The death of the 49ers? The Steve-and-Joe pony show? We kneel at the feet of Chairman Bill, the better to listen to the musings of a genius.

After all, the 49ers wouldn't be in this situation without Bill Walsh.The 49ers wouldn't have Joe Montana without Walsh. The 49ers wouldn't have Steve Young without Walsh. Come to think of it, the 49ers might not have anything without Walsh, most of all four Super Bowl victories.

Whether they ever get five is questionable, but they won't do it this year.

So we ask Walsh, the academician, what happened to his old team, the Niners, and what can be done about it not happening again?

And Walsh, who watched much of last Sunday's 49er loss to the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Championship Game, tells us what he would have done. Which is nothing different from his successor, George Seifert.

We're not looking for sensibility here, Bill. We need shock therapy. Tell us Young should have been benched and Montana moved to outside linebacker.

We need criticism. We need gratification. What we don't need is what we've got - the Cowboys in Pasadena.

"One play cost the 49ers the championship," Walsh said. So clear, so simple. We should have known he would think of something like that.

He's the architect of the franchise, the guy who started in the sub-basement and constructed the Team of the '80s. Now Walsh coaches at Stanford, where you're not a slave to the draft, only to SATs.

"I don't see any reason people should be struggling with what happened to the 49ers, the fans or the organization," said Walsh. "They had a great year. They lost the championship game. It came down to a play or two. They don't allow Dallas that big pass play late in the fourth quarter, the 49ers get the ball back. And they win. People around here are looking for too much."

They're also looking for a method of solving the Montana vs. Young controversy, short of putting them on the undercard of Bowe vs. Dokes, the winner getting to throw deep to Rice.

Walsh, who drafted Montana in 1979 and traded for Young in 1987, diplomatically avoids entering the discussion about quarterbacks, although not long ago on Roy Firestone's "Up Close" TV show, Bill did say he was glad he didn't have to be around to trade or waive his old stars.

Walsh is the cause of this hand wringing. He got 49er fans thinking about perfection or something close. Then, once you win, you're expected to win. And to heck with the concept that the opposition is as good as you are. Or better.

Dump the coach. Bench the quarterback. Send the defense to the New England Patriots. Change everything and everybody.

"Change?" asked Walsh. "I wouldn't call for change. The 49ers are an outstanding football team. What would you change? They have a big breakdown on a pass. You have the two best teams in football in a championship game, that's what you expect, an evenly fought game decided by a big play."

Even it was. The Cowboys had 416 net yards. The 49ers had 415 net yards. But the 49ers had four turnovers, the Cowboys none. And the 49ers allowed Alvin Harper to get away on a 70-yard pass from Troy Aikman with 4:22 left.

Which means, of course, you blame the 49er quarterback, Steve Young. Wasn't Young on the sidelines watching Harper go the 70 yards?

Walsh was on the sidelines when the 49ers stumbled over their own success in a first-round playoff game against the Vikings at the end of the '87 season. That's when Montana spent most of the first half on his backside and, after he was yanked by Walsh, much of the second half on the bench.

"This game was different," said Walsh. "It wasn't as if the 49ers were stopped in their tracks. We expected to win in '87 against the Vikings, but Joe couldn't get untracked. The big problem that day is we weren't pass protecting.

"Well, I inserted Steve. Hopefully, he would spring a big one, turn the game, and then I'd get Joe back in. But this game against Dallas wasn't the same. There weren't even opportunities for the 49ers in the second half this game. Dallas just consumed time."

If you seek a scapegoat - and of course you do, or you wouldn't call yourself a 49er fan - your man is Mike Lynn, former general manager of the Minnesota Vikings.

People have been arguing for years over the dumbest trade in baseball, Babe Ruth for money, Joe Morgan for Lee May and Tommy Helms. There's no argument over the dumbest trade in football: Lynn sending five players and six draft choices to the Cowboys for Herschel Walkon, er, Walker.

That trade in time was responsible for Dallas getting Emmitt Smith, Russell Maryland, Issiac Holt, Kevin Smith and several others. That trade was responsible for the 49ers not going to the Super Bowl.

"It was a stupid trade for Minnesota, an absolute giveaway," said Walsh. "Look what they gave up. For what? No one gives up what you gave up for Walker."

It's always the Vikings. In '87 they outplay the 49ers. In '92 they trade them into defeat.

While the Cowboys have been drafting stars, the 49ers, in that socialistic system the NFL prizes, have been picking through remnants. Sooner or later, the stars are going to stomp on the remnants.

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"The 49ers have had to replace some great defensive backs," said Walsh, alluding to Ronnie Lott, Eric Wright and Carlton Williamson. "They haven't totally done that this year it appears. That's understandable.

"But the 49ers had the best record of the regular season. Maybe the problem was they needed to lose a couple of other games. Maybe they lacked just a tiny percentage of intensity. It's hard to say.

"If Dallas doesn't hit on that pass play, it could have been a disastrous move, a reckless move, and the 49ers would have won. But the Cowboys complete that pass. The 49ers weren't dominated. They'll continue up there. Too many people are looking for things that aren't part of the problem."

So, Bill, whisper it and I won't tell anybody else. What would you really do with Montana and Young?

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