Don’t Play Favorites : Either the Cowboys or 49ers Seem Like a Lock to Get to Super Bowl, but Here’s Why They Could Be NFC Also-Rans

Amid the noise and smell of the circus already forming on the perimeter of the NFC playoffs, one word keeps popping up.

No, it is not inanimate, although that would describe the San Francisco 49er defense Sunday each time Terance Mathis touched the ball.

No, it is not dunder-headed, however appropriately that would apply to virtually every decision the Dallas Cowboys have made since September.

It is not aquamarine, though that would describe Jerry Rice’s language if his lesser-energized teammates walk through their title defense.

And it is not blowntosmithereens, even with that happening to Barry Switzer’s job and Jerry Jones’ reputation if the Cowboys go kaput.

The word, as anyone in Detroit or Green Bay or Philadelphia can tell you, is vulnerability.

Suddenly, what was previously a stain on the shirts of the Packers and Lions can be found in the hearts of the Cowboys and 49ers.

Vulnerability in the NFC, once only a poor man’s disease, has become like neighborhood flu.

Suddenly, everybody has it.

And doesn’t everybody know it.

“The last couple of years, I think a lot of us would look at the Cowboys and 49ers during the regular season and think, ‘Man, can anybody take them?’ ” Packer safety Leroy Butler said. “This year, it’s different. This year, people are looking at them like, ‘This could be our chance.’ ”

The 49ers agreed, mighty big of them considering they blew the home-field advantage last week with a loss to an Atlanta Falcon team that they had beaten by 31 points earlier in the season.

“All the teams are very, very capable,” 49er Coach George Seifert said. “Anybody could bust out of this thing and eventually get to the Super Bowl. It’s as tough a field as I’ve seen.”

The three-year lease held by the Cowboys and 49ers on the NFC championship has been challenged this year on the foundation built by two men who sound like a vaudeville team. Come to think of it, they often play like one too.

Meet Bobby Hebert and Heath Shuler. The inspiration of hundreds.

During December money time, the 49ers were beaten by Falcon quarterback Hebert. And the Cowboys were beaten by Washington Redskin quarterback Shuler.

The first thought of players from the other four NFC playoff teams upon witnessing this raw exposure of champions’ weaknesses was undoubtedly, “Gee, will this have any effect on our video games endorsement contract?”

Understand, of course, that every player on every team shares a similar thought after watching every game.

But their second thought was probably, “That could be us!”

Seven other reasons it could be them.

THE MIKE HOLMGREN FACTOR

Holmgren, the coach of the Green Bay Packers, helped refine the 49er offensive system when he was an offensive coach there during the late 1980s. He knows it as well as his own, because it is his own.

He has not had an opportunity to use this knowledge against them since he bolted the 49ers after the 1991 season. If the Packers defeat the Falcons, he will finally get his chance. Don’t bet against him.

Once past San Francisco, Holmgren would probably then take his team to Dallas, where he has lost five times in the last three years. He admits that this is the opponent and the place that have cost him more sleepless nights than any others.

If the Packers ever won a game for their beloved coach, this would be it. Don’t bet against them.

THE JEFF GEORGE FACTOR

George, the Falcons’ brilliant but truly weird quarterback, will be the top free agent this spring. If he leads them through a round or two, he will surely bolt the team to become an insanely rich passer somewhere else.

His teammates know this. Could it inspire them to play beyond their average capabilities and achieve a triumph of heroic proportions, thereby getting rid of the sniveling whiner?

Just a thought.

YOU COVER HIM! NO, YOU!

Neither the Cowboys nor the 49ers have the sort of pass defense that can stop the Detroit Lions’ Herman Moore, Brett Perriman and Johnnie Morton.

The Cowboys’ Deion Sanders can stop Moore. But Larry Brown can only dream of covering Perriman, who caught only 15 fewer balls than NFL leader Moore (123-108) for only 198 fewer yards (1,686-1,488).

And what do the Cowboys do with Morton, a smart slot receiver who is developing a knack, as he did at USC, for making the big play?

Of course, knowing the coaches here, Switzer will probably have Sanders covering a tight end while Fontes will refuse to throw to Moore.

The 49ers have equally large matchup problems. Eric Davis is not tall enough, and Marquez Pope is not quick enough, to cover Moore.

The 49er safeties can help knock him and Perriman on their rears, but, well, who will watch Barry Sanders? With the safeties playing run support earlier in the year, Moore and Perriman combined to catch 15 passes for 188 yards.

And, although the Lions and Cowboys didn’t meet this year, last season Moore and Perriman combined to catch 11 balls for 147 yards and two touchdowns against Dallas.

Did we neglect to remind you that the Lions won both games?

BARRY’S NIGHT OUT

Switzer’s son Doug, to the dismay of most in the organization, is not a two-sport athlete at Arkansas Pine Bluff. He only plays football.

Which means there is no reason for his father to leave the team hotel on the nights before games to watch him compete. Which means Switzer will attend every strategy meeting from now until the end of the season.

Which surely means something bad, we just aren’t sure what.

BLACKENED REVENGE

Brett Favre, the Packers’ MVP quarterback, wants to whip the Falcons in the opener Sunday because, several years ago, they gave up on him.

He wants to whip the 49ers the next week because he had a better year than Steve Young and yet will receive half the endorsements.

He wants to whip the Cowboys in the championship game because, well, there is something about those people always referring to his Mississippi homeland as a sort of Redneck Riviera.

Favre grew up thinking people from Dallas were snotty because they tucked in their shirts. He is growing old trying to beat their football team.

Besides all that, he can create more excitement with one arm than Hebert and Shuler can combined.

REVENGE OF THE NERD

Barry Sanders has been quiet all season as Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice have set records and made noise.

Sanders finished second to Smith in the NFL rushing race with 1,500 yards, but you never heard a peep. He finished second to Smith in total yards from scrimmage with 1,898--14 more than Rice--and . . . silence.

Smith may take off his helmet and strut after touchdowns, and Rice may curse the media after controversy, but Sanders has something else that will make him stand out.

He has a running style that gives defenses difficulty. The 49ers ranked first in the NFL in rushing defense, and held Sanders to 24 yards in 17 carries earlier this year, but that was before Scott Mitchell found his nerve.

The 49ers will need to use their safeties on receivers this time, leaving their aggressive linebackers to over-pursue on Sanders. And you know what happens when you over-pursue on Sanders. Does the phrase, “75-yard touchdown run with one shoe” ring a bell?

As for the Cowboys and their injury-depleted defensive line, well, Rodney Hampton gained 187 yards them against two weeks ago when half the league thought he had already retired.

BIG DADDY

Randall Cunningham, who mostly behaves himself as Rodney Peete’s backup in Philadelphia, admitted this week that he may miss the playoff opener Saturday against the Lions for family reasons.

Cunningham said Wednesday that he will fly to Las Vegas if his pregnant wife, Felicity, goes into labor before her scheduled delivery date, which is Sunday.

“My wife is more important than football,” Cunningham said. “If you have a wife, I think you understand. If something happens wrong, you’d never be able to live that down. You’ve got to get your priorities right.”

This all very honorable, although a man with children knows that by leaving work to be with your laboring wife, you are ensuring that she labors for approximately three more weeks, hence using up all of your vacation time.

But the point is, Cunningham could be gone. And this would be good.

No worries that Coach Ray Rhodes would get fed up with struggling Peete (two touchdowns, nine interceptions in last six weeks) and actually put Cunningham into the game.

No worries that the Eagles could watch a seven-point lead turn into a 17-point deficit because the guy in the huddle is calling plays from a different book.

If Cunningham is not there, then third-stringer Jay Fiedler, who has yet to take an NFL snap, would be the man.

This means that Ricky Watters and Charlie Garner would get about 25 carries each, and the Lions’ 18th-ranked run defense would shatter.