Lomax Finds Seam in 49ers’ Defense, and Cardinals Win

It was a play called “89-69 Seam,” but it was more like do-or-die for the Phoenix Cardinals.

Neil Lomax threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Roy Green with 3 seconds remaining Sunday to cap a 17-point fourth quarter and give the Cardinals a 24-23 win over the San Francisco 49ers.

“I wanted it,” Green said. “They pay me a lot of money to come through in situations like this. There was no doubt in my mind it was going to be a touchdown. It was an ‘89-69 Seam’ play, when you go for the gusto.”

Phoenix (6-4) trailed, 23-0, until Lomax hit Green on a 35-yard scoring pass play with 3:39 left in the third quarter.

Al Del Greco’s 24-yard field goal with 10:51 left in the fourth quarter and Lomax’s 5-yard touchdown pass to rookie Ernie Jones with 2:19 left brought the Cardinals to within 23-17.

San Francisco (6-4) was forced to punt after failing to make a first down at its 24-yard line with 1:38 left.

Phoenix, with no timeouts remaining, took over at its 34 yard line with 1:27 left and Lomax drove the Cardinals 66 yards in 7 plays--hitting Green with a pass at the back of the end zone out of the shotgun formation.

“When you got Roy Green one-on-one with a bump-and-run defense, you’ve got to go to him,” said Lomax, who finished with 323 yards passing.

Del Greco kicked the decisive extra point as Phoenix beat the 49ers for the first time in 6 meetings and kept its playoff hopes alive.

San Francisco Coach Bill Walsh pointed to his team’s 14 penalties for 111 yards as a key to the loss.

“We penalized ourselves right off the field again,” he said. “The penalties are just killing this football team. It was brutal and awful and it was a tough loss.”

The 49ers led, 16-0, at halftime on Roger Craig’s 3-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and Mike Cofer field goals of 42, 27 and 30 yards. The last two were set up by fumble recoveries by linebacker Keena Turner.

San Francisco went ahead, 23-0, on Steve Young’s 3-yard toss to backup tight end Brent Jones with 7:20 left in the third quarter.

Young, starting again in place of the ailing Joe Montana, completed 14 of 27 passes for 145 yards. Craig, the NFC’s leading rusher, had 162 yards in 26 carries to pass the 1,000-yard mark and 5,000 mark in his 6-year NFL career.