It wasn't pretty and it wasn't Joe Montana. But even with a sometimes slick but often sloppy Steve Young, the result was the same:
The San Francisco 49ers won another playoff game and are now two victories from becoming the first team ever to win five Super Bowls.The 49ers beat the Washington Redskins 20-13 on Saturday in a battle of teams which, between them, have won four of the last five and seven of the last 11 Super Bowls.
That put San Francisco, an NFL-best 14-2 in the regular season, in the NFC title game next Sunday here against the winner of Sunday's Philadelphia-Dallas game.
Young was 20 of 30 for 227 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 73 yards in seven carries. But he also had three fumbles and an interception, and each cost the 49ers. Three of them set up Washington's scores and the other miscue took a scoring chance away from the 49ers.
Young saw the bright side.
"We overcame four turnovers in a playoff game against the Washington Redskins, It must mean we're playing pretty good football," said the league's regular-season MVP.
Actually, neither side played very well on a field that had groundskeepers running out to replace turf during every stoppage in play. The Skins also had four turnovers and quarterback Mark Rypien, 19 of 40 for 270 yards, seemed to be forever trying to find his footing.
The game finally turned when Rypien and Brian Mitchell fumbled a muddy ball on a handoff at the San Francisco 28. It came just as the Skins seemed to be ready to go ahead after cutting a 17-3 deficit to 17-13 - largely because of Young's turnovers.
Washington's turnover allowed the Niners to eat up 7 minutes and led to Mike Cofer's second field goal, a 33-yarder that made it 20-13 with 2:22 left.
San Francisco coach George Seifert said the field, soaked by week-long rains, was "as bad as I've ever seen."
"We were playing in a bog out there," he said.
Washington coach Joe Gibbs said: "That's the worst I've ever played on. I think it hurt both teams."
Washington, which snuck into the playoffs at 9-7 and then won at Minnesota last week, finished a typical post-Super Bowl season - one game up, the next down.
The Skins were stymied for most of the game by the soggy field and by a San Francisco defense led by Pierce Holt, who had three of the five sacks of Rypien, and defensive backs Eric Davis and David Whitmore.
Davis and Whitmore, members of a maligned secondary that was third from the bottom statistically in the NFL this year, each had two interceptions and Whitmore also had a fumble recovery and several big tackles.
But Young wasn't all bad either, even under the shadow of Montana, who led the Niners to four Super Bowl titles in the '80s and is on the bench after missing most of the past two seasons with an elbow injury. After Young fumbled twice, Montana warmed up briefly.
"I turned to Joe and said, `Get warmed up, in case he takes another shot like that,"' Seifert said.
Young, meanwhile, ran or passed for all 83 yards on an opening drive that ended with a 5-yard TD pass to John Taylor. He also threw a 16-yard TD pass to Brent Jones with 24 seconds left in the half that gave San Francisco a 17-3 lead.
"He did a good job," Seifert said. "He had a couple of balls knocked away from him."
So did Rypien, who spent a lot of time trying to find members of his "Posse" - Art Monk, Ricky Sanders and Gary Clark - through a surprisingly strong secondary.
"We really want to be respected," Whitmore said. "Now we've got a chance for a new season. We want to start it off real good."
Ricky Watters gained 83 yards in 18 carries in his first full game since a shoulder injury a month ago.
Young was at his best in the first half, passing for 180 yards and rushing for 48 in four carries as the Niners started and ended the half with touchdowns.
As they did last week, the Redskins allowed a touchdown on its opponents' first possession. This one came after the opening kickoff as San Francisco marched 83 yards in six plays and Young accounted for all the yardage, completing all four passes for 68 yards and running for the other 15 yards.
Young's first fumble set up a 61-yard Washington drive that led to Chip Lohmiller's 19-yard field goal that cut it to 7-3.
San Francisco squandered its next chance when Johnson intercepted Young's pass at his 5 after the Niners had driven from their half-yard-line to the Washington 29.
But the Niners got it back when Mitchell fumbled at the 35 with 1:09 left as he was trying to dive for a first down, and Whitmore recovered. Four plays later, Young threw over the middle to Jones, who fumbled at the 1 when hit by Brad Edwards but regained the ball in the end zone.