49ers and Bills in the 1990s
During the first seven years of my life (1984 to 1991), the San Francisco 49ers went 10-4 in the NFL playoffs and won three Super Bowls.
Three of those four playoff losses came against the New York Giants. In those three games, Bill Parcells was the head coach of the Giants
and Bill Belichick was the defensive coordinator.
The third loss came in the 1990 NFC Championship Game in San Francisco. In that
game, quarterback Joe Montana was knocked out as a result of a vicious hit by Giants
defensive lineman Leonard Marshall. The Giants were trailing 13-9 at the time of the hit; after the hit, the Giants came back and won the game
15-13. Matt Bahr kicked two field goals in the 4th quarter after the hit (including one as time expired).
He had five field goals in all (an NFC Championship game record) and scored all 15 of the Giants' points. Belichick's defense was so great that the Giants
won in spite of scoring no touchdowns!
The next time that a New York team coached by the two Bills played in San Francisco was 1998. The 49ers got revenge on Parcells and Belichick
with a game-ending score of their own. Garrison Hearst scored this 96-yard rushing touchdown in
overtime to defeat the New York Jets. If you watch the video carefully, you will see that wide receiver Terrell Owens made key blocks that allowed Hearst
to score the touchdown. The run is considered by some football analysts to be the greatest regular season run of all-time.
Between the two games against the two Bills, the 49ers had another exciting home game against a third New York team - the
Buffalo Bills. (The first six Super Bowls that occurred in the 1990s included the 49ers or the Bills (but never both):
four Bills losses (1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994) sandwiched between two 49ers blowout wins (1990 and 1995).) In 1992, the Bills defeated the 49ers 34-31 in
a regular season game that featured no punts.
In NFL history (over 14,000 games), there have been only three games with no punts!
49ers quarterback Steve Young threw for 449 yards and three touchdowns in a losing effort. How many touchdowns and receiving yards did the great
Jerry Rice have? He had zero touchdowns and only twenty-six receiving yards. Why so few? He was knocked out of the game during the 49ers' opening drive because of a concussion. That
drive ended with a missed field goal by Mike Cofer. The 49ers' final drive also ended with a missed field goal. If Cofer had made that field goal, the 49ers
would have tied the game.
From the year before I was born until 1998, the 49ers had sixteen consecutive ten-win seasons. (That was an NFL record until three years ago when the New England Patriots
(coached by Bill Belichick and led by former 49ers fan Tom Brady) had their seventeenth consecutive ten-win season.) In the 1990s, the
49ers started to overspend and had to release some of their talented players
during the 1999 off-season to get under the salary cap. In order words, the 49ers had trouble "paying their bills". In 1999, the 49ers
went 4-12 and their 10-win season streak ended. 1999 was also the year that R&B group Destiny's Child released the #1 hit single
"Bills, Bills, Bills". Coincidence? Yes, it was.