The Dawn of Domination by that City on the Bay

The 1981 season ushered in one of the strangest Super Bowls ever when two teams who had never done much of anything made it all the way to the show. Sure, the 49ers enjoyed minor minor success with John Brodie in the early 70s, but their SF logo more often represented mediocrity. How times would change in the 1980s! The Bengals were one of the worst franchises ever. Now here these teams stood face to face in a strange new stadium as well, the Pontiac Silverdome, and the first ever Super Bowl played in the Midwest. It was all straight out of the Twilight Zone as the NFL got turned upside down this year. 

San Francisco was guided by a young and yet unproven Joe Montana who made his mark as a Fighting Irish hero of comebacks. My sister attended classes with Joe at Notre Dame and she told me he rarely showed up, and you know he wasn't home taking the course online before the computer age hit. But he must have been home studying football film. Many quarterbacks I've worked with over the years refer back to Montana and say he was an intensely serious student of the game who watched endless hours of game film. Maybe that cool, calm demeanor was crafted by intensely hard work and sweat. It usually works that way!

The 49ers enjoyed a great season, winning their last 14 out of 15 games. They dispatched the New York Giants in the playoffs 38-24 then barely escaped ever dangerous Dallas 28-27 on “the catch” by Dwight Clark in the back of the end zone with only 51 seconds remaining. As we know now in retrospect, this kind of performance was just a normal day at the office of Montana, my pick for the greatest quarterback ever so far. Marino is still the best pure passer, but Peyton Manning is knocking on the door now of both these legends.

Over in the other conference, the Bengals were not only new on the scene, they also had a bizarre new visual appeal with flashy helmets and uniforms of colorful tiger stripes that would have looked great on Saturday morning cartoons or the back of a cereal box. But they were really no joke at all. Ken Anderson led the league in passing and Florida Gators receiver Chris Collingsworth was a favorite target.  Coach Forrest Gregg of the Packer’s glory years coached this team to play with enormous discipline and poise.

It was such a strange match-up that the odds-makers could not figure out who was better. The 49ers had been horrible the previous two years, but were given the slight one point edge. This had all the makings of a most interesting game which was proven when the broadcast posted a 49.1 Nielsen rating, making it one of the most watched television shows in history!

Even the game proved to be weird with the first half totally dominated by the 49ers 20-0, and the second half owned by the Bengals 21-6. Mathematics was show that the 49ers won 26-21.

San Francisco’s 20-0 lead vanished to 20-14 in the third quarter as the Bengals put together 83 and 53 yard drives. This was really as close as it would get as the 49ers pulled away with back to back drives resulting in field goals. The Bengals added a late meaningless touchdown.

Joe Montana was the difference maker on the field and earned MVP honors as San Francisco took their first Super Bowl Championship. Ray Wersching added four field goals in the effort, but it was Montana’s superb ball control drives and key passes that sealed the deal. It also should be noted that John Madden made his Super Bowl broadcasting debut in this game.

An MPI analysis shows that San Francisco was clearly better (.538 to .490 on total MPI score). Both offenses won their respective battles easily (San Francisco .582 to .440; Cincinnati .565 to .464), but the 49ers specials teams unit made the difference (.631 to .382)! All MPI pressure scores belonged to the 49ers as well and they were an astounding .731 on pressure offense. They took 6/7 MPI categories.

In sum, Joe Montana earned his MVP award. His calm and clear focus contributed to clutch passing. A dynasty began to form but nobody had any idea that this was not just an off year with a strange new champion!

See Dwight Clark's Catch Re-Enacted 25 Years later!

The MPI or Mental Performance Index is the first system of scoring  developed in sports which includes in the scoring key mental factors such as pressure management, reduction of mental errors and focused execution. It was developed by licensed clinical and sport performance psychologist Dr. John F. Murray in 2002 to show the extreme importance of mental factors in sports. It is much more accurate than the final score and other statistics in showing how one team performed relative to another team. It has almost perfectly estimated the relative performance of the teams before each of the past 5 Super Bowls. Dr. Murray's MPI forecast has also beaten the official Super Bowl spread 4 out of 5 times now. He has appeared on hundreds of radio and television shows, and the forecast has also appeared in hundreds of articles. Why all the focus, energy and interest in this topic? Because it so clearly demonstrates the importance of mental factors in sports. For more information about the MPI or Dr. Murray's services, please call 561-59-9898 or send an email to: johnfmurray@mindspring.com