Long Fall Continues for 49ers

For most of the 1990s, they’ve been polar opposites.

The San Francisco 49ers had all those stars, all those championships, all those wins--112 to date in the regular season, more than any other team in the NFL during that time.

The Cincinnati Bengals had all those high draft picks that didn’t pan out, all those last-place finishes, all those losses--106 to date, more than any other team in the NFL.

But after Cincinnati’s 44-30 victory over the 49ers Sunday, the two teams seemed more alike than not. As the decade winds down, they’re both at rock bottom.

Cincinnati (3-10) is used to it. San Francisco (3-9) can’t believe it.

“I suppose sometimes you think, ‘Maybe I’ll wake up and I’ll be in training camp at Stockton and this has been just a bad nightmare,’ ” Coach Steve Mariucci said. “But then you come to realize that no, this is happening.”

It has happened so suddenly.

After being the NFL’s model of success for nearly two decades, the 49ers are paying the price for the salary-cap maneuvering that allowed them to remain a force.

“We were going to try to keep winning as long as we possibly could,” Mariucci said. “That’s how we were operating and we enjoyed it. Eventually all those signing bonuses that you push into the future come due and we’re in that time period now.

“We’re still very much over the salary cap going into this off-season. So we’re in a time period here where we’re taking a pullback and having to regroup and rebuild.”

The 49ers have lost eight in a row, their longest skid since 1980.

“After being dominant for so many years, you expect this to happen, but you don’t expect it to happen so fast,” receiver Jerry Rice said. “I don’t think there’s any way of preparing yourself for it, but I’m dealing with it.”

The 49ers won all those titles with stars like Rice, Joe Montana and Steve Young. Their salary cap problems stripped the roster and injuries to Young and others left them a shell of a team.

“You lose people like they’ve lost, and what do you expect?” Bengal Coach Bruce Coslet said. “They’ve been spoiled. They’ve had back-to-back Hall of Fame quarterbacks for the last 20 years and you get spoiled with that. I’m sure they’ll figure a way to work themselves out of it.”

REVOLVING DOOR COULD BE STUCK

Note to unemployed coaches: there won’t be many vacant NFL jobs this season.

After the great purge of 1998, when nine coaches left or were fired, this season’s turnover will probably be minimal--in part because there are so many new coaches, they have to be given more than a year.

The strange nature of this season also contributes to coaching stability.

For example, last season’s Super Bowl teams, Denver (4-8) and Atlanta (3-9), are among the teams in trouble. But no one’s going to fire Mike Shanahan or Dan Reeves.

Other teams at the bottom have first-year coaches who are doing as well as they can under the circumstances, such as Andy Reid in Philadelphia (3-10), where the personnel is subpar, and Chris Palmer in Cleveland (2-11), an expansion franchise.

Another factor is success.

Dick Vermeil seemed in trouble in St. Louis when the season began. Now the Rams have the best record in the NFC and Vermeil’s a leading candidate for coach of the year, a development leading owners with itchy trigger fingers to give the incumbents another chance.

So who might go?

* Norv Turner, Washington. Even though the Redskins are 7-5, Turner is on notice from owner Dan Snyder to get deep into the playoffs or forget about next season. And Snyder’s tirades after losses have cost him any chance to get an experienced coach such as Marty Schottenheimer.

* Pete Carroll, New England. Carroll has the misfortune of being compared with Bill Parcells. But if the Patriots--who are 7-5 after beginning 4-0 --don’t make the playoffs, owner Bob Kraft may make a move and Schottenheimer could be his man.

* Bruce Coslet, Cincinnati. He’s 20-34 and it’s certainly not all his fault--team President Mike Brown has no clue. This is another team that will have trouble attracting a sought-after coach, unless Brown promises that with a new stadium coming he’ll open the vaults.

It also might be wise for Pittsburgh’s Bill Cowher, struggling through a second consecutive bad season after going to the playoffs in his first six, to heed the advice of the Colts’ Jim Mora.

“Seven years with one team is enough,” says Mora, who quit midway through his 10th season in New Orleans. “You get stale, the players get tired of you and you get tired of them. Sometimes it’s a good idea to step back for a while.”

TO THE WAYBACK MACHINE, SHERMAN

Before beating Washington, 33-17, Detroit had lost 18 in a row to the Redskins since a 14-10 triumph at Tiger Stadium in 1965. Not a single Lion player was alive when Detroit last beat the Redskins. Coach Bobby Ross was in his first year as an assistant coach at Virginia Military Institute, while Redskin Coach Norv Turner was starring in football at Alhambra High.

YOU DON’T WANT THIS THREE OF A KIND

The scheduling gods are not favoring the Miami Dolphins. Sunday’s 37-34 loss to Indianapolis was the third consecutive game in which Miami has faced a quarterback chosen No. 1 overall in the NFL draft. The Colts’ Peyton Manning was taken with the first overall pick in 1998. Last week, the Dolphins were defeated, 20-0, by the Dallas Cowboys, quarterbacked by Troy Aikman, No. 1 overall in 1989. In Week 11, Miami faced 1993’s top choice, New England quarterback Drew Bledsoe, and won, 27-17.

ALL IN ALL, A SOUR DAY

Winds reached 30 mph during Green Bay’s 35-19 win over the Bears at Chicago, making kicking and passing an adventure, and it even snowed for a short while in the fourth quarter. The elements--fitting for the two long-time rivals whose cities are famous for foul weather--were especially taxing to the kickers, particularly Bear punter Todd Sauerbrun.

Late in the second quarter, Sauerbrun dropped the ball as he was trying to kick it, and Packer defensive end Keith McKenzie scooped it up and ran 45 yards for the touchdown with 1:09 left in the first half, giving the Packers a 21-10 lead.

“Just catching the ball in our hands was a challenge,” Sauerbrun said. “The ball took off on me. I never had control of it. It hit in my hands, bounced and I couldn’t control it. Then I went to scoop it off the ground, that was it.”

DRUG POLICY TO BE DISCUSSED

The NFL players’ union wants to overhaul the league’s drug policy and has contacted the league about arranging a meeting after the season, CBS Sports reported.

The network said on its “NFL Today” show that Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association, sought the meeting in response to the suspension of Chicago Bears quarterback Jim Miller.

Miller was suspended for the season’s final four games after he tested positive for a banned steroid contained in a nutritional supplement.

A league spokesman said he knew of no such call from Upshaw. The union offices in Washington were closed Sunday.

Many Happy Returns

In the fourth quarter of Baltimore’s 41-14 victory over Tennessee, Raven cornerback Rod Woodson intercepted a pass and returned it 47 yards for a touchdown. The interception return for a touchdown was the ninth of Woodson’s 13-year NFL career, tying the league record.

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Player Years Int.-Ret. TDs Ken Houston 1967-80 9 Rod Woodson 1987-99 9 Deion Sanders 1989-99 8 Herb Adderly 1961-72 7 Erich Barnes 1958-70 7 Lem Barney 1967-77 7

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--Compiled by Houston Mitchell