The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 19

MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 1989 The Palm Beach Post SECTION PORTS Bengals shuffle, 49ers shuttle to SBXXm meeting at JRS Bully Burroughs buries Buffalo in biggest battle CINCINNATI It was a nasty little street fight that moved down the sideline and played itself out in the Buffalo end zone and in a paradox. Marv Levy had brought the Bills to the AFC Championship Game by emphasizing a simple philosophy. All season he had preached it, over and over again: "Don't be dumb. Don't be dirty." That was the motto by which Levy coached the Bills. That was the motto which would become Buffalo's epitaph in a 2M0 defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals.

It was dumb and dirty play that cost the Bills dearly. While all eyes focused on the no-huddle offense it was the no-brains defense that would New no-huddle rule backfires on Bills as Cincy wins 21-10 By CRAIG DOLCH Palm Beach Post Staff Writer CINCINNATI Anyone will tell you it's never wise to get an animal angry in The Jungle. Especially when that animal is as ferocious and hungry as the Cincinnati Bengals were Sunday. The Buffalo Bills should have let a sleeping Bengal lie or at least use its no-huddle offense. But when the Bills succeeded in altering the Bengals' no-huddle offense, it left Buffalo in a no-win position.

The Bills found that out the hard way Sunday, as the Bengals transformed the frustration of an unprecedented late rule change by the NFL into the driving force behind an impressive 21-10 win over Buffalo in the AFC Championship game at Riverfront Stadium, also known as The Jungle. Dan Moffett SPORTS EDITOR IOC IOC Side lines Statistics i i The win sets up a meeting between the Bengals and the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XXIII in Miami's Joe Robbie Stadium Jan. 22. The game will be a rematch of Super Bowl XVI, which the 49ers won 26-21. Bengals wide receiver Cris Collinsworth said his team should credit Bills coach Marv Levy, who initiated the rule change whereby Cincinnati couldn't quick snap to get a penalty on Buffalo for having too many players on the field (see ruling, page 10C), for providing the extra motivation Sunday.

Maybe the Bengals can mail Levy a post card or two from Miami. "I really think it backfired on them," Collinsworth said. "I mean, here's this guy coming into our own stadium and telling us we can't do something the league has allowed us to do all year. I don't think the guys needed much more to get pumped up about, but Levy sure helped us in that regard." As the saying goes, the Bengals didn't get mad, they got even. Stung by the rule change that was made less than two hours before kickoff, Cincinnati took a 7-0 first-quarter lead and, even though the Bills (13-5) managed a 7-7 tie, the Bengals (14-4) soon regained the lead and never trailed in the game.

"I'm very proud of our guys for overcoming the adversity of not being able to play with the style that got us here," Bengals coach Sam Wyche said. "For the CJ. WALKERStaff Photographer Cincinnati nose tackle David Grant prepares to sack Buffalo quarterback Jim Kelly for a 10-yard loss during the Bengals' 21-10 victory Sunday in the AFC Championship Game at Riverfront Stadium. Kelly was sacked three times by the Cincinnati defense on the afternoon. Please see AFC IOC Niners weather Bears 28-3 for NFC title prove decisive.

Derrick Burroughs refused to comment on the forearm he threw at Tim McGee's head during the last minute of the third quarter Sunday. In the absence of a rational explanation, perhaps it is better to say nothing at all. I Burroughs' teammate, linebacker Scott Radecic, said what needed saying better than anyone else in the losers' locker room. "In a close game," Radecic said, "when tempers are flaring and emotions are high, somehow you have to find a way to walk away from that stuff." The Buffalo defense was in the process of making a valiant stand when Burroughs threw his mindless cheap shot. The Bengals had a 14-10 lead and the ball on the Bills' 5-yard line.

On second-and-goal, inside linebacker Shane Conlan broke through the Bengals line and stopped running back Ickey Woods for a 3-yard loss. That could have been the breakthrough the Bills needed to keep the Bengals out of the end zone, to force them into trying a field goal, that could have sent the game into a different direction. Plenty of time remained. Jim Kelly and the offense had rallied Buffalo to other victories this season. But as Conlan was dropping Woods, cornerback Burroughs was settling a private score with receiver McGee.

A right forearm slammed into McGee's face mask. A flag flew. Burroughs was ejected. The Bills were penalized. The Bengals received a first down at the 4-yard line and two plays later scored the clinching touchdown.

Burroughs could have used an armed guard to protect him from his own teammates as he watched the rest of the game from the Bills' bench. Nose tackle Fred Smerlas was forced to intervene to shield him from some angry colleagues. "It was the kind of stuff that happens when you lose a close ball game," a smiling Smerlas said. "People were venting their frustrations. They wanted to kill Derrick Burroughs that's all." Awaiting the mob No jury made up of citizens from Buffalo would have convicted the assassin who felled Burroughs.

As the Bengals had driven down the field, Burroughs had escalated his private, petty war with McGee. The officials broke up the two several times. "He kept getting frustrated," McGee said. "The referee kept coming over and saying, 'Stop that or I'll call But he kept on doing it." Two plays before the penalty, McGee found himself sprawled at Burroughs' feet after trying to cut him down. "He told me, 'I should step on your McGee said.

"Then the referee came over and pulled us apart." Burroughs has completed four seasons with the Bills, having come to Buffalo out of Memphis State as a first-round draft choice. He started as a rookie. He should have learned restraint by now, and composure. But Levy made the decision not to designate a fall guy, even if the choice was obvious. I "I am not going to stand and say this guy did this bad and this guy did that," the coach said.

"Overall, I told our players win or lose, I still love them. And I do." Give peace a chance It is a little late for love. If Burroughs could have recalled just enough of the 'love thy neighbor' concept to have refrained from attempts at decapitation, the Bills would have been better served. -t Not since Ghandi has a modern pacifist been so widely hailed as Tim McGee. For doing nothing at the right moment he has left all Cincinnati grateful and aglow in self-righteousness.

The Bengals found a hero of inaction. "Guys were coming up to me on the sideline and congratulating me for keeping my cool," McGee said. Dumb and dirty goes down easily against smart and relatively clean. As always, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Strange footnotes routinely seem to follow thoughtless acts of violence.

Consider that while at Memphis State, Derrick Burroughs majored in criminology. He is planning a career in law enforcement when his playing days are over. Just another paradox in an end zone on the way to the Super Bowl. Marvelous Montana has chilling effect on battered Bears By TOM D'ANGELO Palm Beach Post Staff Writer CHICAGO The Chicago Bears got everything they wanted for the NFC Championship game the home field advantage, a little controversy and "Bears' Weather." Everything, except a victory. ION Side Lines Statistics 8C 8C (ji.

CHICAGO The first time Joe Montana passed the San Francisco 49ers into the Super Bowl he didn't see the winning effort, a wobby and wild pass to nowhere that Dwight Clark snared along the back line of the end zone to beat Dallas. Sunday he saw what was happening all right, but he didn't feel it. Midwest windchill of 20 below zero have a way of making the brisk winter evenings of the San Francisco Bay area feel like a California tanning salon. But oh what a warm glow those scoreboard lights can emit, particularly when the bulbs are blaring out a 28 forma i lJ Dave George In conditions best suited for ice fishing on Lake Michigan, the San Francisco 49ers overcame brisk winds and a wind chill of a minus-33 degrees at kickoff Sunday to defeat the Bears 28-3 at Soldier Field. The 49ers earned a trip to Joe Robbie Stadium where they will face the AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII.

They are counting on improved weather conditions. "Coming from West Palm Beach and only seeing snow once, I can't wait to get back in the sun," 49ers defensive end Kevin Fagan said. "But when you get that adrenalin flowing and get out there. I didn't feel cold one time." A crowd of 64,830 (2,116 were smart enough to stay home) could have saved a lot of coffee and body heat by heading for the warmth of home at halftime. The 49ers won their third NFC title since the 1981 season as a near-perfect Joe Montana connected with Jerry Rice for two first half scores, and the defense stuffed Chicago's blue-collar running game.

"We seemed to have peaked at the right time," 49ers coach Bill Walsh said. "We've had a series of very good games and we're reaching our full potential." i tion on your side and a measly 3 for the boys in black. Bear Weather? Not hardly Sunday. The wicked 30-mph wind and lung-numbing cold that turned Soldier Field into an open-air meat locker was Fair-Haired Weather. As in Golden Boy.

As in Super Bowl MVP, past and perhaps future. As in Joe Montana. "This was one of Joe's greatest games, considering the conditions," said 49ers coach Bill Walsh, reflecting on a 17-of-27, three-touchdown performance that was chipped out of this chilly afternoon like a beautiful ice sculpture. "I was concerned about the wind affecting our passing game but Joe was able to throw." Long, strong and often. Jerry Rice got open, as he always does, but few other quarterbacks could have gotten the ball to him.

The deep out pattern they hooked up on for a 61-yard touchdown in the first quarter really was all it took to blast away the Bears' granite image. Rice caught another scoring pass, a read-it-and-rip slant Please see 49ERS9C SCOn WISEMANStaff Photographer San Francisco's Jerry Rice is headed toward the end zone with a 27-yard touchdown reception during the second quarter Sunday. Please see NFC8C SCOREBOARD HOKE SWEET HOKE A NEW EEOIOING NFL AFC CHAMPIONSHIP Cincinnati 21 Buffalo 10 Complete coverage 9-10C NFC CHAMPIONSHIP San Francisco 28 Chicago 3 Complete coverage 8-9C Ron Rothstein and the Miami Heat are glad to be home after a six-game, 1 2-day West Coast trip that ended with a 107-99 loss in Phoenix Saturday night. STORY, 5C NBA New York 134 LA. Clippers 100 San Antonio at L.A.

Lakers late NHL Boston 4 Quebec 2 Los Angeles 4 Winnipeg 4 I Edmonton 6 Calgary 0 N.Y. Islanders 3 Chicago 2 ta If Norm Sloan's Florida Gators win the SEC, they'll look back to Saturday's 80-66 win over Georgia in Athens as the turning point in the season. STORY, 3C Rothstein Sloan.