Mission accomplished

Sporting News, The, Jan 23, 1995 by Michael Knisley

Football, rarely a pretty game, was particularly homely to the 49ers that afternoon in San Francisco.

"In my 12 years here, that was the most embarrassing loss I have ever suffered through," Sapolu says. "I talked to (offensive line coach) Bobb McKittrick about it when I walked off the field that day. I said, Bobb, I don't care whether I'm ready next week or not; I'm playing.' It was the kind of game where you felt like crawling under the bench and hiding. I mean, that's not the 49ers. We've been beaten before, but not like that."

The line, or lack of it, nearly cost San Francisco the league's MVP. Young's survival was in serious jeopardy behind the papier-mache blocks the 49ers were getting, a fact that didn't escape Coach George Seifert. With 20 minutes still to play against the Eagles that afternoon, Seifert yanked Young out of the fray and plopped him into the relative safety of the sideline. The damage: He had been knocked down -- hard -- nine times.

Young, who had barely lived through the Chiefs' pass rush three weeks earlier when the line started the game without Barton and Tamm and then lost Sapolu just before halftime, wasn't thinking much about the NFC championship back then. The 49ers were 3-2 and in trouble.

"Those were some rough weeks," says Young, asked to qualify the beatings he took. "The thing was, it wasn't just one week. We had guys missing for half a season. And I thought we handled it as best as you possibly can. The guys worked extra hard to try to get ready. But the fact of the matter is that when you've got that many guys down on the offensive line, you're going to take some hits. But to qualify it, I don't know. Most ever? Really sore? I don't know."

Sapolu, despite not being ready to return from the hamstring injury, made good on his word to McKittrick the next week. He started against the Lions October 9, when San Francisco came back from a 14-0 deficit in the Silverdome to beat Detroit, 27-21. It began a 10-game winning streak that lasted until a meaningless 21-14 loss at Minnesota on the last day of the regular season.

Sapolu hasn't missed a game since. By Week 10, Barton was back from the triceps injury. When the playoffs began for San Francisco two weeks ago, Tamm also became available, although Deese has played well enough at right guard to maintain his role as the starter.

And Young survived, and thrived. On Sunday, the Cowboys, second only to Pittsburgh in sacks this season, barely touched him. Young wasn't sacked and was rarely hurried. Wallace did a masterful job on pass-rushing force Charles Haley, who surprised his teammates by announcing his retirement after the game.

"(Young) took some real beatings early on, but he's such a tough guy," rookie fullback William Floyd says. "You know, everybody felt sorry for him. But I think what really helped Steve is that he didn't feel sorry for himself. He went out there and continued to play football, because he's a competitor and he wanted to win no matter what it takes. From the Detroit game on, when we started getting a little bit of the line together, you could see everybody, the whole offense, just start coming into place. Everybody started to work together. And it all starts with the line."