Montana Beats Clock, Buccaneers

Joe Montana didn’t enjoy himself, until it was over.

Montana, who struggled for most of the game, ran four yards for a touchdown with 40 seconds left Sunday to give the San Francisco 49ers a 20-16 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“It was not fun to play that way, and it wasn’t fun to have to come back from behind,” Montana said. “But a lot of us have been in those situations before and we didn’t get rattled.”

Vinny Testaverde gave the Buccaneers (1-1) a 16-13 lead with an 18-yard scoring pass to Mark Carrier with 3 1/2 minutes left, but that is too much time to give Montana with the game on the line.

The final scoring drive featured completions of 15 yards to John Taylor and Tom Rathman as well as an 11-yarder to Jerry Rice, whose two-yard touchdown catch gave San Francisco (2-0) a 13-9 lead with 8:31 left.

“They are a team that’s done it so many times,” Testaverde said of the 49ers’ decisive 10-play, 70-yard drive. “It was a sick feeling watching them do it live.”

Montana and the 49ers’ offense didn’t get on track until after Tampa Bay went ahead, 9-6, on Donald Igwebuike’s third field goal of the game.

Montana completed four of seven passes for 53 yards on the game-winning drive. He rolled around right end for his touchdown two plays after a holding penalty on Tampa Bay’s Donnie Elder nullified a third-down incompletion that would have forced the 49ers to try for a game-tying field goal.

Montana finished with 25 completions in 39 attempts for 266 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Rice had eight receptions for 122 yards.

Testaverde, coming off the best game of his brief career in Tampa Bay’s season-opening victory over Green Bay, minimized errors for the second straight week with a short passing game.

He completed 14 of 35 for 146 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions, both by Ronnie Lott. However, both came on desperation throws, on the last play of the first half and the last play of the game.