With Young on the Run, There’s No Need for Joe’s Show : Football: His touchdowns and winning drive late in the fourth quarter prove he can rally the 49ers like Montana.

Steve Young can run--boy, can he run--but he can’t hide from the specter of Joe Montana.

His quarterback rating is among the league’s best, he leads the 49ers in rushing touchdowns, but he isn’t Joe. And that fact alone is enough to alienate many of the 49er faithful. They call the radio sports talk shows, condescendingly acknowledging his statistics and then invariably saying something like, “Yeah, but until he can bring the team from behind in the last few minutes like Joe, he hasn’t arrived.”

Sunday at Candlestick Park, Young must have converted many of his most critical detractors. With 6 1/2 minutes remaining and the Rams leading, 17-10, Young scored on touchdown runs of eight and 39 yards and engineered a 77-yard drive that culminated in the winning field goal as the 49ers rallied for a 27-24 victory.

After the Rams went ahead, 17-10, the 49ers had to punt after three plays failed to gain a first down. The crowd erupted into a chorus of boos. “Joe always got a first down when we needed one,” they seemed to be saying.

Nobody was booing after the 39-yard touchdown run, however. If they weren’t cheering, they were just standing awe-struck. It was a feat of athletic beauty, a mixture of speed, power and guile impressive as any run by any running back.

Young maneuvered out of the pocket, which was rapidly collapsing because of a push up the middle by rookie defensive tackle Sean Gilbert. He looked for Jerry Rice, but rather than force the ball, he took off around left end.

And that’s when the fun started.

Young slipped out of the grasp of defensive end Bill Hawkins and then accelerated, causing linebacker Larry Kelm and safety Anthony Newman to miss diving attempts at a tackle. Then he put a move on safety Pat Terrell, who was so off balance that he was forced into attempting an improvised Kung-Fu tackle. All he could do was raise his left leg in front of Young.

And Young went through Terrell like a turnstile.

Robert Bailey had a final shot and hit Young high. The 49er quarterback dragged the Ram cornerback the last few yards into the end zone.

“I was wide open on the play and Steve didn’t throw me the ball,” deadpanned tight end Brent Jones. “But really, Steve’s running ability is a huge positive for the team. Defenses are always thinking about it and it helps open up the coverages.

“Plus, what Steve is doing more of now is starting to run and then stopping before he gets to the line of scrimmage and throwing downfield.”

Young, who completed 20 of 29 passes for 247 yards and rushed three times for 60 yards, says he runs only as a last resort these days. But, as any Ram defender will tell you, it’s one heck of a weapon for a last resort.

“He’s a great athlete,” Newman said. “He’ll fake you out and he’s too big and strong to arm tackle. With Steve Young, you’ve got to attack him when he’s running. But that’s the toughest part. You’re busy covering receivers, you look up, and the quarterback’s running straight at you.”

Most defenders relish a chance to take a shot at a quarterback, but with Young, more often than not, you end up just taking a shot. Ram Coach Chuck Knox says Young runs like a halfback, but Young wants to make sure he’s remembered as a quarterback who could run, not simply a running quarterback.

“I don’t want to end the play with the football,” he said. “If I do, it’s because I have nothing else to do. I hope, I think, that I don’t look to run so quickly anymore. I think I’ve matured a lot in that regard.

“I’m growing into this job. I feel more solid, more steady. I don’t come into a game thinking about rushing for 50 yards. But hopefully the fear will be there for the defense.”

Young is beginning to instill the same kind of trepidation with his left arm that he does with his legs. He’s become a versatile and accurate passer, able to throw short and deep, hard and with touch.

On the 49ers’ final drive, Young lobbed a short pass to fullback Tom Rathman, gunned a strike to Jones over the middle for a 43-yard gain and then lofted an arching 26-yard spiral that Rice snagged with one hand before stepping out of bounds.

“It was another outstanding performance by Steve, rallying the team in the fourth quarter in the fashion he did,” 49er Coach George Seifert said. “The runs are part of Steve’s game, they don’t surprise me anymore, but more important is how he moved the club.”

And now, for the first time as a starter, Young has shown that he can muster some of that last-minute Montana-like magic.

“When I heard those boos, I was thinking, ‘Gee, we better start moving the football,’ ” Young said. “I mean this is entertainment. They can boo if they want.

“I’ve never had much reaction to (questions about his mettle under pressure in the waning minutes). Everyone seems to have a formula for how they rate you, but I always figured that if you keep playing quarterback here, you’ll have those games.

“If you want to write that it’s another brick in the wall for me, that’s fine.”