THE NFL PLAYOFFS : Pass, Don’t Run; 49ers Win : NFC: San Francisco averages 1.9 yards per rush but beats the Redskins, 28-10, behind Montana. The victory is its seventh in a row in postseason play.

Maybe one of these days the San Francisco 49ers will satisfy the purists and grind out a good, old-fashioned running attack that would have made Vince Lombardi proud.

Maybe one of these days, they will need one.

But right now, don’t bother them with that kind of talk, because they are too busy taking aim at their third consecutive Vince Lombardi Trophy, which is what they give Super Bowl champions whether or not they can run the football.

On Saturday, the 49ers went airborne again, using a fairly dependable guy named Joe Montana and a clutch defense to push past the Washington Redskins, 28-10, in a second-round NFC playoff game before a Candlestick Park crowd of 65,292.

Running game? The oft-criticized 49er running attack could manage only 46 yards in 24 carries, a paltry average of 1.9 yards.

But Montana completed 22 of his 31 passes for 274 yards and two touchdowns, the 49er secondary came up with big plays in the end zone each time the Redskins threatened to make a game of it and 285-pound 49er nose tackle Michael Carter iced things late in the fourth quarter with an odd-looking, ground-shaking 61-yard interception return for a touchdown after Redskin quarterback Mark Rypien was jolted from the football.

“Charles Haley hit the ball and it went up in the air, and I just tried to run to it,” said Carter, who seemed to still be gasping for breath about 10 minutes after the game. “Then I caught it and I started having flashes of Carl Lewis: Keep the knees up, don’t look back, keep the legs moving. . . .

“I heard some footsteps, but I didn’t know if they were mine or from the Redskins. I didn’t look back because I knew if I looked back I’d slow down, and I needed all the speed I could get.”

In a major upset, nobody caught him from behind, and perhaps nobody is about to catch his pedal-to-the-metal team, either.

So the 49er march through the postseason--they have won seven consecutive playoff games--continues into the NFC championship game, and if they have to go without a running attack, well, they can live with it.

“We know we can run the ball, but right now we’re not really concerned about it,” said guard Guy McIntyre. “We’d like to run better, but we’ll take what we can get in the field.”

Basically, the 49er offense takes whatever Montana wants. And on Saturday, Montana seemed a little greedy--going for passes that seemed impossible to complete. But, even with Redskin defenders draped all over his receivers, he found the space to complete them.

The 49ers’ second touchdown--which put them ahead for good, 14-10--came on Montana’s pass to Jerry Rice, who had a handful of Redskins between him and his quarterback as the ball found its way to him. That score was triggered by a tricky option pass from fullback Harry Sydney to tight end Brent Jones, who won a jump ball against safety Alvin Walton 28 yards from scrimmage.

The 49ers’ third touchdown--which made it 21-10--was set up by a 47-yard lob from Montana to Jones, who was perfectly guarded by linebacker Andre Collins save for the spot Montana chose to place the ball.

“On a number of those plays,” Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs said, “if the ball had been thrown three inches either way, we could have made the plays on defense. Montana gives them probably the best player ever at that position.”

Said Montana: “I was feeling pretty comfortable going into the game, and when you feel that way, you tend to throw some balls that are taking more of a chance.

“On the touchdown (to Rice), I thought I had a decent-sized hole to Jerry.”

With Montana in rhythm, all the 49er defense had to do was keep the Redskins from matching him score for score, and that’s what they did.

On three consecutive attempts by the Redskins to close the score to 21-17 late in the third and early in the fourth quarters, 49er defensive backs made plays in the end zone to deny them.

The first came after the Redskins drove to the 49er seven-yard line before Rypien under-threw an open Art Monk heading to the left side of the end zone, the pass being intercepted by 49er safety Johnny Jackson.

On the Redskins’ next series, Rypien moved them upfield with a 40-yard pass to Monk, only to toss the drive away again--this time to cornerback Darryl Pollard, standing alone in the end zone when Rypien thought his receiver was breaking one way and he broke the other.

Then, after a pass by Montana was intercepted three plays later--until then, he had thrown 180 in a row in the postseason without an interception--Rypien lobbed one to receiver Gary Clark open in the end zone on fourth and five from the 49er 14. Clark had a step on the defender but seemed to be first pushed in the face, then bumped by cornerback Eric Davis before the ball arrived.

The ball fell incomplete, no flags fell and the Redskins’ last real chance fell on the play. “I thought some things were called wrong, and I went on to the field to express my opinion a couple of times,” Gibbs said. “But I don’t want to come out of here crying about it.”

For the 49ers, the Davis play was another instance of their character in the clutch. The 49er defense yielded 441 yards--361 passing to Rypien--but held fast when it counted.

“The thing about this team is they’ve done it so often,” said safety Dave Waymer, who signed as a Plan B free agent in the off-season. “They just expect things to happen for them.

“Someone, it doesn’t matter who, someone is going to come up with a big play when a big play’s needed.”

The Carter rumble came on the next Redskin series after the Davis play and broke their backs and probably a few seismographs scattered through the Bay Area.

“One of the best lines I heard on the sideline,” Seifert said, talking about Carter’s less-than-world-class-speed jaunt, “was, ‘How’s that for taking time off the clock?’ ”