49ers Set Franchise Record

By Henry Gula

Joe Montana never did it. Neither did Steve Young or Y.A. Tittle. Even the architect of the West Coast offense, Bill Walsh, could only imagine such a massive mark.

Of all the Hall of Fame quarterbacks and coaches in the history of the San Francisco 49ers, leave it to Alex Smith and Jim Harbaugh to set a new standard.

"As a fan, it's very exciting," said Santa Clara student and 49ers fan Anthony Quiroz. "It's awesome to see Alex Smith finally living up to his number one draft pick potential."

Smith threw for a season-high 303 yards and three touchdowns, Frank Gore ran for 106 yards and a score, and the 49ers amassed a franchise record 621 yards in blowing by the Buffalo Bills 45-3 last Sunday.

San Francisco also became the first team in NFL history with 300 yards passing and 300 yards rushing.

"Very cool," Smith said. "When you think of the 49ers, you think of great offense."

Smith threw touchdown passes of 43, 28 and 10 yards and surpassed 300 yards passing for only the third time in his career - and first in a victory. The last time came when he had 309 yards in a loss at Philadelphia two years ago - "a completely different world," Smith said - in former coach Mike Singletary's final season.

"Quarterback was near perfect," Harbaugh said.

Smith, who sprained his middle finger in the fourth quarter, completed 18 of 24 passes. He also had a perfect 158.3 passer rating in the first half, when he threw for 237 yards - a career best for a half.

Michael Crabtree (six catches for 113 yards) and Vernon Davis (five catches for 106 yards) each eclipsed the century mark to pull San Francisco (4-1) into a tie with Arizona for the NFC West lead. Even Randy Moss, rarely targeted in his comeback, caught a pass for 11 yards.

The longest completion Smith had in the first four weeks was for 29 yards. In the first half alone, he completed a 53-yarder to Davis that set up a field goal by David Akers, a 43-yard touchdown to Kyle Williams and hooked up with Crabtree for 36 yards.

Williams took the back-shoulder pass from Smith, spun away from a defender and ran the final 10 yards free into the end zone. Williams fell to his knees, raised his arms and nodded to the sun-splashed crowd at Candlestick Park after giving the 49ers a 10-3 lead.

Every time the Bills blew an opportunity - and they blew plenty - the 49ers capitalized.

Backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who ran for 39 yards on four carries, fumbled on an end-around and Buffalo took over at its own 17. Two plays later, Patrick Willis stripped Scott Chandler, San Francisco recovered and Smith floated a 28-yard touchdown to Crabtree to put the 49ers in front 17-3 with 24 seconds to go before the half.

"Everything about today was just amazing," Crabtree said.

A holding penalty on Buffalo's Jairus Byrd wiped out a punt return Leodis McKelvin took for a touchdown in the first quarter. The offense failed to score any points after McKelvin returned a kickoff 59 yards. And after a 12-play, 75-yard drive that took nearly six minutes stalled in the second quarter, Lindell kicked a field goal for Buffalo's only score.

Smith led another touchdown drive that featured Kaepernick gaining 15 yards on a sweep and ended one play later when Gore dove over the pile for a touchdown that extended San Francisco's lead to 24-3.

Chris Culliver intercepted an underthrown pass by Fitzpatrick just shy of the goal line to end Buffalo's best chance to reach the end zone all afternoon.

Smith also tossed a 10-yard touchdown pass to Mario Manningham, Kaepernick ran 16 yards for a score and Anthony Dixon added a 3-yard run for the final touchdown.

"I'm not a big statistical guy, don't get caught up in it," 49ers Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman said. "But at the same time, just in the normal course of events to be able to throw up that kind of production, obviously we're doing something right."

Santa Clara sophomore and Green Bay Packers fan Zachary Moreno also took notice. "I was impressed by the 49ers this past weekend, and I'm not even a fan," he said. "More than 600 yards on offense is crazy, no matter what team you're talking about."

Quiroz seemed enthusiastic about the rest of the season. "We're looking for that sixth Super Bowl title now," he said.

Contact Henry Gula at hgula@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852. The Associated Press contributed to this report.