Cincinnati Bengals’ Super Bowl history, Part 2: A look back at 1989
In Super Bowl 23, the 49ers caught the Bengals and downed them in the final minute
Tag: John Taylor
John Taylor, Patrick Willis are 49ers Hall of Fame inductees
John Taylor and Patrick Willis will be the newest inductees into the San Francisco 49ers Hall of Fame.
The San Francisco 49ers during Wednesday’s State of the Franchise announced wide receiver John Taylor and linebacker Patrick Willis would both go into the Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. Hall of Fame.
Taylor and Willis will be honored during the club’s Week 15 home game against the Atlanta Falcons.
The 49ers selected Taylor in the third round of the 1986 draft out of Delaware State. He wound up spending nine seasons in San Francisco as a punt returner and receiver.
In 1988 he made his first of two Pro Bowls thanks to his league-best 556 punt return yards and two punt return touchdowns. The following year he was back in the Pro Bowl as a receiver thanks to his 60 receptions, 1,077 yards and 10 touchdowns. The yardage and touchdown totals in 1989 were his career highs.
Taylor amassed 347 receptions for 5,598 yards and 43 touchdowns while working as an integral part of three 49ers Super Bowl wins.
His biggest moment came in the waning minutes of Super Bowl XXIII when he hauled in a last-minute, game-winning touchdown from Joe Montana to put away the Bengals and secure the team’s third Lombardi trophy.
Willis was a first-round pick in 2007 and immediately made his mark on the league. He was a Pro Bowler, First-Team All-Pro, and Defensive Rookie of the Year all in his first season while racking up a league-best 174 tackles, eight tackles for loss and 4.0 sacks.
That was the start of a career that saw Willis ascend to the elite tier of all-time great linebackers. He never won a Super Bowl, though he did play in one while helping spearhead a 49ers defense that helped define the early 2010s.
By the time he hung up his pads after the 2014 season, Willis had earned seven Pro Bowl nods and five First-Team All-Pro selections in just eight seasons. He stepped into the NFL as one of the league’s best, and maintained his position throughout his short career.
Willis finished his eight seasons with 950 tackles, 60 tackles for loss, 20.5 sacks, eight interceptions and 53 pass breakups. He was one of the early versions of the modern, athletic, sideline-to-sideline linebacker who’s also an asset in coverage. His induction into the 49ers’ Hall of Fame should only be the precursor to his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Watching tape with Joe Montana: Hall of Fame QB recalls his most amazing plays
If you ever wanted to sit down with Joe Montana and get an inside look at some of the great plays in NFL history, you can now do just that.
There’s no better way to learn what really goes on in a football game than to ask players and coaches what actually occurred on the field. Tape and metrics will tell you a lot, but if you can get the inside intel from the guys who are actually drawing it up and executing it, it’s an entirely different dimension. The more detail the better in that case, which is why I’ve enjoyed watching tape with some of the NFL’s best players, and some of the NCAA’s best draft prospects.
I’ve been fortunate enough to watch tape with everyone from Patrick Mahomes to Richard Sherman, and three players in Super Bowl LV — Mahomes, Buccaneers running back Ronald Jones II, and Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr.
Since I started doing this with former NFL guard Evan Mathis in 2015 after Mathis challenged me to learn more about a sack he had allegedly allowed than I actually knew, the concept has always been enlightening, and has contributed a great deal to my football acumen, such as it is. Hopefully, those who have read these articles have felt the same way.
And then, once in a while, you just hit the motherlode. That happened to me this week when I was afforded the opportunity to speak with Joe Montana regarding his involvement in the new Fan Controlled Football league. Montana has been an investor and Chief Strategic Advisor since 2018, and we’ll be running a separate piece on Montana’s role in the league, as well as some very candid comments about one of the league’s most prominent quarterbacks — one Jonathan Paul Manziel.
But when I realized that I’d have quite a few extra minutes of scheduled time with Montana, I thought it would be interesting for me, and for our readers, to dive back into the low-def, No-22 of the 1980s and go over some of the most important and amazing plays of the decade with the man who defined it.
So, without further ado, here’s the opportunity to go under the hood with one of the greatest players in NFL history, who worked his magic with the greatest offensive mind in NFL history in Bill Walsh, and find out just how this was all done — at a forensic level.
Folks, it’s time to watch tape with Joe Montana.