Saturday, December 04, 1999
Bengals old-timers would savor beating 49ers
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
There has never been a more bizarre, crucial and close series in the NFL than Bengals-49ers.
Just ask Bengals Hall-of-Famer Anthony Munoz, who lost all six of his games against the NFL's then-flagship franchise, the last five by a total of 19 points.
“Nightmares. I get nightmares whenever I see that 49er uniform,” Munoz said Thursday. “It's tough around Super Bowl time because that's all you see on TV - the old Super Bowl highlights and there they are.”
Just ask former Bengals coach Sam Wyche, who says he has never seen the replay of the crushing last-minute loss to San Francisco and quarterback Joe Montana's 92-yard drive in Super Bowl XXIII.
“I went into a sports bar and grill to get something to eat when I was on the road a few weeks ago,” said Wyche, now a CBS-TV analyst. “There had to be 20 of these big screens all over the place. All of a sudden they start showing highlights of Super Bowl XXIII. I got up and moved a couple of times, but I couldn't get away. I looked up a few times when I couldn't help myself.”
Just ask Jim Breech, the Bengals former kicker who looked to all the world to be the MVP of Super Bowl XXIII before Montana went off.
“Absolutely,” said Breech, when asked if he's looking for his Bengal descendants to hand out some revenge this Sunday at Cinergy Field. “I don't care if the 49ers have one win or 14, it doesn't matter. They need to beat them. It's so frustrating we never did even though we had a bunch of opportunities. It's not the Super Bowl, but a win would be nice.”
The Bengals have not only lost both their Super Bowls to the Niners, but also a coach when Dave Shula got fired after the Niners erased a 21-0 lead Oct. 20, 1996, and their pride in the 1987 game.
The late, great 49ers may be 3-8 and the Bengals 2-10. And
Bengals coach Bruce Coslet, a tight end in 1974 when Cincinnati beat the 49ers for the only time in 10 tries, doubts anyone in his locker room knows or cares about the history.
But Coslet couldn't resist bringing up the infamous '87 game, when the Bengals led the 49ers 26-20 with six seconds left and faced a fourth-and-25 from their own 30. Wyche decided to run a sweep instead of punting or taking a safety. James Brooks got tackled for a loss and Montana had one shot and he made the most of it when the Bengals left Jerry Rice in single coverage against rookie Eic Thomas.
“I told Sam to take the safety,” said Coslet, then the offensive coordinator.
“Bruce was joking about the safety,” Wyche fired back. “What if he runs backward and they catch him at the 10 with two seconds left? Our long snapper was banged up and hadn't snapped well. In 100 years of coaching, I'd call the same thing, except this time with solid protection. We just didn't block it.”
When Bengals owner Mike Brown trudged though the tunnel to get to the locker room, he happened upon then-49er owner Eddie DeBartolo and president Carmen Policy. They had left their box early and congratulated Brown on the victory. When Brown explained they had won and how, they jumped in the air and ran off without saying a word.
Wyche was on the other side in Super Bowl XVI as Niners coach Bill Walsh's quarterbacks coach. San Francisco held on to win 26-21 but only after the Niners staged a goal-line stand in the third quarter with a 20-7 lead.
“The Bengals were the better team that year,” said Walsh, now the Niners' general manager. “If we had played them in a best-of-seven, they probably would have beaten us. They certainly had more skill players than we did on offense, and I thought they had an excellent defense. But we got a few breaks, a few fumbles early and got that big (20-0 lead) and were able to hold on.”
Walsh, an assistant coach under Paul Brown on the early Bengal teams, has no answer for the Niners' dominance.
“Maybe Joe Montana and Steve Young,” said Walsh of his Hall of Fame quarterbacks. “But who knows? The Bengals had terrific athletes. Kenny Anderson was as fine a quarterback you could play against.”
Breech thinks he knows the reason. His three field goals in Super Bowl XXIII tied the game or put the Bengals ahead. His 40-yarder with 3:20 left made it 16-13, but he came to the bench thinking there was too much time and receiver Cris Collinsworth told him before he could say anything, “Montana's still got time.”
Breech remembers talking to Young in the mid-80s, when the Niners got off to a .500 start and Young said, “This isn't acceptable.”
“They always found a way to win late,” Breech said. “They just had a will to win and such a belief in themselves that they can win. They find a way. We obviously weren't able to do that.”
But they want them to do it now. Munoz will make sure he's back in time from this weekend's recruiting trip to Florida State with son Michael.
“I'll make sure I stop by,” Anthony Munoz said.
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