Outdated grudges die onerous, and the one which former Rams deal with Jackie Slater has held towards the San Francisco 49ers for 45 years reveals no indicators of subsiding.
Slater is 67 and many years faraway from a 20-year NFL profession with the Rams, however his disdain for the 49ers is as sturdy as we speak because it was when he was attempting to fend off San Francisco sack-masters Charles Haley and Fred Dean within the days of yore.
“Oh man, I hate the 49ers with a ardour,” Slater stated this week when requested if he nonetheless feels the depth of the rivalry, which resumes with Sunday’s NFC championship sport, in his bones. “Are you kidding me?”
Slater’s profession included seven Professional-Bowl choices, a Corridor-of-Fame induction and nil championships, the latter void largely due to the 49ers, who usually stood between Slater and a diamond-encrusted ring.
Whereas Slater’s Rams reached the Tremendous Bowl as soon as and gained 5 NFC West titles from 1976-95, the Joe Montana-led 49ers constructed a dynasty in that point, the franchise profitable 5 Tremendous Bowls and 12 division titles.
The low level for Slater got here on the finish of the 1989 season when the 49ers walloped the Rams 30-3 within the NFC title sport at Candlestick Park, the place Montana carved up the Rams protection, Rams quarterback Jim Everett took his notorious “phantom sack,” and the 49ers doused the Rams’ Tremendous Bowl hopes.
“That,” Slater stated, “was one of the disappointing video games I can keep in mind.”
Earlier than Sunday’s sport in SoFi Stadium, that was the one time the groups had met within the postseason.
Because the Rams and 49ers put together to battle for one more Tremendous Bowl berth, it’s value trying again at that 1989 title sport, which was each bit as lopsided because the rating would point out.
Montana, then a 31-year-old future Corridor of Famer, accomplished 26 of 30 passes for 262 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions; Everett, then a 26-year-old budding star, accomplished 16 of 37 passes for 141 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions.
The 49ers racked up 442 complete yards, 29 first downs and possessed the ball for 40 minutes. The Rams had 156 complete yards, 9 first downs and held possession for 20 minutes.
“It was alleged to be Dempsey-Tunney. It was extra like Tyson-Spinks,” former Occasions columnist Jim Murray wrote that day. “The final time anybody noticed something this one-sided, they obtained the lifeboats out. And radioed for assist.”
Caught within the ‘Stick
The die for that irritating end may have been forged 5 weeks earlier than the title sport, when the Rams blew a 17-point fourth-quarter lead in a 30-27 “Monday Evening Soccer” loss to the 49ers in Anaheim Stadium on Dec. 11, 1989.
San Francisco clinched the division, a first-round bye and home-field benefit via the playoffs with the win, and the Rams had been compelled to journey to Philadelphia and New York for wild-card and divisional video games.
The Rams beat the Buddy Ryan-coached Eagles 21-7 in Veterans Stadium and picked up steam with a 19-13 extra time win over the Invoice Parcells-coached Giants, the sport ending with Flipper Anderson catching a 30-yard landing move and by no means breaking stride as he sprinted up the tunnel within the Meadowlands.
“That Philly sport was robust,” former Rams cornerback LeRoy Irvin stated. “Flipper going via the tunnel reenergized us, however we knew we snuck out of New York by the hair of our chinny chin-chin. We had been banged up. It was late within the season. Then we needed to journey throughout the nation twice, and we had been a little bit worn down.
“The 49ers had been contemporary due to the week off. Had we gained that Monday night time sport, we'd have hosted the championship sport in Anaheim. However we allow them to again in that sport, and it got here again to chew us.”
The 49ers throttled Minnesota 41-13 within the divisional spherical, establishing a rematch with the Rams, who beat San Francisco 13-12 in Week 4 in Anaheim.
Skies had been cloudy for the two p.m. kickoff, with a temperature of 53 levels and winds of 12 mph, nevertheless it rained that morning, and the often delicate Candlestick turf turned muddy between the hash marks.
“Candlestick Park was the worst monitor in soccer,” Irvin stated. “We weren’t positive of our footing. We had been used to enjoying on good turf, not a cabbage patch like that.”
Reversal of fortune
The Rams began nicely, forcing a three-and-out on San Francisco’s first possession and taking a 3-0 lead on Mike Lansford’s 23-yard subject aim.
The Rams recovered a fumble and had an opportunity to go up 10-0 when, from the 49ers’ 40, Everett faked a reverse to receiver Ron Brown, sucking within the secondary, and threw lengthy to Anderson, who was broad open down the suitable sideline.
However the move appeared to hold within the air perpetually, giving Corridor-of-Fame free security Ronnie Lott simply sufficient time to dash over and deflect the soccer on the final doable second on the six-yard line. The drive stalled and the Rams punted.
“We name the play, every little thing units up stunning on the line of scrimmage, and increase, Flipper is operating down there, broad open,” Slater stated. “However the ball will get hung up a little bit too excessive, and Ronnie Lott hustles his ass off, will get again over there and knocks it down.
“That was one of the disappointing video games I can keep in mind.”
Former Rams deal with on the NFC championship sport following the 1989 season.
“It could have been a landing if he caught it. That will have been one massive, massive play. With a 10-point lead, the momentum and the way in which we ran the ball … ”
Montana seized management of the sport with a 13-play, 89-yard drive that consumed 8½ minutes, mixing brief passes to Jerry Rice, John Taylor and tight finish Brent Jones with punishing runs by Roger Craig and fullback Tom Rathman.
A 20-yard landing move to a wide-open Jones gave the 49ers a 7-3 lead early within the second quarter.
Tim McKyer intercepted a deflected Everett move, establishing Craig’s one-yard landing run, and Montana capped a 14-play, 87-yard drive — that took simply 3 minutes, 1 second — with an 18-yard scoring move to Taylor for a 21-3 lead 9 seconds earlier than halftime.
“He ran a post-corner-post, and our security was up on the road of scrimmage with a play pretend,” Irvin stated. “Taylor obtained me on a landing, and the wheels began coming off after that.”
Montana’s bullet to Taylor, threaded completely between Irvin and defensive again James Washington, capped a near-perfect half wherein he accomplished 18 of 21 passes for 198 yards.
“In the event that they put a statue exterior of Candlestick of Joe Montana, I believe everybody would simply stroll by it and bow their head proper now,” John Madden stated on the CBS telecast, as a document crowd of 64,769 roared its approval. “You don’t get any higher than that.”
Fall man
The second half was very like the primary, Montana profiting from the poor subject circumstances by dissecting the Rams with timing patterns — fast outs, slants and curls to his receivers and brief tosses to his backs.
His longest completion of the afternoon went for 20 yards. The 49ers kicked three subject targets within the second half and had been by no means threatened.
“The 49ers had that West Coast offense, a balanced assault — they’d run the soccer right here, just a few brief passes there, transfer the chains,” Irvin stated. “They only wore us down.”
Montana’s sport of keep-away prevented Everett and the Rams offense from gaining any type of rhythm.
“They only methodically held on to the ball,” Slater stated. “It appeared like I used to be sitting on the sidelines for a very long time.”
There was one final indignity for the Rams. On third-and-10 with 3½ minutes left within the third quarter, Everett, who was below heavy strain all sport, dropped again and, sensing the pocket about to break down, instantly flopped to the turf with out being hit for an 11-yard loss.
“Everett felt a bullet when there have been no bullets,” Madden stated. “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a quarterback get knocked down when there was no contact.”
Slater referred to as the play “unlucky,” however took some blame. It was the ferocious Haley, whom Slater claimed threatened “to interrupt Everett’s leg” earlier that season, who beat Slater across the edge and was closing on Everett from behind.
“I don’t know what Jim noticed or felt at the moment, as a result of they had been getting some strain on him from totally different locations, and possibly he thought the man was round his knees,” Slater stated. “Quarterbacks can really feel that within the pocket.
“Sadly, I don’t assume anyone was there, however sh—, possibly we had been doing such a poor job that he was getting that strain on a regular basis and simply felt it.”
In a 1997 interview with The Occasions, Everett stated he was “completely mistaken” to go down.
“I made a mistake and there was no cause why I needed to take a dive,” he stated. “I believed I noticed Jackie Slater’s man come free. I believed I used to be going to get drilled. I took a dive. Rattling, I want I may very well be excellent, however I’m not.”
Postscript
Two weeks after dispatching the Rams, the 49ers whipped the Denver Broncos 55-10 within the Tremendous Bowl. They gained the division in six of the following eight years and gained their fifth Tremendous Bowl, with Steve Younger at quarterback, in 1994.
It took a decade for the Rams to get well from the 1989 title-game loss. That they had 9 straight dropping seasons, 4 after shifting to St. Louis in 1995, earlier than breaking via with a Kurt Warner-led Tremendous Bowl win in 1999.
“The Rams figured they couldn’t beat the 49ers, in order that they made wholesale adjustments after that 1989 season,” Irvin stated. “It was the top of an period. We had an important run from 1983-89 however by no means might recover from the hump due to the 49ers.”
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