New Orleans Can’t Beat Clock or Walsh : 49ers Get Kicks in Second Half, Beat Saints, 30-17

Football is a game played with a clock. And Bill Walsh, coach of the San Francisco 49ers, used it Sunday to help his team brush the New Orleans Saints out of first place and set up a Ram-49er showdown here next week for what could be the division championship.

After scoring three touchdowns in the second quarter, the 49ers played for field goals thereafter and got three of them in the second half to win, 30-17, on a day when they spent the last 30 minutes running on third down to keep the clock moving.

And afterward, Walsh said: “We played our best game of the season.”

Said New Orleans Coach Jim Mora: “The difference was that San Francisco is a better team than we are.”

It was in windless, sunny, bracing weather that the Saints (9-6) lost their third straight and fell behind the 49ers (10-5), who won their fourth straight and climbed to the top of the NFC West standings but still need one more to clinch the title.

They earned a wild-card berth but the title still depends on next week’s results.

“I’ve never seen it quite like this, where no team is dominant,” Walsh said as his team finally pulled ahead of its Western rivals on the 15th of the season’s 16 Sundays.

As Walsh walked off the field with a 21-10 lead at halftime, he was doubtless telling himself, “I know that Bobby Hebert can’t beat me. Let’s don’t give the game away.”

Hebert, the adequate but less than inspiring New Orleans quarterback, is the leader of one of the slowest teams in the league. The 49ers are one of the fastest, and also among the brightest.

So the Saints didn’t have much chance in the second half, and the crowd of 62,977, second largest in Candlestick Park history, didn’t have much to see.

It was different in the second quarter, when the 49ers took the wraps off their four spectacular offensive players--quarterback Joe Montana, halfback Roger Craig, flanker Jerry Rice and split end John Taylor.

With these people, Walsh has four gamebreakers to none for New Orleans, and, for a while, he made the most of his lopsided advantage.

Setting up the first of 3 San Francisco touchdowns in 12 minutes, Craig churned and spun his way 28 yards to the New Orleans 1. On the following play he flew into the end zone.

Next, on 6 passes and 2 runs, Montana drove the 49ers 80 yards to a touchdown he scored himself on a third-and-2 rollout--rolling right, and threatening, all the way, a throw to Rice.

The final San Francisco touchdown came on a long pass play, Montana to Taylor for 68 yards.

Taylor, a second-year pro from Delaware State, hasn’t had much publicity in pro football. But clearly, he gives the 49ers another impressive weapon to put out there alongside Rice and Craig.

On San Francisco’s big touchdown play, Walsh sent Taylor up the field on the pattern known as the out and up--a feint to the sideline followed by a sprint toward the end zone.

The Saints were in a double double defense at the time--using their four defensive backs to double cover both Rice and Taylor--and against that defense, a sideline pattern like Taylor’s isn’t considered an offensive optimum.

Something down the middle is usually preferred.

Walsh called it, no doubt, on grounds that the Saints aren’t very fast. And when Taylor got in between the two defensive backs on his side, Reggie Sutton and Brett Maxie, he defeated both with ease.

So did Montana, who got off a perfect pass.

Taylor made his inside cut, away from New Orleans free safety Maxie, at just the right moment. And on his race with Maxie to the goal line, the Saint didn’t make up a foot on him.

It was like last week, when a New Orleans running back, Dalton Hilliard, couldn’t catch a Minnesota linebacker in a touchdown race after an interception.

There isn’t a better coached team in the league than Mora’s. His players do almost everything right, but too often in slow motion.

By contrast, their kicker, Morten Anderson, blew two more field goals to take some of the heart out of the Saints in the first half.

“(His kicking) is becoming less of a sure thing,” Mora said.

A former Saint kicker, Mike Cofer, scored on all three of his attempts for the 49ers.

Comparing the day’s quarterbacks, 49er safety Ronnie Lott, the most effective defensive player on the field, said, “Montana outplayed Hebert again.”

Except for one play, when he overshot Rice, this was vintage Montana football, reminiscent of his younger days.

He seems to be completely free of the fear of reinjuring his back. Although he seldom throws rolling left these days, he moves around in the pocket with more efficiency than ever.

His success is also partly due to the rare abilities of Craig, who is the most interesting runner to watch this year.

On his longest run in this game, Craig bumped into New Orleans linebacker Sam Mills and made a 360-degree spin to break out of his tackle.

Despite his high knee action and straight-up running style, Craig is a hard hitter as well as a graceful open-field performer.

This is a polished, exciting team that Walsh has, but probably no better than John Robinson’s in Anaheim, although there is this one difference: The 49ers pulled out of their midseason slump this fall 1 week before the Rams got it together.

The 49er edge isn’t substantial, but it’s there.