Craig Gets His Wish for More Work : NFL: Rams shut down 49ers’ pass-oriented attack three weeks ago. But San Francisco’s once-neglected rushing game has returned.
Three weeks ago, the Rams unveiled their Big Nickel defense and upset the San Francisco 49ers, 28-17, at Candlestick Park. And they used the scheme--a variation of the so-called prevent defense that employs six defensive backs and is normally reserved for obvious passing situations--on some first and second downs as well as third and long.
The 49er running game, which had been even more neglected than ever this season, couldn’t work out the kinks in time to take advantage of the Rams’ overemphasis on Joe Montana and friends.
For weeks, running back Roger Craig had been openly questioning his team’s commitment to a semblance of offensive balance, but it took the Rams’ we-dare-you-to-run defense and resulting victory to slam the point home.
The 49ers didn’t slough off the loss to the Rams as a fluke, either. They took notice. They took steps. They gave the ball to Roger Craig.
Last week, Cincinnati employed a similar defensive tactic, and San Francisco piled up 202 yards rushing. Craig had a season-high 97 yards rushing and became only the 20th player in NFL history to rush for 7,000 or more yards. He also had three catches, tying him with Dwight Clark for the 49ers’ all-time lead in receptions with 506 and extending his record for most catches ever by a running back.
But Craig was beginning to wonder if he would catch 100 more passes before he got his next 100-yard rushing day. After all, he hadn’t rushed for more than 50 since September. He was so excited with the way things went against the Bengals that he took the 49er linemen to dinner, a ritual usually reserved for 100-yard performances.
“This season, the coaches would normally call one or two (running) plays and then don’t run it the rest of the game,” he said, “but this time they kept calling them over and over and over, which is a good confidence-builder.
“Once you get in a rhythm, you stay with it. And that’s what the coaches did. They had faith and confidence in us and things worked out well.”
So, for Ram Coach John Robinson and defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur, it’s back to the drawing board. They figure the Big Nickel might not be worth a plug nickel Monday night in Anaheim Stadium. The Big Nickel’s only concession to the run is that four of the defensive backs are safeties, but a one-linebacker defense isn’t going to cut it if the 49ers decide to ram the ball at the Rams.
Robinson is in no way surprised at the 49ers’ renewed emphasis on the running game and thinks it would have happened with or without the upset by the Rams. The Christmas decorations go up in San Francisco, and the 49er linemen exult in the knowledge that they can shed their roles as wimpy pass-blockers and start knocking people over.
“It’s their usual December rush,” Robinson said. “I think they are looking forward to establishing their running game now, much the same as they did last year. Maybe we could send away for some more new defenses.”
The Rams have already employed just about every defense known to man this season, and they figure to throw a combination of them at the 49ers Monday night. But Shurmur says the Rams will have to prepare for a different team than the one they faced three weeks ago.
“What people were saying is, ‘OK, the emphasis with you right now is the passing game, so we’ll try to take away what you do best,’ ” Shurmur said. “In San Francisco, we were still pretty good at taking the run away. I don’t think there’s any question that the element of surprise was a factor in that ballgame. They weren’t emphasizing the run that much then and I think that emphasis now makes them a different team.
“They ran 42 times for a couple hundred yards last week, and 200 yards rushing is a huge rushing day in this league. Hell, they’ve never been poor at anything. It’s just that in terms of frequency, they weren’t running it as much.
“But I have an awful lot of respect for Craig as a runner. He’s as tough as they come. And they have one of the best, if not the best, offensive lines in football and a great ability to keep you off balance. It’s just a matter of what they select for emphasis, and at this point, it looks like they’re taking the swing back toward the running game.”
That might be bad news for the Rams, who don’t relish their chances if they’re forced to cram a pack of linebackers in the middle to stop the run while leaving single coverage on wideouts Jerry Rice and John Taylor. But it’s a refreshing vote of confidence for Craig.
Still, Craig fosters no illusions about the 49ers becoming a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust outfit. He has witnessed up close the mastery of Montana, the artistry of Rice, the cunning of Taylor. He knows they built this franchise on pitch and catch.
“We’re not a run-oriented offense, people have to realize that,” he said. “Our offense is built around the pass. With the run, sure, we’re going to keep people honest. But we’re not going to go out and try and run over somebody just to prove a point. We’re going to try and win ballgames. That’s why we’re so successful.”
But Craig couldn’t sit still and let the running game atrophy to the point at which the 49ers couldn’t revive it when they needed it. When he first begged for some attention to the ground attack--not to mention a few more carries--most folks nodded, smiled and said, “Don’t worry. Be happy.”
Heck, the 49ers were undefeated at the time.
Then along came the struggling Rams, who showed the world how to beat the unbeatens, and Craig stepped up his campaign with another outraged outcry.
“I guess I responded to it the way I have after players have talked that way in the past,” 49er Coach George Seifert said. “In a way, I guess I’d be disappointed if they didn’t. They are great competitors who have been champions. They want the ball.”
The Giants lost to San Francisco, 7-3, using a similar defensive strategy. Then the Bengals opened with six defensive backs and, suddenly, the 49ers had lost their fancy with passing and the rushing game re-emerged. Craig’s pleas were answered.
“I just felt we needed to get on track a little bit,” Craig said of his latest outburst. “We shuffled backs a lot early in the year and we had success, but after a while, that kind of hurts the team in terms of establishing something with the running game. We needed continuity. But there was never a doubt in my mind that we could run the ball.”
Playoff opponents beware. After Sunday’s overtime victory in Cincinnati, Montana said, “Running the ball really turned things around for us.”
Turned things around? They’re 12-1, for Pete’s sake.
Does anyone think Montana’s arm has stiffened the last couple of weeks while Craig and fullback Tom Rathman have picked up the pace? More likely, the 49ers are approaching the point where they can now allow their postseason victims to choose their own form of sudden death.
“Would you prefer us to run over you or pass over you? How about a cigarette and a blindfold?
“We just do what we have to do,” Craig said. “We’d like to get our running game on track, but we have to wait and see what the defense gives us. The guys up front are feeling good right now and they’re opening up some holes for me. Hopefully, we can keep that continuity together and get both the run and pass going.”
Physical abuse is part of the job description for a running back, but Craig had gone 114 games and was in his eighth NFL season before he missed a game because of injury this year. A knee injury sidelined him for three games in October, and the 49er running attack sat on the bench with him.
“Roger got hurt early, we were throwing the ball a lot early, and that slowed him down some,” Seifert said. “But after watching him last week, he looked like the back I remember from years past. Maybe it was just a matter of calling more runs.”
Craig rushed for 1,502 yards in 1988 and 1,054 last year, but he probably wasn’t going to hit the 1,000-yard plateau this season with or without the injury. He has just 431 yards and 133 carries so far and is averaging a blue-collar 3.2 yards per carry. There have been whispers that he has reached the sunset years of his career.
“Five years ago, they said I had lost a step, that I wasn’t the same back,” Craig said, “People have their own observations. It’s easy to downgrade someone when they’re hurt. If you’re going to critique me, critique me when I’m healthy. I had been running hurt all year and, sure, I’m not going to run the same way.”
Robinson figures Craig will be a key factor in the 49ers’ postseason push.
“He’s playing better than he has,” Robinson said. “You know, it’s hard to run real good when, one, you’re hurt and, two, they don’t give you the ball.”
These days, the 49ers are giving him the ball. And Roger Craig hasn’t forgotten what to do with it.