NFC PLAYOFF NOTEBOOK : 49ers Will Try to Establish Run--Really

Seeing the Giants run the ball successfully against the Rams last week has given the 49ers some ideas.

That’s not to say that 49er quarterback Joe Montana, the NFL’s most proficient passer, will be restricted to handing the ball off, but Coach George Seifert said Wednesday that running back Roger Craig and fullback Tom Rathman will probably get to carry the ball more often than in San Francisco’s regular-season games.

“It’s something, sure, we have to do to have a chance to win the football game,” Seifert said. “Most coaches say the same thing, but it’s true. It’s something that has been true the last few ballgames and something we really tried to focus on once we won our division.

“In our games against Buffalo and Chicago we really concentrated on running the ball more and we did (in practice) in the week prior to our last playoff game. And I think it paid off in our last ballgame and it’s something we have to do in this ballgame.”

The 49ers had 162 yards rushing last Sunday in their 41-13 rout of the Vikings, led by Craig’s 18 carries for 125 yards and a touchdown. Rathman had seven carries for 24 yards.

The Rams yielded 171 yards rushing to the Giants in their 19-13 overtime victory at the Meadowlands and were fifth in the NFL in rushing defense during the regular season.

49er nose tackle Michael Carter, who has been on injured reserve since Oct. 29 because of a sprained right foot, will probably be activated for Sunday’s game.

“The doctors plan to turn him loose, though he’s in some pain,” Seifert said. “Defensive lineman is probably one of the positions you can come back quickest, especially as a pass rusher, which is probably how we’d use him.”

Linebacker Matt Millen, the former Raider, said he’s not surprised to see the Rams advance this far in the playoffs.

“The thing that impresses me most about them is that they can score from anywhere,” said Millen, who considered signing with the Rams as a free agent but instead went with the 49ers. “If you look at one team in the NFL that’s getting better and better each week, it’s the Los Angeles Rams. Earlier on, they were doing things they weren’t quite sure of, but now (quarterback Jim) Everett knows his receivers and they have an experienced offensive line. They’ve gotten better and better.”

Still, Millen said he doesn’t plan to be taken by surprise Sunday.

“I’ve never been on my heels and I never plan to be,” he said.

Reporters have been asking the 49ers if Everett is a young Joe Montana--Seifert compared him with Dan Fouts for his “sense and feel for the attack”--and the 49ers have been generous in their praise. But although Everett may be a budding Montana, the original is no slouch.

“The most impressive thing about him is, he’s so accurate,” Rathman said. “He’ll make a tough throw and it’ll be easy to catch. He’ll make it with pinpoint accuracy.”

Defensive tackle Pierce Holt agreed that Everett is up and coming, but Montana is already there.

“The Rams have just gotten better and better. Look at them now,” he said. “And look at Everett: He had some problems, but he knows now where his guys are going to be and they just turn around and the ball is there.

“He’s got it down to a science (and) he’s got a great offensive line in front of him. . . . The thing about Joe is that he’s played so well in big games. We have to see how Jim does in big games.”

49er tight end Jamie Williams has a unique way of preparing for games: reading comic books.

Williams, who dresses in a Spiderman costume for off-season appearances before children’s groups, chooses the comic according to the nature of the pending game.

“Conan is really the one I get into when I have to get down and dirty,” he said. “Spiderman is my overall psych.”

Despite the difference in the scores, Ram defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur doesn’t think the Rams’ 13-12 victory in San Francisco and the 49ers’ 30-27 win at Anaheim were different types of games.

“I know a lot of people looked at the two games as completely different from a defensive point of view, but I didn’t,” he said at Rams Park. “If you take the two big slants (John Taylor’s touchdowns of 92 and 95 yards) out of there, I don’t think you’d call (the second) a wide-open game.

“We knocked them out when they were inside the 20 with interceptions early in the ballgame. And the first time, we made them kick field goals four times.”

Shurmur says the Ram defensive players are confident they can contain the 49ers because they have done just that for all but a couple of plays in the last two games.

“Those slants, well, that was unique,” he said. “I know they’ve done that to a lot of people, but normally you’d like to think you could get the guy on the ground before he gets 90-some yards out of a six-yard pass.

“We have a great deal of respect for 49ers, but, in the past, we were all a little nervous about playing them. Now we look at it as a tremendous challenge, but with a feeling that we can play with them. And that’s a good feeling.

Times staff writer John Weyler contributed to this story.