YOUNG & RESTLESS 49ERS QB EXORCISED HIS DEMONS; CAN MANNING DO THE SAME?

Byline: BILLY WITZ Staff Writer

He quarterbacked the NFL's most entertaining offense, put up staggering numbers and can use his MVP trophies as bookends. But when the playoffs roll around, he's back to jitterbugging in the pocket against his old nemesis. And wouldn't you know it, they're coming to town now -- the only thing that stands between him and the Super Bowl.

Peyton Manning?

Try Steve Young, circa 1994.

Just as Manning and the Indianapolis Colts can't seem to get past New England, Young couldn't seem to get the SanFrancisco 49ers past Dallas.

Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman and Charles Haley tormented Young then, just as much as Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and Tedy Bruschi are torturing Manning now.

``It's very similar,'' Young said in a phone interview. ``We got to a point where there was a sense that if we didn't do it -- if I didn't do it. ... It was literally do or die. We had to get this done.

``There's such a need for Peyton Manning to win this game. You can have all the success in the world, but if you don't win a Super Bowl, something is missing. You can make all the arguments you want about how it's a team game and you can't drag a team to the Super Bowl, which is all probably true. But the fact is that's all people talk about, so unless you live on Mars, you may as well face it.''

Young remembers facing the music all too well.

After losing at home to the Cowboys in the 1992 NFC championship game and then being routed in Dallas the following year -- as the Cowboys went on to back-to-back Super Bowl titles -- all Young heard was that he was no Joe Montana and couldn't win the big one.

Young and the 49ers finally broke through on their third try.

They beat the Cowboys 38-28 in the 1994 NFC Championship game, a victory that sent them on to the Super Bowl, where they trounced San Diego, 49-26, a game in which Young threw a record six touchdown passes and was named the game's MVP.

On Sunday, Manning gets his third crack at New England, which knocked the Colts out of the playoffs in 2003 and 2004 on the way to winning back-to-back Super Bowl titles.

This time, the Colts get to play the Patriots at home, in the comforts of their domed stadium, where they're unbeaten this season. And they at least know they can beat New England in the regular season, something they've done the past two seasons.

``You're 60 minutes away from the Super Bowl and sitting there is a Patriots team that's still dangerous, but it's not the team that won the previous Super Bowl,'' Young said. ``If I was in that spot, this is the one I've got to have. That adds more pressure, but how can you add more pressure to 100 percent pressure?''

Young freely admits that the Cowboys were in his head by the third time, and he says the same is true of Manning and the Patriots. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

``That's a fact,'' Young said. ``If you say they're not in your head, you're crazy. Of course they are -- that's who's stopping you from getting to the Super Bowl. People started making it a negative -- `Oh, he's freaked out.' But the fact that they're in your head means you're focused: `We've got to beat these guys.'''

Manning may have something else to worry about this week. Unlike in past years, when he went into New England having carved up an opponent, the Colts' defense carried them past Kansas City and Baltimore, allowing a total of 14 points.

While Manning has made big throws when he's needed them -- particularly a pinpoint pass to Dallas Clark on the game-clinching drive against Baltimore -- he has thrown one touchdown and five interceptions in the playoffs.

``He's throwing more careless footballs this postseason and he's gotten away with it, but Tom Brady is grateful, too,'' Young said. ``I think Peyton will be himself -- he's not going to be not aggressive. The only reason I'd be worried is if he throws picks early. Then it's like, `Gosh, it's happening again.'''

The 49ers were the best team in football in 1994. They led the league in scoring, had won 10 in a row before a meaningless season-ending loss and had an NFL-best 13-3 record, including a 21-14 win over the Cowboys.

They also went into the NFC Championship game having routed the Bears, 44-15 in a divisional playoff game.

``It was nice to beat them in the regular season, but it didn't really move the needle much,'' Young said of Dallas. ``You can't lose the championship and say, `Well, we beat 'em in the regular season.'''

When the 1994 NFC title game was played, the Cowboys may not have been the same team with Barry Switzer at the helm instead of Jimmy Johnson, and linebacker Ken Norton had left the Cowboys to play for San Francisco, much like the Colts now have ex-Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri. Despite all that, Young says it was the best Cowboys team he played against.

But on that day, Dallas turned the ball over three times, and midway through the first quarter the 49ers were ahead 21-0. But the Cowboys rallied, closing within 24-14 late in the first half, and there wasn't a soul in Candlestick Park who wasn't anxious.

Then Young stepped up and hit Jerry Rice, who made a diving catch in the back of the end zone for a 28-yard score with eight seconds left in the half. It proved to be a big enough cushion.

Afterward, Young ran a victory lap around the same Candlestick Park field that he trudged off two years earlier while the Cowboys were being presented the NFC Championship trophy.

``I don't know what the secret was the third time, but we played a great football game,'' Young said.

A burden lifted, he went to Miami the next week primed for a near-perfect Super Bowl.

``I felt free,'' Young said. ``It felt like it was all just football. There wasn't all this other stuff. And the football, I could always take care of. Maybe I got those questions (at the Super Bowl about not winning the big one), but I really don't remember it. The ghost was gone.''

Manning will get another shot at ghost-busting Sunday. And if the Colts do win, they -- like the 49ers 12 years ago -- would likely be favored to win the Super Bowl, which has been won by the AFC five of the past six years.

This game represents not only redemption for Manning, but a chance to redefine his career.

``It meant everything,'' Young said of beating the Cowboys on the way to the Super Bowl. ``Everybody can talk about how he can't win the big one, how he can't beat the Patriots in the playoffs. He's got a great opportunity. He can leave treadmarks over the face of the Patriots and win a Super Bowl. Those are the only things he gets picked at for. Then it becomes now, what hasn't Peyton done? You run out of stuff and go into Brett Favre status. There would be something about the symmetry of the whole thing.''

It would be a scene -- Manning, labels shed, holding the Lombardi Trophy aloft a little over two weeks from now on a warm winter's evening in Miami -- that Young can picture all too well.

[e-mail]

[phone]

(1 -- color) no caption (Peyton Manning)

(2 -- color) no caption (Steve Young)

CAPTION(S):

2 photos