Week #2
Sunday, Sep.23, at 3COM Park, 1:15pm PDT
vs
26
  
30
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia rushes into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown against the St. Louis Rams in the second quarter in San Francisco, Sunday, Sept. 23, 2001. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In a game filled with flubs, fumbles and drops, Marshall Faulk carried the St. Louis Rams. 

Kurt Warner threw for 321 yards and three touchdowns, and Faulk handled the ball on nearly every play during the Rams' clock-killing final drive in a 30-26 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. 

In a high-intensity matchup of two of the NFL's top offenses, the 49ers' receivers dropped several passes to put them in a 14-point hole late in the fourth quarter. But the Rams (2-0) nearly let San Francisco back in it when Isaac Bruce fumbled with less than 10 minutes left. 

A defensive stand led to Faulk's masterful performance on the Rams' last drive, which ended inside the 10 after the 49ers exhausted their timeouts. 

The drive consumed the final 6:35, with Faulk — who started it off with an 18-yard run — rushing seven times and catching two passes in the first 10 plays. 

Faulk rushed 18 times for 105 yards and caught eight passes for 79 yards. Bruce had eight catches for 144 yards and a score as the Rams beat the 49ers for the fifth straight time after a 17-game losing streak against San Francisco. 

The 49ers (1-1) lost running back Garrison Hearst to a concussion in the second quarter when he was hit hard by Mark Fields. Hearst, who missed the past two seasons while recovering from a broken leg, returned for a few plays, but didn't play after halftime. 

But Hearst's absence wasn't the 49ers' biggest problem. Dropped passes — including three by Pro Bowl receiver Terrell Owens and two by J.J. Stokes, the nominal successor to Jerry Rice — short-circuited several drives. Jeff Garcia finished 19-for-34 for just 121 yards. 

St. Louis opened the game with 12 straight points, but the 49ers scored 16 in the final 4:07 of the first half. 

Az-Zahir Hakim and Bruce caught TD passes to give the Rams a 14-point lead, but San Francisco cut St. Louis' lead to 30-23 on backup fullback Terry Jackson's 10-yard TD catch with 10:31 left. 

A minute later, Bruce caught a 33-yard pass down the sideline, but was stripped of the ball by Jason Webster. The Rams held San Francisco to Jose Cortez's field goal with 6:47 left that made it 30-26, but Faulk and Warner finished it off from there. 

Jeff Robinson caught a 1-yard TD pass from Warner late in the first quarter. Fields then intercepted a pass that bounced off Owens' chest, setting up a field goal. 

San Francisco's offense started slowly for the second week, and only penalties kept the 49ers in the game early on. The Rams' overzealous receivers committed four blocking infractions in the first 16 minutes, and a running-into-the-punter penalty kept alive San Francisco's first scoring drive, which ended in Garcia's artful 10-yard TD scamper. 

Moments later, 49ers cornerback Ahmed Plummer made his first career interception to set up rookie Kevan Barlow's 1-yard TD lunge with 1:15 left.



 
FINAL
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
Total
St.Louis 
9
3
10
8
30
San Francisco
0
16
0
10
26
..... 
 
SCORING SUMMARY
1st Quarter
STL FG  44 yard field goal by Jeff Wilkins (STL) is good.
STL TD Kurt Warner (STL) pass right side complete to Jeff Robinson (STL) for a 1 yard touchdown.
2nd Quarter
STL FG 40 yard field goal by Jeff Wilkins (STL) is good.
SFO TD Jeff Garcia (SFO) rushed up the middle for a 10 yard touchdown. Extra point by Jose Cortez (SFO) is good.
SFO TD Kevan Barlow (SFO) rushed up the middle for a 1 yard touchdown.
3rd Quarter
SFO FG 52 yard field goal by Jose Cortez (SFO) is good.
STL TD Kurt Warner (STL) pass right side complete to Az-Zahir Hakim (STL) for a 25 yard touchdown. Extra point by Jeff Wilkins (STL) is good.
STL FG 25 yard field goal by Jeff Wilkins (STL) is good.
4th Quarter
STL TD Kurt Warner (STL) pass left side complete to Isaac Bruce (STL) for a 39 yard touchdown. 2 point pass from Kurt Warner (STL) to Ricky Proehl (STL) is good.
SFO TD Jeff Garcia (SFO) pass right side complete to Terry Jackson (SFO) for a 10 yard touchdown. Extra point by Jose Cortez (SFO) is good.
SFO FG 33 yard field goal by Jose Cortez (SFO) is good.

 
TEAM STATISTICS
  STL SFO
FIRST DOWNS 5 1
Passing 3 1
Rushing 2 0
Penalty 0 0
 
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 2-3 1-3
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-0 0-0
 
TOTAL NET YARDS 99 27
Total plays 16 12
Average gain 6.2 2.3
 
NET YARDS RUSHING 21 7
Rushes 5 4
Average per rush 4.2 1.8
 
PASSING
Completion-attempted 8-11 5-8
Yards per pass 7.1 2.5
Sacked-yards lost 0-0 0-0
Had intercepted 0 1
 
PUNTS-AVERAGE 0-0.0 2-29.0
 
RETURN-YARDAGE 36 47
Punts-returns 1-8 0-0
Kickoffs-returns 0-0 2-47
Interceptions-returns 1-28 0-0
 
PENALTIES-YARDS 3-35 1-10
FUMBLES-LOST 0-0 0-0

  

Passing
RAMS CMP ATT YDS PCT YPA SACK SYDS TD INT
Kurt Warner 24 35 321 68.6 9.17 1 12 3 1
Ricky Proehl 0 1 0 0.0 0.00 0 0 0 0
49ERS CMP ATT YDS PCT YPA SACK SYDS TD INT
Jeff Garcia 19 34 121 55.9 3.56 1 5 1 1

Rushing
RAMS ATT YDS AVG LONG TD FUM
Marshall Faulk 18 105 5.8 18 0 0
Kurt Warner 3 9 3.0 12 0 0
Robert Holcombe 1 2 2.0 2 0 0
Trung Canidate 2 1 0.5 5 0 0
Torry Holt 1 -2 -2.0 -2 0 0
49ERS ATT YDS AVG LONG TD FUM
Kevan Barlow 13 49 3.8 10 1 0
Jeff Garcia 7 45 6.4 10 1 0
Terry Jackson 1 12 12.0 12 0 0
Garrison Hearst 4 10 2.5 5 0 0

Receiving
RAMS REC YDS AVG LONG TD FUM
Isaac Bruce 8 144 18.0 39 1 0
Marshall Faulk 8 79 9.9 16 0 0
Ernie Conwell 1 31 31.0 31 0 0
Az-Zahir Hakim 1 25 25.0 25 1 0
Ricky Proehl 2 24 12.0 17 0 0
Torry Holt 3 17 5.7 11 0 0
Jeff Robinson 1 1 1.0 1 1 0
49ERS REC YDS AVG LONG TD FUM
Terrell Owens 5 51 10.2 20 0 0
Terry Jackson 3 22 7.3 10 1 0
Eric Johnson 3 14 4.7 6 0 0
Justin Swift 3 13 4.3 9 0 0
Garrison Hearst 2 10 5.0 6 0 0
J.J. Stokes 1 5 5.0 5 0 0
Tai Streets 1 5 5.0 5 0 0
Fred Beasley 1 1 1.0 1 0 0

Kicking
RAMS FGA FGM PCT LNG XPA XPM PCT PTS
Jeff Wilkins 3 3 100.0 0 1 1 100.0 10
49ERS FGA FGM PCT LNG XPA XPM PCT PTS
Jose Cortez 2 2 100.0 0 2 2 100.0 8

Punting
RAMS PUNTS AVG LONG BLOCKED IN 20 TOUCHBACKS
John Baker 1 52.0 0 0 0 0
49ERS PUNTS AVG LONG BLOCKED IN 20 TOUCHBACKS
Jason Baker 5 36.0 0 0 0 0

Kick/Punt Returns
RAMS KR YDS AVG LONG TD PR YDS AVG LONG TD
Trung Canidate 2 55 27.5 0 0 0 0 0.0 0 0
Yo Murphy 1 23 23.0 0 0 0 0 0.0 0 0
Az-Zahir Hakim 0 0 0.0 0 0 3 47 15.7 0 0
49ERS KR YDS AVG LONG TD PR YDS AVG LONG TD
Cedric Wilson 1 34 34.0 0 0 0 0 0.0 0 0

Defense
RAMS TOT SOLO AST SCK YDS INT YDS FF TD
London Fletcher 13 12 1 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Adam Archuleta 9 8 1 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Mark Fields 6 5 1 0.0 0 1 0 0 0
Dexter McCleon 6 6 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Aeneas Williams 4 4 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Chidi Ahanotu 4 3 1 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Tyoka Jackson 2 0 2 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Leonard Little 2 0 2 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Damione Lewis 2 1 1 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Jeff Zgonina 1 0 1 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Sean Moran 1 0 1 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Grant Wistrom 1 1 0 1.0 5 0 0 0 0
Dre' Bly 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Brian Young 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
49ERS TOT SOLO AST SCK YDS INT YDS FF TD
Derek Smith 13 9 4 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Zack Bronson 7 7 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Ahmed Plummer 5 5 0 0.0 0 1 0 0 0
Terry Killens 5 3 2 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Jason Webster 5 4 1 0.0 0 0 0 1 0
Lance Schulters 4 4 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Chike Okeafor 4 3 1 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Jeff Ulbrich 3 2 1 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Dana Stubblefield 2 1 1 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Anthony Parker 2 1 1 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
John Engelberger 2 2 0 1.0 12 0 0 1 0
Andre Carter 2 2 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Bryant Young 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0
Reggie McGrew 1 1 0 0.0 0 0 0 0 0

....