PRO FOOTBALL / BOB OATES : These Clearly Are the 49ers of Seifert Now

When the 49ers failed to make the playoffs last winter after having won four Super Bowls in 10 years, there were those who said the team had reached the beginning of the end.

Their new coach, George Seifert, had won one of those games, but he had done it with Joe Montana and the rest of Bill Walsh’s cast.

And, belatedly, Seifert was proving again that you really can’t follow a legend. Or so it was said last year.

They aren’t saying it now.

Walsh’s successor won his 50th NFL game Sunday, winning it sooner than any other coach in the league’s 72 seasons. The former record-holder, Paul Brown, stood 49-14 when he won No. 50. Seifert stood 49-13 before the 49ers outlasted the New Orleans Saints, 21-20.

What’s more, Seifert has elevated his team to 8-2 this season--tied for best in league--with a new offense. Some of the names are the same, but this isn’t the old Walsh-Montana offense with a different quarterback.

Steve Young, the new guy, doesn’t have the quick release of Montana. He isn’t quick enough to properly run the Walsh-Montana offense, which was based on simultaneously threatening the defense everywhere at all times with two receivers, a tight end, and two backs.

Last summer, San Francisco’s players made it plain to Seifert that they preferred to continue that system with backup quarterback Steve Bono, a player who is much like Montana--as he proved during a 49er winning streak last season.

Seifert overruled them. He wanted Young.

He wanted Young’s marvelous mobility.

And after Young defeated the Saints Sunday, puncturing one of the league’s strongest defenses with a scoring run and then two scoring passes during a spectacular fourth-quarter rally, Seifert said, “I have never known a more instinctive football player.”

A left-hander in a right-handed world, Young is equally able to attack defenses left or right, with either passes or runs.

He passes almost as effectively as he runs, and the new 49er offense is based on Young’s instinctive ability to do both almost as well as anybody does either. And he does either at exactly the right times.

The new offense is also based on the talent of a new 49er running back, Ricky Watters, a slasher Seifert uses as a workhorse. Walsh never wanted workhorses.

The new plays--Young’s end runs, Watters’ various draw plays, the play-action passes and the others--were designed by the new offensive coordinator, Mike Shanahan, the former Raider coach who also calls the signals.

Seifert, Shanahan and Young: a high-powered combination, so far, the kind you might expect in an organization whose coach has won 50 pro games in 3 1/2 seasons.

One weakness: A principal difference between Walsh’s 49ers and Seifert’s is that Walsh, an offensive genius, invariably thought defense first.

His championship teams were always essentially defensive teams.

But although Seifert was Walsh’s defensive coordinator, there are a lot of questions about the 49er defense.

The Saints could have beaten the 49ers Sunday with a better designed and more determined passing attack.

The Rams, by contrast, have the kind of offense it takes to make a dent in the 49ers. Theirs isn’t a typical Chuck Knox team this year. Knox has encouraged his new quarterback, Jim Everett, and new offensive coordinator, Ernie Zampese, to go for it.

They will score on the 49ers at Anaheim on Sunday. The question is whether they can outscore Young.

Velocity lag: Does Montana have a future with the 49ers?

Not this year, probably, unless Young is hurt.

The 49ers are a changed team, with a different kind of quarterbacking, and Seifert is committed to what they are doing now.

Montana, recovering from elbow surgery, has been throwing 50 passes or so each day at the 49er camp in San Jose. He wants to get back into uniform.

But his teammates say that his former velocity--never his strongest suit anyway--hasn’t returned.

“Joe is throwing well,” Seifert said, replying to a question with what seemed to be something of an understatement.

How well did he throw last spring before his re-injury?

“The zip, the velocity, the accuracy--that was space age,” Seifert said.

If the space era doesn’t return this year, what about next year?

“I’ll play somewhere,” Montana said. “Playing and losing every game is better than sitting on the bench.”

Todd vs. Tommy: The AFC West-leading Denver Broncos might not bring 80,000 fans into the Coliseum Sunday--as they have done for Raider games in other years--but they will bring in some tradition.

They will bring in a reputation for playing the Raiders close.

There was the threat of a runaway in 1988, when John Elway opened a 24-0 lead, but it didn’t last. In time, Jay Schroeder caught him and beat him, 30-27.

Schroeder and Elway are still around. Still in the wings, and occasionally on stage, are Todd Marinovich and Tommy Maddox. There is no telling who will be finishing up Sunday, but one thing seems likely. It will be close.

AFC comeback: NFC teams held a 17-9 lead over the AFC in this year’s interconference series when NFL action began Sunday.

Then it happened.

AFC teams crushed four former NFC powers, one after another: Pittsburgh over Detroit, Houston over Minnesota, Kansas City over Washington, and Denver over the New York Giants.