Taking Over, Hostetler Gets Giants a Win

For Jeff Hostetler and Steve Young, it was the dawn of a new era--or so they thought Monday night when they arrived at Giants Stadium to take over for Phil Simms and Joe Montana.

Three hours later, it was clear that Hostetler, a scrambling quarterback with an accurate passing arm, gives the New York Giants more offense, a different look, and probably a better team.

It was a Hostetler-led drive that caught the San Francisco 49ers in the last four minutes and won the game with five seconds left, 16-14, when Matt Bahr connected on a 35-yard field goal.

But Young had San Francisco ahead until the very end.

It was Young who threw the only touchdown pass of the game, a bomb to wide receiver Jerry Rice on a play that covered 73 yards.

And it was Young who, the only time he got friendly field position in this game, made the most of it to seize a 14-13 lead at the start of the fourth quarter with a well-directed 42-yard drive.

Hostetler and Young are both running quarterbacks--quite possibly the most talented ballcarriers on their teams--and, in short, both did their part when few other offensive players did in the final season-opener of the NFL’s first week.

Each gained 45 yards scrambling on a night when Hostetler passed for 228 and Young for 162.

“That team won’t lose many more,” said the new Giant coach, Ray Handley.

Said 49er Coach George Seifert: “I thought we had them until (Hostetler’s) last pass.”

The defensive star of a defensive game, 49er linebacker Charles Haley, said: “We’ll be ready for (the Giants) in the playoffs.”

Playing against the same defenses that hamstrung the 49ers and Giants in a famous Monday nighter last December--a 7-3 game won by Montana--Hostetler and Young created more interest as well as more points than their predecessors, Simms and Montana, have been able to manage lately.

It seems likely, however, that Young will give way to Montana three weeks down the road when the four-time Super Bowl winner returns from injured reserve. Montana, when sound, continues to be more quarterback than Young.

It seems just as likely that Hostetler is in the driver’s seat to stay with the Giants.

Comparatively inexperienced though 30 years old, Hostetler has made only eight starts for the Giants--and won them all, including the Super Bowl game last January.

For as long as he can remain uninjured, he has made Simms a backup at last, good as Simms is.

Few other quarterbacks facing one of the NFL’s most feared defenses could have marched through the 49ers as Hostetler did when he got the ball for the last time--on the Giant 22, less than five minutes left, one point down.

The play that won it was the 10th of the 13 plays on that decisive drive--Hostetler’s on-the-nose dart to wide receiver Mark Ingram for 11 yards on third and 10. That moved the ball to the San Francisco 26 and doomed the 49ers, who had won 18 consecutive regular-season road games--one of the longest NFL streaks of all time.

Handley, who replaced Bill Parcells as coach of the Giants this year, won his first game with a new kind of quarterback. He has changed the Giants into a more modern team than Parcells wanted. It’s a passing team that runs a little when it has to.

Calling all the signals for the Giants, Handley had Hostetler throwing on first or second down about one-third of the time. And, often, he put the Giants in shotgun formation on second down--and even, occasionally, on third and two, always a running down for Parcells.

The Giants in recent years have been too conservative to please any but Giant fans. Under Handley, they are slicker, more versatile and more dangerous.

In a continually close game, the 49ers led after a quarter, 7-3, on Young’s pass to Rice, who broke into the open because Giant free safety Myron Guyton, a big hitter, left his station to make a big hit on a different receiver. He simply guessed incorrectly.

The Giants led at the half, 13-7, when, on a 44-yard drive, Hostetler scrambled for a 25-yard gain, and halfback Ottis Anderson punched it in.

The fourth quarter began with Young’s five-yard end run for a touchdown and finished with Hostetler’s winning drive.