Herschel Walker Becomes Missing Man in Minnesota

SANTA CLARA —  To lure him northward, the Minnesota Vikings gave Herschel Walker a mansion, lots of money and every assurance that the endorsement conglomerate he built in Dallas would play just as well on television sets and billboards across the frozen tundra.

Thirteen weeks later, it appears there was one significant omission. The football is one creature comfort Walker is learning to live without.

“I think everybody is probably surprised,” 49er linebacker Mike Walter said. “When the trade took place, it looked like they were planning on using him a lot, but they haven’t. I kind of hope that doesn’t change this week.”

As they devised a defensive strategy for Saturday’s NFC playoff game, the 49ers didn’t quite know what to make of the Vikings’ decision to turn Walker into the NFL’s most prominent decoy.

They seem to have decided to shrug their shoulders and prepare for the past.

“I think we have to be ready for what the man is capable of doing,” 49er Coach George Seifert said. “We can’t concern ourselves with what he’s done or what he hasn’t done.”

Said nose tackle Jim Burt: “We’re preparing for him whether they give him the ball or not.”

Walker is the Vikings’ leading rusher, but his 11-game numbers (169 carries, 669 yards) are decidedly ordinary.

He is averaging 60.8 yards per game despite a 148-yard performance against the Green Bay Packers in his Vikings debut Oct. 15.

To take it a step further, eliminate that opening game and Walker is averaging 52.1 yards per game, a figure that would have represented about an average half for him in 1988, when he gained 1,514 yards for Dallas.

Curiously, Walker was shunted out of Dallas because he didn’t fit into coach Jimmy Johnson’s pass-oriented offense.

Given that, it is interesting to note that Walker averaged 16.2 carries per game in five games with the Cowboys. In 11 games with Minnesota, he is averaging 15.3 carries per game.

Walker the pass receiver has been almost nonexistent as well. He has caught 18 passes for the Vikings after catching 22 as a Cowboy.

“In order for Herschel to get a feel for a game, he’s got to get the ball a lot,” said 49er guard Guy McIntyre, who blocked for Walker at the University of Georgia. “Maybe they just don’t have the patience to let him get started.”

The way the Vikings saw it, Walker came to Minnesota bearing two gifts: an instant running game and a trip to the Super Bowl.

Minnesota has perhaps the NFL’s best defense and a passing game that features Anthony Carter, Hassan Jones and Steve Jordan. But its most glaring weakness was its running game. Darrin Nelson led the team a year ago with a paltry 380 yards.

When he traded five players and four high draft picks for Walker on Oct. 12, Viking General Manager Mike Lynn admitted the team mortgaged its future to get Walker. Lynn gave the fans carte blanche to label the trade a failure if the Vikings don’t make the Super Bowl in the next two years.

The Super Bowl remains a possibility, but it’s hard to measure Walker’s contribution to the effort. An argument could be made that he has had his greatest impact with the Vikings as a kick returner.

Walker returned one 93 yards for a touchdown and is averaging 28.8 yards on 13 runbacks.

Burt, who faced Walker twice a year while with the New York Giants, is warning his teammates not to take the man lightly.

“He can dominate a game,” Burt said. “I don’t think they have featured him as much as they thought they would. I know it’s hard for a guy to come in during the middle of the season like that, but it seems that the chemistry just isn’t right.”

A notable example of Walker’s invisibility occurred in the Vikings’ final game, a playoff-clinching win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Christmas night. Late in the game, the Vikings had first-and-goal from inside the 5-yard line.

Three times they ran fullback Rick Fenney into the middle of the line, then scored on a short fourth-down pass from Wade Wilson to backup tight end Brent Novoselsky.

All four plays occurred with the 6-foot-1, 226-pound Walker in the backfield.

“I don’t know what their plan is,” 49er linebacker Matt Millen said. “We’re just going to have to account for him. If we don’t, that’s when he hurts you.

“His skills haven’t changed. They haven’t diminished. You know in your head that he’s very fast, but when you’re watching him on the field, he doesn’t seem like he’s moving that fast. Then all of a sudden, there he goes, right by you.”

Walker’s mere presence has forced the 49ers to alter the defensive plan that led to last year’s 34-9 playoff win over the Vikings.

In that game, the 49ers “thought pass first, then reacted to the run,” defensive end Pierce Holt said. Thinking that way, they sacked Wilson six times.

“It will probably be hard for us to do that this week,” Holt said. “They’ve got too many weapons.

“With Walker, they’ve improved their running game. It’s in our minds what a powerful, fast guy he is. We can’t forget that.”

Even if the Vikings can.