PRO FOOTBALL ’95 : San Francisco Sputters Past New Orleans, 24-22 : NFC: Young returns after neck injury to lead a sloppy victory.

For the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday’s 24-22 victory over New Orleans can be viewed much like the half-full, half-empty debate.

Are the 49ers good enough to win when they play as badly as they did on Sunday? Or do penalties and turnovers mean their dynasty is crumbling?

“The only great thing is that we won the game,” said Steve Young, who threw for 260 yards and two touchdowns and played the second half with a sprained neck. “The rest of it? Well, we have a lot of work to do.”

Said Coach George Seifert: “Just when we got into a position to take control of the game, we’d self destruct.”

And how.

The 49ers had three turnovers, one of them an interception returned for a touchdown; allowed five sacks and committed 10 penalties, two of them declined.

There’s more. Marquez Pope, Deion Sanders’ replacement and the only new starter on defense, was burned deep three times by three receivers, and Young was the leading rusher with 50 yards in nine carries.

Derek Loville and William Floyd, taking up the slack for the departed Ricky Watters, had 48 and 49 but Floyd fumbled twice in the fourth quarter when the 49ers seemed on the way to scores.

So the margin of victory was actually the result of a fumbled snap on New Orleans’ first point-after attempt that caused them to try--and miss--a two-point conversion after their second touchdown.

And San Francisco didn’t clinch the game until Tyronne Drakeford sacked Jim Everett and stripped him of the ball on fourth and 10 at the Saints’ 40 with about a minute left in the game.

“I thought we played pretty good today,” said New Orleans cornerback Vince Buck. “But pretty good isn’t good enough against these guys.”

Young, who did not play the final 5:03 of the first half after being sacked by Renaldo Turnbull, completed touchdown passes of 50 yards to Jerry Rice and four yards to William Floyd. Tim McDonald returned an interception 52 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter.

Sean Lumpkin scored New Orleans’ first touchdown when he intercepted the first pass by Young’s replacement, Elvis Grbac, and returned it 47 yards for a score.

The teams exchanged field goals to make the score 17-9 at the half and then Young returned and led the 49ers 86 yards in 14 plays to start the second half, capping it with a four-yard pass to Floyd.

The drive included a fourth-down quarterback sneak in which Young stuck his head into the middle of the Saints’ defense.

Everett completed 23 of 35 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns.