49ers Enjoy 17-Year Run in the West

As of today’s Dallas-San Francisco kickoff, it’s true that the 49ers haven’t yet done anything this year except beat the losers in their division.

Nonetheless, it isn’t an accident that after half the season, San Francisco leads the NFC West with a 7-1 showing.

Nor is it San Francisco’s fault that, in the crowd at the bottom, Atlanta is 1-7, New Orleans 2-7, and the Rams 2-6.

For years, all four teams have had the same opportunity to put a winner together. They have all had millions of television dollars to play with. Their salary-cap restrictions are similar. And their stadiums are about the same size.

More than that, the three losers have all had the same inspirational challenge in their own division, the same role model, San Francisco.

What they have never had is a leader of the stature of Eddie DeBartolo, who, as the only NFL owner ever with five Super Bowl rings, has kept the 49ers in first place or close to it for 17 years--the longest run in league history.

All that time, the Falcons, Saints and Rams have stumbled around. DeBartolo rebuilt the 49ers three times.

True, his coaches and players are better than theirs, but that isn’t an accident.

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Deion’s challenge: The 49ers may struggle some on offense today because, as a left-handed team with a left-handed quarterback, Steve Young, they don’t match up ideally with the Cowboys.

Dallas’ right-side cornerback--the nearest defensive back when Young rolls left--will be Deion Sanders, who is probably the NFL’s best defensive player.

In the Cowboy-49er games of other years, where wide receiver Jerry Rice went, there went Sanders. But Rice is injured now. And this year’s 49er starters, Terrell Owens and J.J. Stokes, have both stepped up, giving Young two good targets instead of, with Rice, one great one.

The Stokes-Owens problem is that if Sanders takes one of them, the other will get double coverage regularly in the league’s finest secondary.

As usual, Sanders will be vulnerable on one kind of pass, the quick inside slant. Along with every other cornerback, past or present, he can be beaten on that pattern unless the defense clogs up the middle with other players. And, facing Young, defensive teams prefer not to waste too much manpower that way.

One plus for the 49ers is that with Young, they aren’t irretrievably left-handed. He throws with power left or right.

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Concussion bowl: The competing quarterbacks, Young and Dallas’ Troy Aikman, have both been hampered, this year and in other years, by blows to the head.

Each, indeed, counting his concussions, may be one shot away from retirement.

For one or both, it could even happen today.

NFL spectators have noted that this year’s injuries to Young and Aikman happened on similar plays. Each was down or clearly going down when kneed in the head.

The rules are plain on this infraction: Undue punishment is unnecessary and unlawful when a player is down. The little finger of one defensive man, if placed firmly on the shoulder of a downed ballcarrier, is enough. As defined by the NFL, that is a solo tackle.

Yet, repeatedly this year, NFL defensive men have rushed up and left their feet to plow into grounded players who still had the ball in hand or who until very recently had it.

The league is divided on whether Young and Aikman were hit legally or illegally this year. Thus, not much change is likely unless someone hurts someone seriously. Long ago, that delighted Rome’s gladiator fans. One question today: Is the NFL much more civilized?

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Backups’ year: Mid-game quarterback changes when the starter is seemingly faltering have resulted in some dramatic outcomes.

In one case, the New York Jets pulled Neil O’Donnell, a one-time Super Bowl passer, and won a big game with Glenn Foley. In another, the Buffalo Bills benched Todd Collins, their hand-picked replacement for Jim Kelly, and came within inches of upsetting Denver with Alex Van Pelt.

What’s going on?

Some possibilities:

* Inserting a surprise backup sometimes disrupts the defensive team, even if he is less talented than the starter. The defense, after practicing against one quarterback all week, can’t adjust.

The close-mouthed Jet coach, Bill Parcells, apparently thinks that’s what happened in the New England game. He’s going back to O’Donnell this week. Possibly, Parcells remembers the famous case of Clint Longley, the Dallas backup who came out of nowhere one year to upset the Washington Redskins and was seldom heard from again.

* Backup quarterbacks always have one edge on starters. They haven’t been knocked around by defensive headhunters. A backup sometimes plays with all-pro brilliance until the first time he is smashed into a quivering lump by a blitzing linebacker. You judge such a passer not on what he did earlier but on what he does next.

It isn’t easy being a quarterback these days. The defense manhandles quarterbacks so ferociously, and sometimes illegally, that they’re all jumpy. Some look more nervous than others, but they’re all shell-shocked. And you would be, too.

* The coach chose the wrong quarterback in the first place.