NFL Recap (St Louis-San Francisco)
Posted: Sun December 27, 1998 at 9:41 p.m. EST
SAN FRANCISCO 38, ST LOUIS 19
SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- The San Francisco 49ers assured
themselves of a home game in the first round of the playoffs with a win
that has become a sure thing.
Steve Young tossed
two touchdown passes and added a 16-yard scoring run as the 49ers defeated
the St. Louis Rams for
the 17th straight time, 38-19.
With the Green Bay
Packers winning at Chicago earlier in the day, San Francisco (12-4)
needed a win to clinch home-field advantage for its wild-card playoff game
against the Packers next week.
"I don't think you can percentage the advantage," Young said. "I don't
know what I can tell you other than it's better for us to play here."
Young helped the 49ers do just that, competing 22-of-32 passes for 288
yards and breaking his own single-season team record with 36 TD passes. He
also surpassed his own franchise mark for passing yards, increasing his
season total to 4,170 to become the sixth player ever to break 4,000 more
than once.
"We have a good feeling going into next week," Young added. "We
seemingly played a solid football game, and we've been looking for those
solid games all year."
"We have to approach this week with confidence and a business-like
approach," said 49ers coach Steve Mariucci. "We will not worry about the
past and we won't worry about the future. We've got what we want, a chance
to play the Packers in the playoffs and a shot at redemption."
Young's effort helped atone for the absence of running back Garrison Hearst, who
gained just 21 yards on 10 carries before leaving midway through the second
quarter with a pulled right hamstring. Hearst finished the regular season
with a club-record 1,570 yards on the ground.
"I'm okay. I just want to take precautions and get some treatment on
it," said Hearst, who had rushed for over 100 yards in the last four games.
R.W. McQuarters
contributed a 72-yard punt return for a touchdown as San Francisco ran its
home winning streak to 17 games and posted another dominant effort against
the Rams. St. Louis has not defeated the Niners since winning the first
meeting of the 1990 campaign, losing by a 538-222 margin since that
victory.
The Rams fell to 1-11 against the NFC this season and lost all eight
games against division opponents, closing a disappointing 4-12 campaign
under second-year coach Dick Vermeil.
"The way they came out, it didn't look like they were in awe of
anybody. You could tell they were mentally ready to play," Vermeil said of
his team. "Regardless of their record, they came here to play and they're
very disappointed."
Rams fullback Derrick
Harris was not as positive.
"When you start thinking about the negatives, then the negatives are
going to come out in our play," he said. "When you see a coach having
negative thoughts in his head, then it is going to trickle down to the rest
of the team. We need to have supreme confidence and cockiness to be
successful."
Steve Bono,
starting for the injured Tony Banks, was 15-of-30
for 240 yards and three touchdowns for St. Louis. His main target was Ricky Proehl, who had seven
receptions for 100 yards and two scores.
Bono, formerly the backup to Young in San Francisco, gave the Rams the
early lead with a five-yard TD toss to Proehl.
San Francisco answered with a 72-yard drive that chewed up nearly 7
1/2 minutes, but Young threw back-to-back incompletions from the 2 and the
Niners settled for a 20-yard field goal by Wade Richey.
Young did not make the same mistake on his team's next possession,
throwing to Hearst for a 47-yard gain before finding Jerry Rice with a four-yard
scoring strike. That touchdown, the all-time best 175th of Rice's career,
gave San Francisco the lead for good at 10-7 early in the second quarter.
The score remained the same until the opening drive of the second
half, when Young completed a pair of 23-yard passes to Terrell Owens to set up
Richey's 27-yard field goal.
After St. Louis failed to record a first down for the fourth straight
drive, McQuarters received a punt from Rick Tuten and followed
his blockers along the right sideline en route to his first NFL touchdown.
Young hit tight end Greg Clark for the conversion and a 21-7 lead.
"A couple of times, I almost broke one. It took a while," McQuarters
said. "But on that one particular play, I read the blocks real well and the
guys up front did a great job. A seam opened up and I just hit it."
The Rams went three-and-out on their next two possessions before Young
rolled around the right end for his 16-yard score, building a 28-7 cushion
with 3:41 left in the third.
"Steve made good decisions today, which is not a surprise," Mariucci
added. "He was reading the coverages well. When he saw there was no
opening, that is when he took off (running)."
Bono made a feeble attempt at a late comeback, tossing a 25-yard
touchdown pass to Amp
Lee and a 17-yarder to Proehl in the fourth quarter.
But Richey added a 44-yard field goal with 7:09 to play and Young
sealed the win with a 24-yard TD pass to Owens.
Owens had a touchdown catch for the eighth straight game and finished
with five receptions for 85 yards. Rice added four catches for 49 yards as
the Niners rebounded from last week's 24-21 last-second loss at New
England.
Terry Kirby came on for Hearst and had 60 yards on 16 carries and four
receptions for 35 yards.
June Henley had 51 yards on 13 carries and 64 on five catches for the
Rams, who were outgained in rushing yardage, 120-57.
"It was a garbage year and we did not play football the way we know
how to," said Rams wideout Eddie Kennison. "A lot of
people were expecting big things out of us and it did not happen."
© 1998 Sportsticker Enterprises, LP
|
