The crowd of 81,270 saw a Tale of Two Halves, the 49ers dominating the first half and the Bengals the second.

Quarter 1

The game started with the two teams with the fewest turnovers in the NFL - Cincinnati 24, San Francisco 25 - exchange takeaways. Jim Breech kicked off with his size 5 shoe to RB Amos Lawrence at the 9. He returned 17y before LB Guy Frazier hit him, causing a fumble that CB John Simmons recovered on the SF 26.
Already within field goal range, the Bengals quickly moved inside the 10 on Ken Anderson's pass to WR Isaac Curtis for 8y, Pete Johnson's 2y plunge, and an 11y pass to TE Dan Ross - a play on which Anderson showed his mobility by slipping to his right to avoid the rush. But the 49er defense drew a line there. First, they stuffed Charles Alexander for no gain. Then Anderson couldn't find a receiver in the end zone, allowing LE Jim Stuckey to shake off his blocker and made the sack at the 11. Ken then tried to hit Curtis over the middle, but FS Dwight Hicks, a veteran who had stuck it out through the lean years, cut in front of the receiver for the interception, his tenth of the season, that he returned 27y to the 32. QB Joe Montana started hot, connecting on his first four passes to four different receivers to start an 11-play, 68y touchdown drive. Joe threw a screen pass to the left to RB Ricky Patton for 6y, then hit TE Dwight Clark on a delay over the middle for six more and a first down. After Earl Cooper gained zilch, Joe connected with WR Freddie Solomon for 9y in the right flat to cross midfield to the 47 to make it 3rd-and-1. So Walsh called for a flea flicker that he had designed for precisely that situation. Montana handed to RB Ricky Patton who in turn gave the ball to Solomon coming across from the right. Then Freddie lateraled back to Joe, who threw to TE Charle Young, who blocked at the line of scrimmage, then ran into the right flat. 1st down at the Cincy 33. Then came a play that almost ended the drive. Montana underthrew a pass that LCB Louis Breeden got his hands on but couldn't corral. Cooper tried the right side again, and this time slashed into the secondary for 11y to move the chains. Then Walsh introduced another new wrinkle - an unbalanced line. The 49ers lined up in an unbalanced line, with LT Dan Audick moving to the other side and lined up between RG Randy Cross and RT Keith Fahnhorst. (See the picture on the left below.) RB Bill Ring took a handoff and ran through the hole at RT for another 7y to the 15. The 49ers would use the unbalanced line nine more times in the first half.

After Earl gained nothing again, Solomon came in motion from the right side, then turned upfield at the snap and cut toward the sideline with no one within 10y of him. Breeden, who was driven deep to cover TE Charle Young, knocked little Freddie out of bounds just outside the right pylon. Montana took the snap, took one step to his right, and dove over for the touchdown. Ray Wersching kicked the PAT. 49ers 7 Bengals 0 (5:52)
Starting from the 19, Cincinnati moved to two first downs before having to punt. After successive screen passes to Johnson for three and then 5y, Anderson showed his running ability by bootlegging to the right and gaining a first down at the 30. After Johnson's 3y run, Kenny evaded the pass rush and gained six with his feet. Johnson gained two on 3rd-and-one. Anderson then tried leading receiver Cris Collinsworth twice down the left side. The 6'5" rookie WR had CB Eric Wright beaten by a step, but Wright leapt and almost touched the ball. That apparently was enough to distract Cris, who let the perfectly thrown pass go through his hands. Anderson went to Collinsworth again on the next play, and he caught the ball past Wright but out-of-bounds. Forced to pass again on 3rd and 10, Anderson was sacked for the second time, this time by ROLB Keena Turner for a 4y loss. Pat McInally, averaging 51y per punt indoors, kicked one off the side of his foot but got a great roll on the artificial turf all the way to the SF 10 to exceed his average by 2y. Despite the poor field position, Montana started with a pass that for the second time in the game was almost intercepted. This time it was RCB Ken Riley who came up and almost snagged the ball intended for Clark. Then DRE Ross Browner, a teammate of Montana at Notre Dame, poured through and dumped Patton for a 7y loss to the 5. But Cincy gave back five of the lost yards with an illegal procedure penalty on the next play. A 4y run by Patton ended the period.
END Q1: 49ers 7 Bengals 0

Quarter 2

Barefoot punter Jim Miller boomed a 44-yarder that Mike Fuller returned 5y to the 49.
Following a 5y gain by Johnson, Anderson connected with Collinsworth for the first time - an 18y pass over the LBs that Cris went down low to grab just before LCB Ronnie Lott arrived at the SF 28. After a false start penalty and an incompletion to Ross, the Bengals got a break when nickel back Earl Thomas was called for a slight bump on Curtis too far down the field - automatic first down at the 28. Alexander gained just 1y before Ken found Collinsworth again over the middle, but just after receiving the ball he fumbled when hit by Wright, and Thomas recovered for SF at the 8. The 49ers again took advantage of a turnover to score. On 3rd and 7 after two short runs, Montana rolled right and fired to Solomon for a 20y gain to the 31. Next, Joe evaded the pass rush to his right for 8y. Then the crowd yelled "Cooooooooooop!" as Earl gained 14 around RE. Facing 3rd-and-6 a minute later, Montana watched Clark run over the middle from the right, then reverse field and come back toward the sideline to catch the ball for a 12y gain to the 31. Runs of 9y and 3y by Patton moved the chains again. Then the Bengals made another mistake that ruined a good play for them. Clark took a reverse around the right side but Breeden pulled him down for a loss. But LILB Jim LeClair came in late and landed on Clark's head after the whistle. Personal Foul. 1st-and-10 at the 11. Walsh sent in a play the 49ers hadn't used in two years. Montana faked a handoff to Cooper, then waited for him to sneak through the line and cut left underneath the coverage before hitting him with a pass that he carried into the end zone, barreling through two potential tacklers at the one. The 92y drive was the longest in Super Bowl history. 49ers 14 Bengals 0 (6:53) Cincinnati couldn't handle Wersching's squib kick which bounced to the five where WR David Verser finally grabbed it and tried to run but was downed on the four. To make matters worse, Cincy was penalized half the distance for an illegal block. The Bengals got some breathing room on Anderson's 2nd down pass to Ross, who faked a block, then ran across the middle for a gain of 10 to the 16. But a heavy rush forced Ken to throw two incompletions. When he hit Ross again on 3rd down, the ball was marked a yard short of the line to gain. So McInally punted 47y to Hicks, who returned 6y to the SF 34 with 4:11 left in the half. Montana faked a handoff to freeze the LBs for a second so Clark could get past them for a 17y pass down the middle. Two Patton runs gained 10 more for another first down. A 4y toss to Cooper brought up the two-minute warning. After an incompletion, Joe again found Clark for another 10y to the 25. After Patton ran for 3 and Cooper for 6, the 49ers called their first timeout at the 0:54 mark. Montana sneaked for 2y to make it 1st-and-10 at the 14. Joe flipped to Solomon for 9y to the 5. Then the 49ers tried essentially the same play that scored the winning TD against Dallas in the NFC Championship Game. Montana rolled right and threw to Clark in the end zone, but Hicks broke it up. Then Joe had to throw the ball out of the end zone on third down when no one was open. So Wersching booted a 22y FG. 49ers 17 Bengals 0 (0:15) Unbelievably, 15 seconds was enough time for Frisco to score again. Cincy again botched the squib kick, Archie Griffin fumbling when hit by Rick Gervais and Lawrence, knocking the ball loose at the 15. The ball bounced to the four where 49er LB Milt McColl pounced on it at the bottom of a pileup of players from both teams with :05 left. Walsh sent Wersching in again and, after a 5y false start penalty, he booted a 26y FG.
Since two seconds were left, Ray got to kick another bounder. This time LB Guy Frazier took it on a hop and went down at the 28.
END FIRST HALF: 49ers 20 Bengals 0
San Francisco outgained Cincinnati in the first 30 minutes 208-99 on their way to the largest halftime lead in Super Bowl history.

Naturally the message was quite different in the two locker rooms.

• QBs coach Sam Wyche wrote on the blackboard in the 49ers locker room: "This game is not over yet."
  Walsh told his troops that they were playing well in all phases, but they had to keep the intensity going. He advised his team to approach the second half as if the score were 0-0 and to avoid major penalties that could reverse the momentum.
  Bunz recalled, "We were playing well, but we knew this was a good team and, sure enough, they came out in the second half and made a tough game of it."
  Lott said the 49ers decided to play "situational football." "We would let them move the ball somewhat ... but their offense was burning up time trying to score, our offense would burn up time running the ball."
  Cooper recalled, "They were going to make a run. They were going to make some plays. We just had to stick to our game plan and keep the ball moving."
• Coach Gregg reminded the Bengals that they had trailed Seattle 21-0 and came back to win the season opener. He told them that they had not played their best football yet.
  T Anthony Munoz recalled, "We actually felt we could get right back in it if we eliminated our own mistakes, like mishandled kicks and turnovers."
  Anderson: "You expected Forrest Gregg to rant and rave, but instead the coaches went off to talk things over, and for most of the break the players were in there by themselves. Nothing was said for a while. Everybody just sat there in disbelief. Jeez, we were embarrassed. We knew we were a better football team than we had shown, and we didn't want to continue to embarrass ourselves. When the coaches came back in, we just talked about not making any more mistakes. There was nothing that they were doing that was stopping us; we were stopping ourselves. We just had to start playing tough football."