Someone Finally Stops Roger Craig : After Shredding Ram Defense, 49er Contained by Media

Roger Craig had just finished weaving his way through the Ram defense for 195 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns, but the San Francisco running back was having more trouble handling the swarm of reporters who had accomplished what the Rams couldn’t.

For once Sunday, Craig was surrounded and contained. And this time, there was nowhere to run. And nowhere to hide.

“Excuse me, but I need a drink,” he said, reaching for a soft drink over the mass of media that had him pinned in front of his locker.

“You guys are working me harder than they did out there.”

Earlier, Craig had showed he could perform in a crowd just fine, however. He scored the first 49er touchdown on a 14-yard run after running through attempted tackles by Jim Collins, Carl Ekern and finally Nolan Cromwell before lunging over the goal line.

“I don’t remember the play,” Craig said. “I just remember wanting to get to the end zone. I don’t remember how many hits I took, only that we needed points and needed to get a lead.”

Craig also found himself in one-on-one situations at times and responded to the intimacy of the moment with a couple plays that buried the Rams before halftime.

Early in the second quarter, he caught a little screen pass from Montana, got a couple of blocks and raced down the sideline for a 73-yard gain before LeRoy Irvin finally dragged him down from behind.

When asked about getting caught from behind, Craig good-naturedly asked, “Are you guys dogging me?”

Then he admitted to “running out of gas.”

Craig’s second touchdown, a 35-yard pass play, came late in the second quarter. It was a broken play and a play that broke the back of the touted Ram defense, putting the 49ers ahead, 28-0.

“I was running an out pattern and (Ram safety) Johnnie Johnson was right with me,” Craig said. “Then Joe started to scramble and he just stayed with me until I got open.”

Montana lobbed the ball over Johnson and Craig went 20 yards down the sideline unmolested.

It was one of those days when everything was going right for the 49ers, days the Super Bowl champions haven’t seen many of recently.

“We approached this game like a playoff game,” said Craig, who had 63 yards rushing on 14 carries and 6 receptions for 135 yards. “It was a great win for us.

“I don’t care much about my own statistics. If we lose, I feel like it’s the end of the world. If I have a good performance and we lose, it’s still like sour candy.”

But how sweet it was Sunday.