ANALYSIS : SUPER BOWL XXIV : SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS 55 DENVER BRONCOS 10 : 49ers Were Too Quick and Too Efficient

I was watching the Super Bowl on television and I said to myself, “My God, I’ve stood on the sidelines and seen this before.”

It was almost surreal to watch the 49ers. I don’t know when I’ve seen a team like that. And I’m sick and tired of them.

The Broncos, in essence, ran into the same buzz saw the Vikings and Rams did in the playoffs. All fared poorly against the 49ers, and I don’t know that anyone else in the league would have done any better.

The Broncos learned what those of us who played the 49ers know--the key thing with San Francisco is that they play the game with such great speed, such great quickness. They just come at you so fast.

We played them four times, including a preseason game, and we really had a sense of that. We felt we had to get off the ball faster than they did. If you haven’t played them, it’s a little bit shocking.

Everything the 49ers did I was used to. The thing most shocking to an opponent is their quickness, their speed, the efficiency with which they hit you. You get overwhelmed at times by that speed on both sides of the ball, as well as their intensity on defense.

Their quickness probably has the most influence on offense, though--their execution of play, their linemen, backs, everybody just doing it quicker. I equate it with the quickness when you play a wishbone team in college. You’re never quite able to assimilate the wishbone the first four or five plays. This club, more than any other team in pro football, does that to you.

I don’t know that there was any one key to this game. The 49ers are so dominant at this point in so many areas and put such pressure on an opponent. We certainly felt it when we played them, and obviously Denver felt it. In addition, they forced Denver to play much below its best game, and that combination is disastrous.

I’m not that familiar with the Broncos, but it was almost hard to know what their game plan was because they had the ball so infrequently. I wasn’t surprised at the halftime score (27-3) because they were ahead of the Vikings 27-3 at halftime and ahead of us 21-3.

I was a little bit surprised at the final score, but they got some easy touchdowns in the second half and Denver started falling apart.

The pattern of the 49ers is to control the ball so the offense can take the other team out of its game so you just don’t have enough time to do the things you want to do.

Denver had to have success early and the key was that (Bobby Humphrey) fumble at (the Bronco 49) when the score was still 7-3.

Look at the 49ers’ field position, where they took over. They did the same thing to Miami (a 38-16 San Francisco victory in Super Bowl XIX)--they took over at midfield.

I thought their defense over the last month picked up its level of play. Their cumulative defensive record is absolutely phenomenal. Basically, in the playoffs this year they didn’t give up a touchdown when the game was in doubt.

They put pressure on John Elway, steady pressure for the most part. I don’t think, individually, they have great pass-rushers--except Charles Haley--but they work together so well.

A big part of the game was that they got a two-touchdown lead, and when they do that they can afford to come at you. I don’t know of a better pass defense group in the league. They just play pass-coverage reads, and when the ball is thrown they’re going to contest every pass.

The success of their defense is the team concept. This may be the best defensive unit since that Miami “No Name” defense in the early ‘70s. That team had a defense similar to this one, which has almost no stars except Ronnie Lott. The rest are somewhat anonymous.

The offense has names you can identify. The defense doesn’t lead the league in sacks, or many other things, but it’s right near the top in everything. The Eagles, for example, are more of a feast-or-famine defense; the 49ers are more efficient.

Without question this is the best team I’ve seen since I’ve been in the league. The Bears dominated on defense in 1985, and nobody was quite like them, but this club has equaled that defensive record.

Offensively, the thing the 49ers do so well is they can throw the ball 10 yards and less so efficiently. Joe Montana is so magnificent at that, yet if you do too much to try and take that away, he can hurt you downfield.

He hasn’t hurt people downfield in three or four games because everybody was so concerned about their underneath passing. I think Denver came out to try and stop the underneath stuff, and did OK for a while.

What the 49ers have had is such great continuity over a period of time. They developed the short passing game. I think that was Bill Walsh’s focus. He didn’t throw the ball deep much.

Now, with Jerry Rice and John Taylor, they’ve become such a big-play team. They really have the ability to do both, and not many teams can do that. If you focus too much on stopping the two wide receivers, they complete the short passing game to death. And off this game, you’d have to say Montana is one of the two or three greatest players of all time.

Now, the 49ers are talking about winning three Super Bowls in a row. They’re certainly capable of that, but we can beat them. Several teams can. The NFC West will certainly be the most competitive division in the league next year. New Orleans is a very good team and we’re a very good team.

We played them four times this year. We beat them in a preseason game, split two regular-season games--and we could have beaten them the second time--and lost in the playoffs.

They hit the playoffs really sailing and had good fortune this year; they had one of those years. Certainly if their rhythm and their ability and good fortune continues, they’ll be tough to beat.

But no one knows how the breaks will go. One or two players out of sequence could make the difference in the division.