Lakerman
You are right about the left engine digging in and turning the plane. One of the few posts on this thread that makes sense.
WIth the nose high climbout attitude of any airliner, one must consider; a tailmounted engine like the DC9 or 727 would probably have been protected by the wing from bird ingestion in this phase of flight.
The underwing mounted engines would take the brunt of any bird strike. I've flown both types and prefer the tailmounted engine types.