49ers Making Another Run at Rams : NFC: San Francisco, which ignited its ground game last week, tries to avenge its only defeat tonight.
Having rediscovered their running game, their zest for late-season charges and their ability to rely on Joe Montana in clutch situations, the San Francisco 49ers get a chance on prime-time television to rediscover a way to beat the Rams, the team that wrecked their try for perfection.
Tonight, the 49ers come to their home-away-from-home, Anaheim Stadium (where Montana is 8-0 in games he has started), with a 12-1 record and the vivid recollections of their 28-17 loss to the Rams at Candlestick Park three weeks ago.
Ronnie Lott, their Pro Bowl safety and emotional bonfire, injured his knees two weeks ago and could require surgery that would put him out for the season. But the 49ers’ machine just rolls on, popping new bodies into the void and eager to banish all thoughts of 1990’s only blemish.
Last week, for really the first time all season, the 49ers cranked out a powerful running attack in their overtime defeat of the Cincinnati Bengals, piling up more than 200 yards and re-energizing the battered body of tailback Roger Craig, who gained 97 of his own. Of course, they won it in the end on a couple of Montana-led late-game drives, but what’s the news in that?
Before last week, the 49er offense was strictly airborne, a method that crashed and burned when the Rams played a four-safety “big nickel” defense most of the game, switched their coverages relentlessly to confuse Montana, clogged up the passing lanes and dared the 49ers to run.
After last week, the 49ers are running, and the Rams know that they’ll have to do something vastly different this week in order to keep the upper hand.
“They won the (Cincinnati) ballgame, and that’s what the 49ers do extremely well,” said Fritz Shurmer, the Rams’ defensive coordinator.
“They win. They find a way to win the ballgame, whether it’s last week running the ball 40 times for over 200 yards or it’s with Joe with the ball in his hands on the last drive.
“That’s the thing that makes them great. Or if they’ve got to win one, 7-3, like they did (against the New York Giants), win it with their defense. That’s what this team is. This team is a great football team that has a great capacity to be able to do whatever they need to do to win the football game. And if they’ve got to run 40 times to do it, they do it. And if they’ve got to throw it 50 times, they’ll do it.”
The last time these two teams met in Anaheim, it took perhaps Montana’s finest single-game performance ever to beat the Rams. Trailing, 24-10, going into the final quarter, Montana put 20 points on the board in that quarter, and passed for 458 yards overall to lead the 49ers to a stunning 30-27 victory.
That was just the latest chapter in Montana and the 49ers’ tradition of walloping their Orange County hosts. Montana, in his eight games at Anaheim, has averaged 321.5 yards of passing and thrown for a total of 17 touchdowns.
“I don’t know why that happens,” Craig said. “But we can’t go off the history of saying we win down there all the time so it’s going to be a cakewalk for us. No, the Rams will be fired up. And they have more incentive now to play us than the first time they played us this year.”
The Rams limp into this game out of the playoff picture for the first time in three seasons. So, at 5-8, they are clutching at one final goal for 1990:
Mess up the 49ers’ season as much as possible.
The rest of the league doesn’t quite seem to be up to knocking off the two-time defending Super Bowl champions, who are vying with the Chicago Bears and the Giants for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, but another Rams’ victory almost certainly would do away with that air of 49er invincibility. If the Rams can sweep the 49ers, why can’t a team with a winning record?
“It’d be great, it’d be great for us,” Ram defensive end Doug Reed said. “Knowing that we beat them twice (with another victory tonight). I think that’s what it’s all about at this point. Beating them and playing a hell of a football game.”
The 49ers, by the way, not only are quite comfortable in Anaheim Stadium, but everywhere: they have won 16 consecutive road games dating to 1988, and it’s 18 in a row if you count their two neutral site Super Bowl victories in that span.
So don’t ask Ram Coach John Robinson why the 49ers play so well in Anaheim.
“I have no explanation for it,” Robinson said. “I just don’t know. That question has been asked, (but) I have no idea. The 49ers have played well in a lot of stadiums, what, 18 in a row, some number that’s way out there. Fabulous. They don’t lose on the road.”
One thing Robinson can explain is the most underestimated part of the 49ers’ team: Their defense. In their last meeting, the Rams piled up 350 yards against the 49ers, whose best defensive player, linebacker Charles Haley, was banged up. Haley is injury-free now and leading the NFC with 14 sacks.
The 49ers have the seventh-rated defense overall and are the No. 2 defense against the rush.
“I think they have a great defensive team,” Robinson said. “I can’t imagine why people don’t talk about what they’ve done. I guess people don’t understand . . . what they’ve done defensively because they tend not to be individuals, they tend to be a group.
“They’re so much better than any other defense that I’ve dealt with over a period of time. There’s been periods when other defenses have risen and such, but this is a consistently outstanding defense. And in big games, they play marvelous football.
“If you take the time . . . you look back at their defensive record, in the games that were really big, they were phenomenal. Sometimes the other team scored, but it was usually in the last quarter when they were ahead by along ways. It’s a very impressive group.”
Even without Lott? Last week, with Lott out, veteran Dave Waymer moved over to free safety and Johnny Jackson started at strong safety.
“Well, he’s missed some games,” Robinson said. “I think it’s a major blow to them, but they’re used to it. They’ve never lost a game with him out, so I think they’ll survive.”
Ram Notes
San Francisco Coach George Seifert says he isn’t a bit surprised that his former boss, Bill Walsh, is the subject of speculation about a number of coaching jobs. “I don’t believe any of us are surprised by any of it,” Seifert said. “He’s one of the great coaches ever to coach in this game and probably did as fine a job as has been done as far as putting together a team and building it into the type of organization, along with Eddie (DeBartolo), our owner, as has been done over the years.” . . . The Rams are 17-17 overall on Monday nights; the 49ers are 15-12. . . . The Rams’ 5-8 record is their worst through 13 game since 1981, when they also started 5-8. To find a worse Ram record through 13 games, you have to go all the way back to 1965, when they started 3-10.