It’s Same Old Story for Rice, 49ers

Some things never change when the San Francisco 49ers play the San Diego Chargers.

Jerry Rice catches touchdown passes, the crowd cheers and the 49ers end up with a blowout victory. Six years after embarrassing the Chargers in the Super Bowl, the 49ers did it again, beating San Diego, 45-17, on Sunday.

One week after the Chargers ended their 11-game losing streak, they were brought back to reality, matching the team record with their 12th loss.

Both teams have struggled since that Super Bowl, but one story line that remained was Rice beating an overwhelmed San Diego secondary.

Rice caught two touchdown passes from Jeff Garcia, and after the second, midway through the fourth quarter, something happened that touched the NFL’s career leading receiver.

Thousands of fans began chanting, “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!”

Rice, who came out of the game after that catch, finally pointed to the fans to acknowledge them.

“For them to do that, it left me speechless and almost a little embarrassed. But I’m very appreciative,” said Rice, who caught three touchdown passes in the 49ers’ 49-26 Super Bowl victory over the Chargers.

Junior Seau would like the crowd to cheer for the Chargers, of course, but he understood.

“What he did today was something that was valid in terms of people cheering,” the linebacker said. “When you have a great player such as Jerry, you’re going to have fans that follow him, and rightfully so.”

The 49ers (5-8), coming off their open date, won their third consecutive game and their 45 points were a season-high.

Garcia completed 18 of 32 passes for 323 yards, his fourth 300-yard game of the season.

He threw a one-yard scoring pass to Rice as the 49ers scored 17 consecutive points in the second quarter to take the lead for good.

Garcia also threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Rice midway through the fourth quarter.

Charger quarterback Ryan Leaf had a horrible fourth quarter, throwing interceptions on four consecutive possessions.