Rams-49ers: It’s the Same, but Different

Through the last decade, the Rams have stalked the San Francisco 49ers, and they are stalking them still, nipping at their heels, as usual, from two games behind.

They have waited for Joe Montana to walk out of the picture, and he is out of the picture now. They have assumed that someday, the San Francisco 49ers would topple off their mountaintop, and the 49ers have toppled this season.

This is what they have waited for, only they never expected that their best shot at 49er conquest would be in a game for position at the bottom of the NFC West.

After more than a decade of their two-team dominance of the division, these are not exactly vintage days for the 49er-Ram rivalry.

Tonight, when the two troubled teams play, Montana will be in street clothes, Steve Bono will be leading the 49ers (5-6) and the only playoff consequences are whether the 49ers can stay alive for one more week.

Not exactly the 1989 NFC championship game, is it?

These are lean times in a series that used to bring out the glory in both teams. Now, both sides are hoping it brings out the slightly-better-than-mediocre.

“It’s still a very important game, I’m sure, to both clubs,” said 49er Coach George Seifert, who needed to hold his breath through a final-second end zone incompletion to beat the Phoenix Cardinals last week and avoid a three-game losing streak. “We’d like to kind of get ourselves out of the doldrums.”

Earlier this season, the 49ers and now-injured quarterback Steve Young beat the Rams with a second-half surge, 27-10. And over the past 10 years, the 49ers have left Anaheim Stadium nine times with a victory, usually with Montana writing new pages in his Hall of Fame biography.

While the 49ers still have a shot at the playoffs, the Rams (3-8) are at the point where they have to summon meaning out of whatever they can.

Tonight, that means the 49ers.

“We have a lot of young guys who maybe aren’t as aware of (the rivalry with the 49ers) as the older guys are,” Ram Coach John Robinson said. “But that’s an acute feeling there, playing them.

“We have such a high regard for the level of play for that team over the years. . . . I think we’re very focused on it.”

Since Young’s knee was injured early this month, Bono, the third-stringer, has led a considerably less-potent, more cautious 49er offense to 17 points in two starts.

Montana is sidelined for the season because of an elbow injury that prevents throwing touchdowns, even against the Rams. Young could return next week.

The 49ers have relied on a revived running game and the stinginess of a defense that hasn’t given up more than 17 points in any of their last five games.

But the fall from last year’s 14-2 record and four Super Bowl titles to 5-6 and little hope of a playoff run has stirred rumblings within the San Francisco camp.

The 49ers are playing like the Rams, and that is reason for consternation for any club, particularly one with four Vince Lombardi Trophies sitting its office lobby.

“It’s a bizarre thing,” Seifert said. “If either one of us could put our finger on it and solve the thing immediately, I’m sure we would’ve a long time ago.”

Star sacker Charles Haley has been unhappy most of the season, complaining about not getting the respect he deserves from the 49er coaches and nearly everyone else.

Wide receiver Jerry Rice has twice--most recently after last week’s victory--bemoaned the offense’s lack of direction. He suggests it would be better directed toward him. Rice scored eight touchdowns in the first eight weeks of the season, zero since.

Seifert downplays the outbursts.

“Any time that you go through a tough season, sometimes that takes place,” Seifert said. “I don’t really disagree, to be honest with you. . . . I know I’m the coach. I can’t say I disagree with Jerry Rice. . . . If I’m a receiver, I’m going to want the ball, especially as great a receiver as he is.

“As far as Charles is concerned, he’s an emotional guy. They all want to win.”