some tough times early in the season, including a 40–8 home loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, and a 24–17 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, led by former 49ers quarterback Joe Montana. Following the Eagles game, a poll conducted on local sports radio station KNBR showed that an overwhelming majority of 49er fans wanted head coach George Seifert fired. The game against the Eagles was a turning point for the 49ers despite the lopsided score. Quarterback Steve Young was benched in the 3rd quarter and was later seen livid on the sidelines, shouting profanities at Seifert. The following week in Detroit, the 49ers trailed the Lions 7–0. After throwing a pass, Young was hit, picked up, and driven into the ground by three Lions defenders. After the hit, Young was screaming with his face dark red in color. He crawled most of the way off of the field before refusing help from the trainers as he limped the remaining way off the field. He miraculously returned to the field two plays later (NFL rules state that after trainers attend to an injured player, that player must leave the field for at least one play) to lead the 49ers to a 27–21 victory. The team rallied around Young to win 10 straight games, including a 21–14 victory over the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys. During that span the 49ers' average margin of victory was nearly 20 points per game, a sustained dominance not seen since the 1985 Chicago Bears. Despite scoring only 8 points in one game and 14 in another, the 49ers set a new record for total regular-season and post-season combined points scored. That record was later broken by the New England Patriots in 2007 (the 1998 Minnesota Vikings scored 556 regular-season points, but only 68 postseason points, for a total of 624 points, while the 1994 49ers scored 495 regular-season points and 131 postseason points for a total of 626, the second-highest mark in NFL history). Even after those initial rough spots early in the season, the 49ers finished the season 13–3 and with home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. In their first game, they easily defeated the Chicago Bears, 44–15, setting up the third straight 49ers–Cowboys NFC championship game. The 49ers took advantage of three early Cowboys turnovers, taking a 21–0 lead in the first quarter. Taking a 31–14 lead into halftime after a perfect 29-yard