Terrell Owens had a 61-yard touchdown catch among his eight receptions for 155 yards Monday, and Tim Rattay went 21-of-27 for 254 yards in the 49ers' 30-14 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Helped by two downfield blocks by Owens, Kevan Barlow rushed for a 78-yard score in the third quarter to break open San Francisco's fourth straight home victory.
Fullback Fred Beasley also caught a 28-yard touchdown pass from Rattay, who added more spice to the 49ers' quarterback controversy with a second straight near-flawless performance in place of injured Pro Bowler Jeff Garcia. Former Steelers kicker Todd Peterson also made three field goals.
PHOTO: AFP
In the teams' first meeting since a rain-soaked game at Candlestick in 1999, San Francisco (5-5) dominated the matchup of defending division champions who have struggled so far this season.
Tommy Maddox was 25-of-44 for 327 yards for Pittsburgh (3-7), which lost its sixth in seven games thanks to key defensive errors and Antwaan Randle El's fumble on a kickoff return, which allowed San Francisco to score two touchdowns in 14 seconds.
But the Niners' victory was sparked by Owens, who had the best game of his up-and-down season. Fully aware of being on a prime-time stage, the would-be actor and basketball star got San Francisco started with one of the big plays he has provided only sparingly this fall.
On the third play of the Niners' second drive, Rattay lofted a perfect pass down the left sideline. Owens accelerated away from cornerback Chad Scott, stopped at the goal line and did a slow pirouette into the end zone before breaking into a dance.
It was all rather tame compared to his celebration in the 49ers' Monday night victory over Seattle last season, when Owens pulled a pen from his sock and autographed the ball for his financial adviser. No doubt, Owens disappointed the fan wearing a No. 81 jersey and a knit cap with a bunch of Sharpie pens dangling from it.
The Steelers periodically moved the ball well with inventive play-calling _ but at other times, their execution was equally inventive. Pittsburgh made too many small mistakes, including a 7-yard loss on a pass by Randle El and a 10-yard setback on a double reverse.
Randle El had a 32-yard TD catch in the fourth. Though Pittsburgh is in one of the most dismal stretches of coach Bill Cowher's 12 seasons, the Steelers still are just two games out of first place in the AFC North.
The 49ers retired Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott's jersey at halftime, and at times their defense seemed to be paying tribute to one of football's hardest hitters with another solid performance.
Niners safety Tony Parrish intercepted a tipped pass early in the second quarter and returned it 48 yards, setting up a 32-yard field goal for Peterson, who began last season as the Steelers' kicker.
After gaining just 125 yards in the first half, Pittsburgh made a 79-yard drive to open the third quarter. Jerome Bettis scored on a 1-yard plunge.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier