49ers, Young, Rice--and Sanders--Are Winners

Steve Young won another passing title and Jerry Rice finished with an NFL-high in receptions before they took the rest of the night off and watched Barry Sanders get his third rushing championship.

Playing only the first half in what amounted to a playoff tuneup for San Francisco, Young threw for two touchdowns and Rice hung on to beat Detroit counterpart Herman Moore for the reception title in the 49ers’ 24-14 victory over the Lions on Monday night. It was the final regular-season game of 1996.

“We had a good football season. Now we have to have a great playoff season,” 49er Coach George Seifert said.

San Francisco (12-4) is headed to the playoffs for the 13th time in 14 years. Detroit (5-11), which lost nine of its last 10 games, was likely playing its final game under Coach Wayne Fontes.

Fontes brushed off questions about his job status.

“Don’t ask it because I can’t answer it,” he said. “God bless you. It’s been a long year.”

Sanders ran for 175 yards, including a 54-yard touchdown to finish with 1,553 yards for the season, overtaking Denver’s Terrell Davis, who has to be content with the AFC rushing title with 1,538 yards.

It was Sanders’ third consecutive season with at least 1,500 rushing yards, the first time that has been done in NFL history.

“I had no reason to believe we could run for that many yards against the Niners,” Sanders said.

Neither could Young have expected to get another passing title after missing all or parts of eight games because of injuries. But he finished the season with five solid games, including Monday night’s 11-for-14 performance for 96 yards and one-yard touchdowns to Ted Popson and Derek Loville.

That was enough to lift his passing rating to 97.2, edging Green Bay’s Brett Favre (95.8) for his fifth passing title in six years.

Rice had five catches for 49 yards to boost his season reception total to 108, two more than Moore, who had eight receptions to finish with 106.

“I tried, but this man is impossible,” Moore said. “It’s an honor to be standing on the same field with him. When I watch him it makes me work harder.”