Pressure Is Squarely on MVP Young : NFC: The 49ers are favored against Redskins, but Montana’s presence in uniform on the sidelines could prove a distraction.

SAN FRANCISCO —  In the context of the season as a whole, Steve Young vs. Mark Rypien doesn’t seem fair.

It seems distinctly unfair, in fact, to Rypien’s team, the Washington Redskins, who are here for a divisional playoff game today.

Young is the NFL’s No. 1 passer. In his first season as a starter throughout, he led the San Francisco 49ers to a 14-2 record. And he was a runaway winner in the NFL’s most-valuable-player voting.

By contrast, among NFC starters, Rypien is the bottom-ranked passer. He led the Redskins to a 9-7 season.

Yet some of the 49er fans have lately been expressing some concern. As they contemplate a possibly rainy 1 p.m. game that will knock either the 49ers or Redskins out of the playoffs, some of them seem worried about two things:

--Young will be playing with Joe Montana looking over his shoulder and hoping to get in the game, a sentiment that keeps Montana in the Bay Area majority. To hear these folks talk, almost everyone here wants him in and Young out.

“I’m not worrying about it,” Montana said when asked if his return is burdening Young with too much pressure. “It’s a pressure (position).”

--Rypien, meanwhile, is coming off his best performance of the season. In the second half last weekend, while the 49ers had a bye, Rypien was suddenly on target with the passes that helped the Redskins put the Minnesota Vikings away, 24-7.

The Redskins have been waiting all year for Rypien to return to the form that made them a big winner in the Super Bowl last January.

Did he get it back in the Metrodome last week? Or was that merely a one-day aberration in Rypien’s worst football season as an adult?

The answer will provide the key to this game.

The 49ers will be looking for answers today if Rypien is throwing the ball straight.

The least proficient thing that San Francisco does is play pass defense. The thing that Washington does best is play pass offense when Rypien can reach wide receivers Gary Clark and Art Monk deep.

Although Washington is about a 10-point underdog here, Rypien’s bombs could change that.

The Redskins’ basic problem is that they might not have the ball often enough to hurt the 49ers, who have fielded one of the great offensive teams this season, and whose specialty is driving through good defensive teams with runs and passes by Young and runs by 1,000-yard ground gainer Ricky Watters.

“I don’t think you’re going to be able to control the ball on the 49ers,” said Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs, who will start Earnest Byner at running back, with last week’s star, Brian Mitchell, in reserve. “What you do is hope you can make some (big) plays.”

Rypien, in other words, will have to make every series count, which is a difficult assignment for a bomb thrower, particularly in the rain and mud that could well replace the Candlestick Park turf this afternoon.

“Rain would (even up) the game,” said the 49ers’ Steve Wallace, who ranks with the Redskins’ Jim Lachey as the top two offensive tackles in the league. “You never know when it rains.”

The 49ers are 5-1 in their last six against Washington, and although Rypien is 5-1 as a playoff quarterback, compared to Young’s 0-0, Rypien suffered his one playoff lapse in a well-remembered 1990 game here when he threw two end-zone interceptions and lost, 28-10.

“Sure, I remember,” Rypien said. “When you throw two playoff intercepts inside the 15-yard line, you always remember.”

This season, Rypien’s many interceptions have been partially because of injury problems in Washington’s offensive line, where only one of the usual starters suited up all year to play his accustomed position.

The Redskins led the league in 1992 injuries, losing, at times, 22 starters, All-Pro cornerback Darrell Green among them. Against the 49ers, Gibbs said he wants to send in Green, who was ready to play again with his broken arm in a cast last week until a severe heel bruise robbed him of that opportunity.

Green, or somebody, will have to keep an eye on 49er wide receiver Jerry Rice.

In the Redskin pass offense, Lachey, who protects Rypien’s back, is the main man, and Lachey has only recently returned from his injury.

During Lachey’s absence, the Redskins could hardly run, and that deficiency helped ruin their pass offense.

“An effective running game takes the load off,” Rypien said.

It might not matter much today. If the Redskins have the ball for only a few minutes, they will have to keep putting it up to overtake Young.

Or Montana.