6 high-powered offenses San Francisco had two-time Super Bowl winner Joe Montana at quarterback Cincinnati was led by that season's Most Valuable Player MVP quarterback Boomer Esiason But the game turned into a defensive struggle The score was just 3-3 at halftime The Bengals finally delivered a scoring boost when running back Stanford Jennings took a kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter The 49ers didn't find the end zone until the fourth Montana hit star receiver Jerry Rice on a 14-yard touchdown pass with 14:03 left The play tied the game 13-13 However with just under four minutes to play Cincinnati's Jim Breech booted another field goal The game had been exciting But with a combined five field goals and only two touchdowns it wasn't yet memorable Then the Bengals kicked off to San Francisco A penalty on the kickoff pushed San Francisco back to its own 8-yard line Montana quickly got to work With a cool confidence he began moving the team down the field Most of the big yards were picked up by Rice who was in the midst of a record-setting day With just over a minute left he caught a pass and raced 27 yards to the Bengals 18-yard line It was Rice's 11th reception of the day Two plays later San Francisco faced second-and-2 at the 10 Only 34 seconds remained on the clock Montana dropped back to pass Receiver John Taylor broke open over the middle While Rice had been putting on a show Taylor had not caught a pass all game
SF SF Montana left celebrates with John Taylor center and center Randy Cross after Taylor's go-ahead touchdown catch in the final minute But Taylor hauled in Montana's spiral to put the 49ers ahead for good The 20-16 final was the Super Bowl's first truly classic ending A DYNASTY BEGINS Super Bowl XXXVI in February 2002 was seen as a matchup between a powerhouse and a big underdog The St. Louis Rams had won the Super Bowl two years earlier They had one of the best offenses in 7
8 football history led by stars such as quarterback Kurt Warner receiver Isaac Bruce and running back Marshall Faulk On the other side the New England Patriots were seen as a no-name team A year earlier New England had been 5-11 Early in the 2001 season star quarterback Drew Bledsoe had been knocked out with an injury A skinny little known second-year backup named Tom Brady took his place Brady was still the starter when the Patriots met the Rams in New Orleans And in the first half New England raced out to a surprising 14-3 lead New England head coach Bill Belichick's defense frustrated the Rams Patriots cornerback Ty Law made the biggest play by picking off a St. Louis pass and racing 47 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter It was 17-3 New England entering the fourth quarter But the Rams offense finally arrived Warner scored on a 2-yard scramble with 9:33 left Then with 1:30 to go he lobbed a pass to Ricky Proehl along the left sideline The receiver juked around two defenders before racing to the end zone for a 26-yard touchdown catch Kicker Jeff Wilkins's extra point tied the game New England took over on its own 17-yard line The Patriots had no timeouts With a young quarterback in the game most people thought New England would kneel the ball down and take its chances in overtime But Belichick and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis trusted Brady The Patriots decided to go for the win
24 24 24 Cornerback Ty Law scored New England's first points of Super Bowl XXXVI on an interception return in the second quarter 9
