THE CATCH II : 49ers Add to Lore With Owens' Catch Rivaling Clark's

By T.J. SIMERS

Jan. 4, 1999 12 AM PT

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

SAN FRANCISCO — Eight seconds remaining, one throw down the middle, and maybe it makes the difference between Steve Mariucci being fired or earning a pay raise, one more game for Reggie White or a dramatic halt to a Hall of Fame career, victory or defeat riding on where it lands.

It is caught, 25 yards and six points of redemption for 49er receiver Terrell Owens, San Francisco packing its bags for a second-round playoff game in Atlanta with a pulsating 30-27 wild-card victory between two giants of another era, Green Bay putting away its gear for the season.

Owens is sobbing, the Packer defense shuffles off the field, stunned. There is pandemonium in 3Com Park, in Green Bay the winter suddenly is getting colder.

There are three seconds left on the clock--a formality, and they disappear on the ensuing kickoff, the results of one throw down the middle making everything clearer.

White, the 13-time Pro Bowler, has played his last game. A 21-day window of opportunity to become a general manager/coach elsewhere has been officially opened for Green Bay’s Mike Holmgren. And the last happy man on the field is Mariucci, his arm around his wife, posing for photographers and lapping up the admiration.

“It has been tough week,” Mariucci said, “a very long week.”

He has beaten the Packers, the 49ers’ great nemesis, has outlasted Holmgren, the San Francisco favorite son projected to take his job, and how absurd would it be now to fire Mariucci and replace him with the man who has lost in Green Bay?

One last throw down the middle, it is caught, and Mariucci looks like a keeper.

“He’s a fantastic football coach,” said Young, adding it might be time to set the record straight. “He’s done nothing but handle everything that’s gone on in this disintegration over the last two years of this organization. And it’s not fair for him to be so excellent, facing things and pulling everything together. . .

“When you think about it, it’s 48 players, a few coaches and Steve Mariucci. And we’re in the second round of the playoffs. I would assume most organizations wouldn’t be able to handle that.”

Instead of getting fired in the next few days, Mariucci will probably be handed a contract extension, one play maybe making so much difference.

“It was a great win for the city of San Francisco and this organization,” said Mariucci, neglecting to mention himself.

The 49ers, void of any real leadership above Mariucci, had ended their season against these Packers the past three years, but there was 1:56 remaining after Green Bay had scored, putting itself in position to stop San Francisco again with a 27-23 lead.

San Francisco began the game’s decisive drive at its 24-yard line, and the noise and the excitement and anticipation would eventually build to a crescendo on third and three from the Green Bay 25-yard line with eight seconds to play.

But first the controversy and questionable officiating, a prerequisite this season for almost any NFL game.

Jerry Rice, needing a reception to tie Dallas’ Drew Pearson with one reception in at least 22 consecutive postseason games, remained shut out with 46 seconds to play. But Young went his way, Rice caught a six-yard pass, and the ball came free, an official standing right there.

“Yes, I certainly did think that was a fumble,” Packer General Manager Ron Wolf said. “I would think anybody that understands what a fumble is would think that’s a fumble.”

The Packers recovered the ball, but the official reacted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, the 49ers called timeout and had 27 seconds left to win the game.

“They told me from upstairs [in the coaches’ box] that it was a fumble,” Holmgren said. “. . . I wish they would have called that--then the game would have been over. Jerry has certainly earned his respect in this business, but I think when they call the game they shouldn’t look at the numbers, and I don’t think they did.”

If the officials cut Rice a break, one day it will be forgotten. “The Throw,” as Young was calling it, rivaled “The Catch,” Dwight Clark’s touchdown catch of Joe Montana’s pass in 1982 that beat Dallas and sent the 49ers to the Super Bowl.

Eight seconds to play, the 49ers out of timeouts and they were 25 yards away from the end zone with the Packers using six defensive backs to prevent a touchdown.

But Green Bay rushed only three defenders at Young, and while he stumbled and nearly fell down, he righted himself in time throw the ball where he had intended all along: down the middle of the field.

“We had been setting them up for that,” he explained. “I wanted to throw the ball high, give Terrell a chance to go up for it, and really the opening in the middle was bigger than I expected.”

The Packers cannot be blamed for not being concerned with Owens, who had already dropped four passes and had fumbled one of his previous two catches.

“It had been a rough day,” said Owens, so overcome by his game-winning grab he had to lean on his teammates for support as he cried.

Owens leaped to catch Young’s throw, three Packer defenders close, but unable to stop Owens.

“This game is going to go down in history,” said Rice with his one catch for six yards. “And I’m glad to be part of it.”

It will also go down most likely as Holmgren’s last game in Green Bay, a clause in his contract providing for an escape in payment of a second-round draft choice. Wolf said Holmgren has 21 days to shop his services, but Holmgren was already talking like a man long gone.

“They are going to be good for a long time,” said Holmgren referring to the Packers, and it wasn’t “we,” but rather “they.”

Antonio Freeman, who caught the touchdown pass from Brett Favre that gave the Packers their four-point lead with 1:56 left, becomes a free agent after the Super Bowl, and like Holmgren and White, could abandon Green Bay.

“I’m not sure anyone is feeling anything right now,” Freeman said.

With eight seconds to play, the Packers were ahead, 27-23, and one tipped pass, interception, sack or incompletion from setting their focus on Atlanta and a third-consecutive trip to the Super Bowl.

“I felt we should have won the game,” Favre said. “I thought we had them.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE PLAYOFFS

NFC

SUNDAY

* San Francisco 30, Green Bay 27

THE NEXT ROUND

SATURDAY

* San Francisco at Atlanta

9:30 a.m., Channel 11

SUNDAY

* Arizona at Minnesota