Single Coverage? Big Mistake.

In the 1994 NFC Championship Game against Dallas, Rice faced constant double teams and triple teams throughout the game. Because the Niners wanted to protect Steve Young, they decided to have the tight end stay home for pass protection rather than run routes. This meant that there were less 49er receivers than usual able to roam around the Cowboy secondary. Put these two elements together, and it's not difficult to see why Rice only managed to snare 2 passes in the entire contest. However, it was one of those catches that proved to be the play of the game.

With just seven seconds remaining in the first half, the Niners had the football at the Cowboys' 28 yard line. They had to go deep...and they did. Facing rare single-coverage, Rice easily slipped past Brown and cradled in a 28 yard scoring strike from Steve Young to put the Niners up by 17 points going into halftime. The game was never in doubt after that play.