49ers, Facing Giants, Try for a Reversal

Across the Hudson River from the familiar spires of Manhattan and out among the marshes, the Giants drilled last week in growing silence for their debut today as postseason tournament favorites.

This morning at 9:30 PST they get the San Francisco 49ers, comers themselves, in the NFC semifinals. The 49ers have five victories in seven games since Joe Montana’s return, the losses having been inflicted at Washington (14-6) and by the Giants (21-17) in a game the 49ers led, 17-0.

That was the game that Giant tight end Mark Bavaro, a very large--6-foot-4 and 245 pounds--very quiet type, turned around with a 31-yard reception, one of those old Mike Ditka numbers in which he dragged, carried, or ran over most of the 49er secondary, including tough-enough Ronnie Lott, for the last 15 yards.

Bavaro doesn’t like to talk about it, or much of anything else. He was prevailed upon last week to take one question.

About that catch?

Bavaro said he didn’t remember much about it.

OK, asked the reporter, how about the run after the catch?

“That’s two questions,” said Bavaro, smiling.

You may get that answer if he publishes his memoirs, something one Giant or another seems to do annually. That may be tougher this year, trying to squeeze them in among the many Mets’ reminiscences.

This will be the teams’ third meeting in the span of a year. In last season’s wild-card playoff game, the 49ers, still defending Super Bowl champions, limped in here and tiptoed through a 17-3 loss. Montana had a sore chest and aching ribs, which were made no better by the four sacks he took. Roger Craig had two bad knees and five dropped passes. One cornerback, Eric Wright, sat out the game with the stomach injury that sidelines him still, and the other cornerback, Lott, played with a large cast on one hand.

What could anyone learn from that? Don’t come around here looking for sympathy.

On Dec. 1, they met in a Monday night game in San Francisco, a better indication of how they match up. Each team dominated one half. The 49ers took the first one, 17-0. The Giants won theirs, 21-0, and it could have been larger still. They were about to score a fourth touchdown in the third period when Bavaro fumbled the ball away deep in 49er territory.

Determined to stop Joe Morris and the Giant running game, less concerned about quarterback Phil Simms, the 49ers brought strong safety Carlton Williamson up to the line of scrimmage and set him just outside Bavaro. The Giants, a no-frills outfit, rarely run anywhere but to the strong side, and the 49ers, massed there, ate Morris up. He had 2 yards in 6 carries in the first half, 14 in 13 overall.

Meanwhile, the 49ers piled up 89 yards rushing of their own and took their 17-0 lead.

On the third play of the second half, Bavaro, left unchecked by Williamson, went out for a pass, caught it and went on his 31-yard way.

“When Mark made that catch, that was a beautiful thing,” Morris said. “That showed us all we weren’t out of this.”

Then Simms threw a touchdown pass to Morris, isolated on, or rather behind, linebacker Keena Turner. In the second half, Simms completed 13 of 16 passes for 213 yards and 3 touchdowns. In San Francisco, he is underrated no longer.

“When you play an eight-man line, you stop the run,” Morris said. “But you’re going to have to single-cover the wide receivers and the backs. I’d like them to do the same thing again. But they’ll adjust.

“This will be an old-fashioned football game. They’re going to play basic defense, and we’re going to play basic offense, and we’ll see who wins the game.”

You Bill Walsh fans may wonder how much basic anything the 49ers do, but they like to hit you in the chest occasionally, for counterpoint. Since Montana’s return and Craig’s recovery from a series of nagging injuries, their rushing average has zoomed, from 2.9 yards a carry to 4.4. In their last four games, they’ve run for an average of 171 yards a game.

Moreover, they’re angry. In Redwood City last week, Craig pasted up pages from “Point of Attack,” the book by Giant linebacker Harry Carson. In the book, Carson says one hit he made on Craig in the ’85 playoff was “like an orgasm.”

Carson was seen walking around the Giant locker room last week with a pair of stereo headphones on, working on his game face and turning down interview requests.

“It’s Friday,” he said. “Time to play.”

Which Joe Montana will show up? The high-wire artist who led the 49ers to two Super Bowl wins, or the more tentative one who has taken his place since climbing off an operating table?

“Looks pretty good to me,” Giant Coach Bill Parcells said. What did you expect him to say, he’s hoping for a complete return to form by game time?

As forgivable as it is, as understandable as it would be, Montana’s return has been short of a perfect triumph. After back surgery and the most lukewarm of endorsements from his surgeon, Dr. Arthur White, who first said he wasn’t recommending it, Montana returned. He was one season ahead of schedule, assuming that a return was on the schedule at all.

He came back with a splash--three touchdown passes against the St. Louis Cardinals--but then fell off to numbers that might have been respectable for Mike Moroski but were nowhere for him.

Montana’s final rating is 80.8, second in the NFC, but 12 points under his career average, which is the highest average of all time.

Montana, who had thrown two touchdown passes for every interception in his career, threw more interceptions than touchdown passes in a season for the first time. In the five games before the season-ending victory over the Rams, his ratio was 2 to 6.

Reporters on the beat say he isn’t scrambling and improvising as he once did, presumably in fear of taking a hit.

CBS’ John Madden has said Montana looks “frail or something.”

And even Walsh told San Francisco writer Tom FitzGerald, “I don’t think we’re making the plays at the quarterback spot that, when we’ve been at our best, we’ve made.”

Actually, it has been a while since “we” have been at our best. Try Super Bowl XIX, the ’85 game at Stanford where Montana won his second Super Bowl MVP award.

The ’85 regular season was not his best, nor was the off-season his most politic. He published his own book, slamming most of the Bay Area reporters he knew. He went after Walsh, too, complaining that the coach seemed to think more of his own X-and-O genius than Montana’s execution.

Recently, there have been increasing signs that Walsh is looking beyond the Montana border. Walsh has made no secret of his admiration for Vinny Testaverde.

And if a deal for Vinny is impossible, Walsh is expected to go after the incumbent Tampa Bay quarterback, Steve Young. Would he be a Young-er Montana-type?

Does the original have a surprise of his own saved up for today?

The publishing world awaits the outcome. If the Giants win, get ready for “Gatorade Baths: the Bill Parcells Story.”

‘This will be an old-fashioned football game. They’re going to play basic defense, and we’re going to play basic offense, and we’ll see who wins the game.’--JOE MORRIS, New York Giants back