Getting Big Pickups From Dexter Carter, Defense, 49ers Win : Interconference: Steelers slow Montana, but help out San Francisco with two key turnovers.

L.A. Times Archives

Oct. 22, 1990 12 AM PT

From Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Just when everybody was getting ready to write off Dexter Carter, he came on strong.

Carter, rated a disappointment until Sunday, ran for 90 yards in 17 carries and caught seven passes for 57 yards to help the San Francisco 49ers to a 27-7 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The 49ers have won 14 consecutive games over two seasons.

“Dexter’s a darting, aggressive, hard-nosed guy,” 49er Coach George Seifert said of the team’s first-round draft choice from Florida State. “With a team like the Steelers, you’ve got to peck away at them and that’s what we were able to do.”

With the 49ers (6-0) missing injured rushing leader Roger Craig, Carter picked the right time to make his first impact for the two-time defending Super Bowl champions.

Joe Montana was limited to a dump-off passing attack by an aggressive Pittsburgh secondary, so San Francisco went to its slumbering ground game for 150 yards--the first time the 49ers have been over 100 this season.

“If I play one play, three plays, or the whole game, I run hard,” Carter said. “We ran the ball just like we do all week in practice.”

Montana, who passed for 476 yards against Atlanta last week, was limited to 20 completions in 30 passes for 157 yards and had passes intercepted twice in the 49ers’ first three possessions.

That meant San Francisco needed some help, and the 49ers got it from the Steelers, who made two crucial mistakes as the 49ers scored 17 points in a six-minute span of the second half to take control.

The 49ers led, 10-7, at halftime on Montana’s two-yard touchdown pass to Mike Sherrard, and made it 13-7 on Mike Cofer’s 20-yard field goal with 3:53 left in the third quarter.

Then came the turning point.

Cofer lofted his kickoff downfield and Pittsburgh rookie Barry Foster walked away from it like a punt returner who has decided to let a kick roll dead. Except that a kickoff is a free ball--and the 49ers’ Mike Wilson scopped it up.

“I blacked out,” acknowledged Foster, who returned kickoffs in high school and at Arkansas with no problems. “In a punting situation, obviously, you can let it roll. When I finally realized it wasn’t a punt, it was too late.”

Three plays later, Tom Rathman bulled in from the one-yard-line and the 49ers had a 20-7 lead.

Pittsburgh (3-4), which didn’t get past the 49ers’ 38 after taking a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, continued to play like the offense that didn’t score a touchdown during its first four games rather than the one that scored nine touchdowns in its last two. The Steelers finished with just 200 total yards, 126 of them in the first quarter.

Charles Haley sacked Brister to end the third quarter, then sacked him again to start the fourth, knocking the ball loose for Pierce Holt to recover at the Pittsburgh 17.

Five plays later, Rathman went in again from the one. Rathman’s touchdowns were the first two scored on the ground by San Francisco this season.

The 49ers’ defense held Pittsburgh to 76 total yards after the Steelers took an early lead on a two-yard scoring pass from Bubby Brister to Richard Bell.

“When we were down by six, I felt we were all right,” said Brister, who completed 13 of 22 passes for just 120 yards. “When we were down by six. I felt we were all right. Then all of a sudden, we’re down by 13 and then down by 20.”

Suddenly, he knew it was over.