This week in 49ers history: Week 14, 1980

By 1980 the 49ers were beginning to show signs of life after a slump that had encompassed almost all of the 1980s.

The 1979 season provided more hope than the previous campaign due to the addition new head coach Bill Walsh.

Walsh set about implementing a more contemporary offense, although the Niners still lacked talent, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. As in 1979, the '79 team finished with just two wins, however, they displayed enough flashes on offfense to allow the fanbase with renewed hope going into a new decade.

San Francisco lost several of their offensive starters in the offseason, including running back OJ Simpson, who left following two lacklustre seasons after joining in one of the worst trades in 49er history.

Despite those losses, Walsh could plainly see that it was the teams defense that needed the most and attacked the draft with the approach of restocking that unit.

Tight end/running back Earl Cooper was selected with the Niners' first-round pick but a run on defenders followed. Eight of the 11 picks by the 49ers were spent on defensive players, with second-round choice Keena Turner going on to win multiple Super Bowl titles with San Francisco and then holding multiple off-the-field positions with the franchise after retirement.

The 1980 New Orleans Saints endured one of worst seasons in NFL history. By the time they travelled to Candlestick Park for the Week 14 matchup, the Saints had compiled an abysmal 0-13 record, firing head coach Dick Nolan after a Week 12 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.  

In Week 13 they had run the Minnesota Vikings very close but still eventually lost.  This was also the first season of the infamous 'Aints' attire, whereby some fans would attend games with paper bags over the heads in a visibly sarcastic homage to the wreck that was the 1980 Saints team.

By contrast, the 49ers went into the game at 5-8, still heading for a losing seasons but with more wins than their previous two campaigns put together and on the back of two straight wins. It seemed certain the Niners would make it three in a row against the league's worst team.

The Game

In what was to be the first of many surprises that afternoon, the Saints were the first ones to score when Archie Manning - the father of Peyton and Eli - was able to deceive the 49ers secondary with a pump fake before hitting a deep pass to receiver Ike Harris for a 33-yard touchdown.

Before the end of the first quarter things got even worse for the home side as Manning, rolling to his right to evade a somewhat disappointing 49er pass rush, lobbed the ball high up into the right corner of the end zone where tight end Henry Childs managed to catch the ball whilst having a flailing cornerback in front of him.  The 0-13 Saints were now up two scores.

Early into the second quarter and the misery continued for 49er fans.  Having driven the team down to the San Francisco one-yard line, Manning then handed the ball off to Jack Holmes who bundled the ball over the goal-line to make it an unbelievable 21-0 to the visiting team.  Half the home fans were silent in shock, the other half were vocally disgruntled and it was far from even being half-time.

After another fruitless offensive drive for the 49ers ended in a punt, New Orleans took over inside their own 20-yard line and were held to a quick three-and-out, forcing Russell Erxleben to kick it back to the hosts.

Erxleben unleashed a huge punt downfield and into the arms of return man Freddie Solomon, whose run back was almost immediately nullified after he ran into the back of a team-mate. However, the wide receiver bounced right and found space down the sideline, sprinting for a 57-yard score.

New Orleans refused to let the 49ers back in to the game, however, and continued to embarrass the home team, Holmes adding another rushing touchdown before a designed bootleg pass from Manning saw him fire a 41-yard bomb to Ike Harris to put the Saints up 35-7 at the break.

A disheartened 49er team trudged into the locker room, fully expecting an earbashing from Walsh that would have been fully deserved. Walsh, though, had other plans and said something along the lines of: "Dont embarrass yourselves, let's build something positive through to the end of the game and to build upon for next week."

Walsh's words released the pressure on his players and the third quarter began with a gutsy 49er drive that ended with quarterback Joe Montana sneaking in from the one-yard line. San Francisco was still a long way behind, but it was the first positive step that Walsh had been seeking.

The defense finally got into the game and forced the Saints to punt, putting the ball back in the hands of Montana. On the San Francisco 29-yard-line, Joe stepped back and immediately felt pressure from a blitzing New Orleans defense but hit receiver Dwight Clark - running a five-yard 'in' route from left to right - in stride with at least 10 yards between him and the nearest defender.

Clark did the rest, sprinting across midfield and down the left sideline for a spectacular 71-yard touchdown. With one quarter remaining the Saints still held a two-score lead, however, the momentum had swung dramatically in favour of the 49ers.

After another fruitless Saints possession, the 49er offense picked up where it had left off in the third quarter, and moved the ball down the field with authority.  Running back Lenvil Elliott was having a career day, finishing the game with 125 rushing yards and 43 receiving yards, and it was in the fourth quarter where he had the most success.

Elliot helped move the ball down to the New Orleans 14-yard line. From there, Montana stepped back and waas met almost immediately by Saints linebacker Ken Bordelon, who went straight through untouched into the 49er backfield. Joe made just enough of an adjustment to the pressure to find Solomon in the shallow midfield area. Solomon, confident after his punt return heroics earlier, did only as he could do, shaking one tackler and making another one miss, before going in for the third unanswered 49ers touchdown of the second half. After Ray Wersching hit the extra point, the 49ers trailed by just seven with plenty of time left.

The Saints were now in complete disarray.  Still leading the game, they had allowed their opponents to come all the way back from certain defeat and the 49ers were now knocking on the New Orleans door. Yet again the Saints offense sputtered and they were forced to kick the ball away to an awaiting Solomon.

Mixing up passing and rushing plays, the 49ers cut apart the beleaguered and tiring Saints defense once again, only for the visitors' last gasp efforts to stall the 49ers on the Saints' seven-yard line with the drive stuck on third down and five with the game on the line. After gaining so many yards during the game, Elliot had his time to shine.  Receiving the hand-off from Montana, the tailback broke to the left hand side of the line and, following crushing blocks from Randy Cross and Keith Fahnhorst, skipped in untouched for the score with the resulting extra point tying the game up.

Overtime loomed, where both teams were at the mercy of sudden death rules. The 49ers manoeuvred down to the Saints 35-yard line and on first down backup running back Don Woods, who came to the 49ers mid-season from the Chargers, broke off a 16-yard rush before being pushed out of bounds at the 19-yard line.

Reliable Wersching then came on with the kicking unit and fired the ball straight up the middle, securing a dramatic victory.
 

The 49ers had come back from a 28-point deficit to win the game 38-35, a fightback that still stands as the largest in the NFL regular season history. The two teams combined for 950 yards of total offense, still well short of the league record, set in 1950 when the LA Rams and the New York Yanks amassed 1,133 yards.

San Francisco would finish the 1980 season with a 6-10 record before famously going on to achieve their greatest success a year later when they won Super Bowl XVI.

New Orleans dusted themselves off from such a demoralising loss and finally claimed the their first win in the following week, beating the New York Jets 21-20 after a fourth quarter comeback of their own.

Here is a great NFL Films production from 2013 talking to the players from this famous game. The usual participants are there (Joe, Dwight etc) but it also has a rare interview with Ray Wersching. It is worth the watch just for that!