PRO FOOTBALL : 49er Advantage Over Giants Was Montana

When quarterbacks Joe Montana and Phil Simms were shooting it out Monday night at Candlestick Park, their only difference, it sometimes seemed, was the color of their uniforms.

In his familiar red 49er shirt, Montana threw 27 strikes for 292 yards, missing on only six attempts. In his whites, Simms, playing catch-up, completed 25 of 48 passes to advance the New York Giants 326 yards.

And although Montana delivered three touchdown passes, Simms, nearly as impressive, threw a pair.

But after the Giants had lost it, 34-24, you could look back and see why. Simms had thrown three interceptions, Montana none.

Simms’ interceptions were crippling. Two set up 49er touchdowns after linebacker Matt Millen and cornerback Eric Wright took passes away from New York receivers at the Giant 35 and 16. The other theft, by 49er safety Chet Brooks, ended a fourth-quarter Giant move at the goal line.

An interception is probably the most damaging football misplay--chilling the confidence of the passer, raising the spirits of the other team, and often changing the momentum.

And, not surprisingly, Montana has been taking pains to avoid this particular error. He has thrown 22 touchdown passes this season against four interceptions.

Simms in 12 weeks has thrown 12 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions.

That was the 49er edge.

One of the reigning experts on 1989 passing is Mouse Davis, the creator of run and shoot football who serves the rising Detroit Lions as offensive coordinator under Coach Wayne Fontes.

“You can trace almost every intercepted pass to one of three causes,” Davis said from Detroit, where the Lions upset Cleveland Thanksgiving Day.

“It’s either a good defensive play, a bad pass, or the quarterback has misread the defense.

“You can live with good defense. You can even live with bad passes. The only bad quarterbacks are the bad readers.

“If Montana is the league’s best quarterback, it’s because he’s one of the best readers in the game. He almost never throws a ‘misread’ interception.”

San Francisco’s success has spanned the 1980s under two coaches, Bill Walsh and his successor, George Seifert, and continues to defy the odds. At 10-2, the 49ers are the NFC’s top club, a game up on the 9-3 Giants, who are at least a game up on everyone else.

“It’s surprising, I guess, but possible,” said 49er Vice President John McVay. “You need two things. You have to have continuity without stagnation. And you’ve got to keep the focus on football.

“We fight stagnation but keep continuity by keeping most--but not all--of our assistant coaches right along; and most--but not all--of our scouts. We make it a point to bring in new coaches every year or so and new scouts from time to time. And other new employees.

“Continuity starts with a stable owner. We have that with Eddie DeBartolo--who also helps us keep the focus on football. As Eddie says, marketing is vital, but peripheral. Cheerleaders are important, but peripheral.

“We all get up every morning asking: How can we improve the football product?”

Tom Landry, who coached the Dallas Cowboys for 29 years, let go before this season’s failures, knows all about constancy in the proprietor’s office.

For 25 years, Landry worked for the same club owner, Clint Murchison.

“What that does, it causes stability,” Landry told Texas writers the other day. “Most pro football teams aren’t stable at all, from that standpoint. (Murchison) took (the) pressure off.

“When he sold the Cowboys in 1984, the pressure changed pretty quick.”

It’s all in the record. In 1985, under new owners, the Cowboys had one more good year--finishing 10-6--but since then they’ve gone 7-9, 7-8, 3-13 and, this season, 1-11.

Their changing ownership structure isn’t, of course, wholly responsible. Some critics point to these other explanations for the downfall of the Cowboys:

--In the final drafts of the Landry era, they put the emphasis on good athletes with good character instead of good football players. Continuing a trend that had worked well for them for a while, they began, perhaps, to over-value speed and good guys.

--They didn’t invariably keep the focus on Cowboy football. Their president, Tex Schramm, became the NFL’s most powerful club executive, a time-consuming role. And there were other distractions.

Even so, the Cowboys might not have fallen if Murchison, an oilman who fell ill, had kept his health and his money.

One More Thing Dept.: Depth remains the 49ers’ secret weapon. Consider:

--The Giants aren’t the team they were before they lost tight end Mark Bavaro, running back Joe Morris and--in the second quarter Monday night--linebacker Lawrence Taylor.

--The 49ers have more successfully replaced their most devastating 1989 losses: nose tackle Michael Carter, probably the NFL leader at his position, and safety Jeff Fuller.

Chet Brooks may not be a Fuller, but he’s close, and the 49ers brought in nine-year pro veteran Jim Burt to help Pete Kugler at Carter’s position.

It cost DeBartolo plenty to import Burt from the Giants and Matt Millen from the Raiders, but his club wouldn’t be 10-2 without them.

Millen is playing the role here that former Ram Jack Reynolds played for San Francisco’s Super Bowl champions in 1981--when he was badly needed by the Rams, who in the 1980s have lost more talent than most clubs for financial reasons.

DeBartolo’s emphasis is on winning, not profit-taking.

Still, he does have a problem. The 49ers, like the Rams, can’t run against good defenses. Down the road, that could be costly.

More ominous for the 49ers is the December schedule. Before and after the Ram-49er rematch at Anaheim Dec. 11, the Rams will meet three easy marks, Dallas, the New York Jets and New England.

The 49ers are scheduled against easy Atlanta and tough Buffalo and Chicago.

Thus, in the NFC West, nothing has been settled. Though at present the 8-4 Rams are two games behind the 49ers, January will belong to the team that wins in December.

“The pro season isn’t as long, really, as some people think,” Viking President Mike Lynn said from Minneapolis. “For most teams, the last month is what counts. You win in December, you’re in the playoffs. The NFL is a December league.”

The Rams’ Jim Everett conceivably rounded the corner to become the NFL’s next great quarterback with his comeback win Sunday at New Orleans.

Norman Braman, president of the Philadelphia Eagles, is among those who think so.

From his office in Miami, Braman said: “Remember when Joe Montana threw those four fourth-quarter touchdown passes to beat us (38-28) in the third week of the season? Everett showed all that beauty Sunday night. He did it just the way Montana does it.”

Quote Dept.: Randall Cunningham, Philadelphia quarterback, on the injuries that have retarded the Eagles, whose problem is lack of depth: “I used to use (tight end) Keith Jackson to control the offense, and I used to use (wide receiver) Mike Quick for touchdowns.”

Kevin Murphy, Tampa Bay linebacker, on dynasties: “Times change, and people change. Good players retire. Other teams start getting good players. You saw it happen to the Steelers and Cowboys. It happens to everybody.”

George Young, New York Giants’ general manager: “We didn’t lose the Eastern Division in Candlestick. (If) we beat Philadelphia (Sunday) and Dallas, we win the East.”