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Hill leads surprising offensive effort as 49ers win

Dec 16, 2007 - 6:28 AM By Ryan Leong PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) - Once linked for playing two memorable Super Bowls in the 1980s, the San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals are joined in their seasons of mediocrity.

Third-string quarterback Shaun Hill accounted for two touchdowns in his first career start and Frank Gore rushed for a season-high 138 yards to lead the 49ers to a 20-13 victory over the Bengals on Saturday.

San Francisco won a pair of Super Bowls over Cincinnati (5-9) in 1982 and 1989, but 2007 has clearly been a season to forget for both franchises.

"You want to finish off on the right note even though we're not playing for the playoffs," Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson said. "We have a chance to ruin some playoff hopes. A lot of us have a lot of pride.

"You might not be playing for much but you're wearing your name on the back of your jersey and you do have the 'B' (the Bengals' team logo) on the front of your jersey, so you have to play for both of those."

Each team has struggled to follow through on the expectations placed on them after providing plenty of reasons for optimism a season ago.

"We've got to do a better job," Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis said. "We don't score when we get the ball in the red zone, we don't come away with touchdowns and that's significant. Anytime you lose, it's disappointing."

Hill, who waited six years to get the opportunity to start at quarterback in the NFL, was only given the starting assignment in this game after Alex Smith and Trent Dilfer both succumbed to injury this season.

"I had confidence in myself but, obviously, it is nice to go out and do it," Hill said. "It's one thing to sit out there and visualize everything and feel like you can make all the plays and lead a team throughout the whole game but its another to go out and actually do it. As far as proving something to myself, I've always had confidence that I could go out and do it."

San Francisco entered the game with the worst offense in the NFL, averaging only 13.2 points, but Hill showed incredible poise and accuracy - much as he did in relief of Dilfer last week - by completing 21-of-28 passes for 197 yards.

"The thing I like about him, he's a pretty calm, cool guy," San Francisco coach Mike Nolan said. "But for a guy who hasn't played, he's very competitive and into the game."

Darrell Jackson had a season-high eight catches for 86 yards for San Francisco (4-10), which snapped its two-game losing streak.

"I've been waiting to have a game like this since I came here," Jackson said. "I could get used to this. They just threw it to me more. I had a lot of fun playing ball tonight.

"I finally got an opportunity to get fed (the ball) a little bit. I'm thankful for the opportunity and we had a chance to get a win. We completed some passes and scored some points."

Cincinnati's Carson Palmer threw his 100th touchdown pass - a 52-yard pass to Chris Henry in the first half - to become the fifth-fastest signal-caller in NFL history to reach that mark.

"It's definitely an honor to be mentioned with (Dan) Marino, who was one of the best to play the game," Palmer said. "I would assume Peyton (Manning) and Brett Favre (are on the list) and that's obviously a great honor.

"Those are some of my heroes and some of the guys I grew up watching and idolizing so to be mentioned with those guys is a great honor."

Palmer went 19-for-31 for 252 yards, but the 2006 Pro Bowl MVP was unable to lead the Bengals to a tying score in the final quarter after Johnson dropped a difficult catch in the end zone with 2:14 remaining.

"It is the same thing every week," Palmer said. "We aren't executing on offense and you don't have 11 guys doing each of their jobs. If you have miscues and breakdowns on offense, you are not going to be successful.

"Looking back, we've had some chances and haven't been executing. We're not very disciplined and we're not executing very well."

Johnson thought he made a game-tying play.

"It touched the ground," Johnson said, "but I tried to squeeze it the best that I could. I had possession, I got my feet in (bounds). When I hit the ground I thought it would be six (points). I had control until I hit the ground. I really can't recap - at this particular time - why we didn't put up points in the red zone but it is what it is."