© Provided by Touchdown Wire There's no better way to learn what really goes on in a football game than to ask players and coaches what actually occurred on the field. Tape and metrics will tell you a lot, but if you can get the inside intel from the guys who are actually drawing it up and executing it, it's an entirely different dimension. The more detail the better in that case, which is why I've enjoyed watching tape with some of the NFL's best players, and some of the NCAA's best draft prospects.
I've been fortunate enough to watch tape with everyone from Patrick Mahomes to Richard Sherman, and three players in Super Bowl LV - Mahomes, Buccaneers running back Ronald Jones II, and Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr.
Since I started doing this with former NFL guard Evan Mathis in 2015 after Mathis challenged me to learn more about a sack he had allegedly allowed than I actually knew, the concept has always been enlightening, and has contributed a great deal to my football acumen, such as it is. Hopefully, those who have read these articles have felt the same way.
And then, once in a while, you just hit the motherlode. That happened to me this week when I was afforded the opportunity to speak with Joe Montana regarding his involvement in the new Fan Controlled Football league. Montana has been an investor and Chief Strategic Advisor since 2018, and we'll be running a separate piece on Montana's role in the league, as well as some very candid comments about one of the league's most prominent quarterbacks - one Jonathan Paul Manziel.
But when I realized that I'd have quite a few extra minutes of scheduled time with Montana, I thought it would be interesting for me, and for our readers, to dive back into the low-def, No-22 of the 1980s and go over some of the most important and amazing plays of the decade with the man who defined it.
So, without further ado, here's the opportunity to go under the hood with one of the greatest players in NFL history, who worked his magic with the greatest offensive mind in NFL history in Bill Walsh, and find out just how this was all done - at a forensic level.
Folks, it's time to watch tape with Joe Montana.
"The Catch" - 1981 NFC Championship game
This is Bill Walsh telling Joe before the play that if he doesn't see what he likes out there, Joe should simply throw the ball away. There's 58 seconds left in the game, and the Cowboys are up 27-21 on the 49ers for the right to advance to Super Bowl XVI. The 49ers have third-and-3 at the Dallas six-yard line, so if Joe has to throw it away, San Francisco has one more shot.
Doug Farrar: There are so many layers to this drive. Perhaps the most interesting aspect was that the Cowboys were alternating between nickel and dime defenses all the way, which was very unusual for the time. You guys responded by running a ton of sweeps and draws - four run plays, a reverse to receiver Freddie Solomon, and there were just two passes - both to Dwight Clark. There was a sideline pass, and the famous play. Did Dallas' defensive strategy surprise you?.
Joe Montana: No, I think everybody expected us to go down the field and throw the ball on every down. That's in Bill's makeup. If he thinks he knows what you're thinking - he saw the nickel and dime packages coming in - he would get into, "Okay, what's the best thing we can do? Run the ball." Even though we didn't have a great runner at the time - we had good runners, but not a Roger Craig or a Wendell Tyler [Lenvil Elliott was the back on all four run plays]. but that's just the way Bill got us there.
Some of the things Bill would do to surprise you. he would draw up a play for a specific place on the field, and he wouldn't call it until you got there. You would run it in practice, and it would be the worst play you'd ever seen in your life. Then, you'd go to call it in the huddle [in the game], and the guys would look at you like, "No, no, no, no. You can't do that." And I would say, No, it's coming - here we go. You' run it in the game, and it would work. So, I was never surprised by the things Bill did.
DF: Here's the famous "Brown Right Sprint Right Option." It's an amazing catch by Dwight Clark - he's got Everson Walls trailing him all over the place, he's adjusting to your sprint to the right, and he has to get out of two Dallas defenders to even have a shot. Then, he jumps right up to the sky, and it's ballgame.
Meanwhile, Ed "Too Tall" Jones looks like he's going to blitz, but then he just hangs there, trying to bat the pass down. So, you have to wait for Too Tall's hands to go down before you can even make the throw. There's a lot of [literally] moving parts here.
JM: Couple things. One, [Clark, No. 87] was supposed to set a pick for Freddie Solomon [No. 88] on that, but Freddie ended up falling down. So, we had never really thrown the ball to Dwight on that play, even though he's the second read. We had always thrown it to the underneath guy. It took [Clark] a little longer to get to the back of the end zone. I told him that he was so slow, if I had to do one more arm pump, my arm was going to fall off.
Then, with Too Tall being there, I had to throw the ball up high and get a little bit of a different trajectory. I had to take enough off so the ball would come back down. When I let it go, I thought it was arm lengths above his head. I didn't know he'd made such a catch, but under normal circumstances where I would have thrown it a but harder, it would have been hard to catch. If you look at the pictures, he's literally catching it with his fingertips.
© Provided by Touchdown Wire (AP Photo/Dallas Morning News, Phil Huber)
If it was thrown hard, it probably wouldn't have been caught. So, me having to put a little air under it - not by design, but because of Too Tall - helped him being able to hang onto that thing. But he did get up, and he made a great catch, and that got us where we were. It got us moving to that first Super Bowl.
Super Bowl XIX
DF: Onto the second Super Bowl. This was a fascinating game, because the Dolphins had that great "Killer Bees" defense, and you were basically a running quarterback - there are a lot of plays in which you look like one of the more mobile quarterbacks of today. Kind of like Patrick Mahomes out there! You rolled out on what looked like at least half your pass plays, and you ran five times for 59 yards, which broke Roger Staubach's record for quarterback rushing yards in a Super Bowl. I'm curious if that was a pre-planned response to Miami's defense, or if it was a play-to-play reaction to what happened on the field?
JM: Yeah, it was play-by-play. Some of the rollout things were [designed] - one of the first big plays in that game was the touchdown pass to [running back] Carl Monroe.
DF: Funny you should bring that play up, because that's one of your better throws I've seen, which is why it's next on my list.
JM: Yeah, that was a called play, and a lot of the other ones. anytime you're stepping up and moving forward, most likely being pushed around by the push of the defensive line - when you step up as a quarterback, and guys are running around everywhere in man coverage, the best thing to do it to pull it down and take off. So, I had a couple opportunities to do that. But most of them [rollouts] were more pass plays that just opened up.
DF: So, the Monroe play; the 33-yard touchdown pass. This was one of the more pinpoint throws I've seen you make. What was this call, and how were you able to fire balls in there with such accuracy and defenders converging from seemingly everywhere? And what was the play call there? I know "Brown Right Sprint Right Option, and I know "Red Right Tight F Left 20 Halfback Curl X Up" to John Taylor in Super Bowl XXIII [which we'll get to in a minute], but what was this?
JM: I can't remember if it was a rollout or a sprint.
DF: It looks like a rollout.
JM: Yeah. So that would be "Roll Right Halfback Sail," which is basically a corner route. You have a clear on the outside, and someone would be coming underneath on that somewhere.
Super Bowl XXIII
DF: This game-winning drive against the Bengals to win your third Super Bowl was just incredible. Cincinnati's up up 16-13, there's 3:20 left in the game, you're at your own eight-yard line, and you're cool enough to spot John Candy in the stands. Where does that equipoise come from - that ability to keep your cool when everybody around you is freaking out? Because that goes back to at least your days at Notre Dame.
JM: I think. being so competitive at everything gets you in a mode where you're not afraid to be in any moment. Growing up, I was never afraid to play basketball one-on-one with anybody. Never afraid to play any other team in football or baseball. Being a pitcher, you're always challenging yourself every pitch. I don't know - I just loved to compete, and that was the biggest part of it.
One of the things I tried to do was to. not consciously, but I always tried to be myself. Winning or losing, it didn't matter, and I always tried to keep that same personality. That's why I pointed out John Candy to [offensive lineman] Harris Barton. Harris is a people person, and we'd been standing there forever on a TV time out. So, why not? What the heck? I'll make fun of you. We're working, and it's serious, but when you're in those breaks and you have time to relax, why not be yourself?
DF: When we talk about throwing with anticipation, your game-winning throw to John Taylor could be in the dictionary there. The call on this play was "Red Right Tight F Left 20 Halfback Curl X Up," and here's Bill Walsh making like Michelangelo:
What's the design, and what did you see on the field?
JM: The one thing Bill noticed was that. I mean, we used [pre-snap] motion for a reason. We'd used motions with Jerry [Rice] coming across the formation - this was right to left, but a of times, we'd run it the other way as fast as we could before the defender could catch up to him. The man trailing him. We'd bring him across again after throwing it to Jerry in the flat right away, and let him turn it up[field]. The next time, we'd bring him over in the same look, and we'd start him into the flat, and he'd run an angle back in.
So, we were hoping that if they were playing man-to-man, they would put him into that, but if not, that motion also kicked [the Bengals] into two deep safeties. That's where the "X Up" comes into play, where J.T. had to read. If there's a free safety, he hooks it outside. And if they were split, and there was no safety in the middle, he does a little nod-out like he's going to hook, and then he goes to the post. There's not a lot of time and space between when he runs that hook and before he runs out of space in the end zone. You have to anticipate that.
DF: When Rice motions, he doesn't have a follow, so you know it's zone right there?
JM: You know they're going to kick to zone, yeah.
The Greatest Throw (and the greatest game?)
DF: In your mind, what was the greatest throw you ever made?
JM: I don't know - that's probably pretty close to one right there. If you see it from the back, there are little holes in hands, and you squeeze one through there. There were some crazy things, where you slip and fall and flip it underhand, and you do all kinds of stuff. I threw one pass left-handed.
We were playing the Eagles in Philly, and all we needed was a first down to win the game. We had fought our way back.
DF: Was that the game where you were sacked six times in the first half?
JM: Yeah, exactly. We ran a little halfback read route, and it was wide open, and I let the ball go to Jerry. And when I came off the sideline, Coach said, "Boy, you're lucky you completed that one." We didn't need a touchdown; we just needed a first down, and he was comfortable with that. Jerry just got off the ball pretty good.
Note: This game happened in Week 3 of the 1989 season. Montana was sacked six times in the first half and eight times overall against one of the more dominant defenses in NFL history. Despite that, Montana brought his team back from a 21-10 third-quarter deficit to win, 38-28. Montana somehow managed to complete 25 passes in 34 attempts for five touchdowns, one interception, and a quarterback rating of 142.8. Beyond one play, that might be the best game of Montana's estimable career, which is obviously saying a lot.
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