49ers’ Young Does It His Way

Steve Young has had two concussions and a groin strain that have cost him playing time in eight San Francisco games.

One of them definitely wasn’t Monday night.

Young ran six times for 43 yards and two touchdowns, completed 23 of 30 passes for 254 yards and one touchdown and made the Falcons wonder what all the injury fuss was about in a 34-10 49er victory.

He traded a couple of vicious hits for a few extra yards.

“I kept telling him, ‘Man, why don’t you slide sometimes?’ ” fullback William Floyd said. “He looked at me like, ‘I’m Steve Young. This is the way I play.’ When he gives you that look, you know everything is going to be OK.”

It was.

Young had touchdown runs of 26 and five yards in the first half, threw a scoring pass on the 49ers’ first possession of the third quarter and then spent the rest of the night on the bench.

“When I suit up now, I’m able to play the way I want to play and throw the way I want to throw,” Young said.

The 49ers cruised to a 25-3 lead at halftime on Young’s two touchdown runs and four field goals by Jeff Wilkins. Young connected on five consecutive passes for 62 yards on the 49ers’ first possession of the second half, capped off by a 10-yard touchdown throw to Terry Kirby.

After that, Elvis Grbac took over at quarterback, but Kirby returned to get the first 100-yard rushing game for the 49ers in nearly two years. He carried 12 times for 105 yards.

“He wasn’t going to play anymore,” Floyd said. “But when we found out he had 91 yards, we were like, ‘Coach, let him go back in.’ ”

San Francisco (10-3) remained a game ahead of Carolina in the NFC West heading into Sunday’s game against the Panthers at 3Com Park. The 49ers are tied with Green Bay for the best record in the conference, although the Packers have the tie-breaker advantage because they beat San Francisco.

The 49ers scored on all six of their first-half possessions, running up and down the field for 342 yards. San Francisco averaged a staggering 7.4 yards per play before the break.

They have beaten the Falcons in eight of their last 10 meetings by an average score of 43-13. Atlanta has lost eight consecutive Monday night games since 1981, and the Falcons have been outscored, 161-47, in their last four appearances.

San Francisco, which outgained the Falcons, 464 yards to 178, led, 6-3, early in the second quarter when Young took control. Facing third and seven at the Falcons 26, he noticed a clear path to the end zone and dived in for a 13-3 lead.

After Wilkins’ third field goal gave the 49ers a 16-3 edge, San Francisco stayed on the ground for an eight-play, 87-yard touchdown drive that ended when Young sprinted in from the five with 41 seconds remaining in the half.