offense and won nine of the last 11 regular-season games. In the playoffs, the Raiders beat Houston, San Diego and Cleveland en route to becoming the first wild-card team to win the Super Bowl.

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The Steel Curtain dynasty concluded as Terry Bradshaw completed 14 of 21 passes for 309 yards and set two passing records as the Steelers became the first team to win four Super Bowls.

Despite three interceptions by the Rams, Bradshaw brought the Steelers from behind twice in the second half. Trailing 13-10 at halftime, Pittsburgh went ahead 17-13 when Bradshaw connected with Lynn Swann for a 47-yard touchdown early in the third quarter.

On the Rams’ next possession, Vince Ferragamo responded with a 50-yard pass to Billy Waddy that moved Los Angeles to the Steelers 24. On the following play, Lawrence McCutcheon connected with Ron Smith on a halfback option pass that gave the Rams a 19-17 lead.

On Pittsburgh’s initial possession of the fourth quarter, Bradshaw lofted a gorgeous 73-yard scoring pass to John Stallworth to put the Steelers in front to stay, 24-19. A 45-yard pass from Bradshaw to Stallworth was the key play in Pittsburgh’s final scoring drive, which was culminated by Franco Harris’ second 1-yard TD of the game.

Bradshaw, the game’s MVP for the second straight year, set Super Bowl records for most touchdown passes and most passing yards .

The Steelers would not win another Super Bowl for a quarter-century.

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In one of the most exciting Super Bowls, Terry Bradshaw threw four touchdown passes to lead the Steelers to their third win. Bradshaw, voted the game’s most valuable player, completed 17 of 30 passes for 318 yards, breaking Bart Starr’s record of 250 yards passing by halftime.

Two Bradshaw-to-John Stallworth and one Bradshaw-to-Rocky Bleier throws in the first half gave Pittsburgh a 21-14 lead at halftime.

Franco Harris ran 22 yards for a score after Rafael Septein had cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 21-17 with a field goal. Pittsburgh then seemingly put the game out of reach with less than seven minutes to play when Bradshaw hit Lynn Swann for an 18-yard TD strike to make the score 35-17.

But Roger Staubach threw his second scoring pass of the game with 2:23 left, a 7-yarder to Billy Joe DuPree. The Cowboys then recovered an onside kick and scored again on Staubach’s third TD pass with 22 seconds remaining.

Dallas’ bid for another onside kick recovery and a miracle comeback failed as Rocky Bleier fell on the ensuing kickoff with 17 seconds left.

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