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49ers will have weekend’s only upset
Posted: Friday January 08, 1999 06:52 PM
The NFL's annual coaching carousel is spinning too quickly right now, so I'm focusing this week on the eight coaches who are still working on keeping their seasons alive for another week. The bye week and home-field advantage make upsets that much tougher in this round of the playoffs. Here's a game-by-game preview of this weekend's postseason games: 49ers at Falcons : The 49ers escaped death last week with a big boost from the officials, who ruled that Jerry Rice didn't fumble on their final game-winning drive. The Falcons have had two weeks of rest leading up to this home game to heal up. Everyone is talking about Atlanta's Jamal Anderson, a heavy-legged back who is hard to bring down, but I like the Falcons' surprising defense, too. Unfortunately, I see the 49ers' patchwork pass rush getting to quarterback Chris Chandler and knocking him out of the game. Once that happens, it's Steve Young vs. Steve DeBerg, and I think the 49ers will upset the Falcons in the Georgia Dome. Young's magic continues. Dolphins at Broncos : This is my Hall of Fame Bowl -- Dan Marino vs. John Elway -- the next time these two might see each other is in Canton, Ohio. The snow will be flying in Mile High Stadium and the air will be filled with football. The key to this game, however, won't be the quarterbacks, but Denver tailback Terrell Davis. Even though he was held to 29 yards in the last meeting, it's going to hard for the Dolphins defense, missing key defensive linemen Tim Bowens and Jason Taylor, to duplicate that performance. It's so hard to beat teams twice in a row in the same season -- everyone saw how the Packers beat up the 49ers in the regular season, but then San Francisco came back and bit them last week. I think the Broncos will turn things up a bit because the Dolphins embarrassed them in front of a Monday night audience. Mile High Stadium is the NFL's toughest venue to win at-the whole stadium moves, I swear, and the altitude, weather and crowd can make good visiting teams look bad. This game could get out of hand in a hurry. Jaguars at Jets : What can you say about Jacksonville coach Tom Coughlin? He's quietly taken his team into the playoffs for the third time in its four-year history. With Coughlin and Bill Parcells, this game offers up the two best coaches in the NFL as I see it, in terms of work ethic and getting the most out of their players. These two are the best. Jaguars quarterback Mark Brunell's sore ankle isn't going to hold up on the frozen AstroTurf in the Meadowlands -- his greatest attribute is his scrambling and ad-libbing, letting receivers break free, and he won't have that on Sunday. Watch for Parcells to run Curtis Martin down the Jaguars' throats as the Jets win a close one. Cardinals at Vikings : We all snickered a little when Jake Plummer got a $15 million signing bonus with his new deal last month, but the Cards quarterback earned it all last week against the Cowboys. The Cards are a refreshing team to watch -- it's hard to count them out of any game. Just the same, I think the euphoria dies down on Sunday. The old adrenalin bucket is empty. Minnesota has so much talent, so much offensive power that I think they're better than the 15-point favorites they've been touted as going into the game. My colleague Peter King amazed me when he picked Colts tailback Marshall Faulk as MVP. As I see it, the MVP voting should be a toss-up between two Vikings -- quarterback Randall Cunningham and rookie receiver Randy Moss. Faulk is a good back on a 3-13 team, but these two Vikings are the reason they're 15-1, and they'll be the difference on Sunday. CNN/SI NFL analyst Ron Meyer, who spent eight years as a head coach with the Colts and Patriots, will offer up his weekly column throughout the playoffs each Friday.
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