The San Francisco 49ers mounted a second-half comeback to secure their first competitive victory at Levi's Stadium by beating the Philadelphia Eagles 26-21 in their NFL clash.
The Eagles took the lead when their defense sacked Colin Kaepernick on third down and backed the 49ers' punting unit in the endzone. The visitors crashed through the line and blocked the punt, allowing Brad Smith to jump on the ball for the score.
San Francisco lacked fluency on offense as Kaepernick struggled for a consistent connection with his receivers, but two passes to Anquan Boldin and Brandon Lloyd were enough to put them in field goal range. Phil Dawson made no mistake from 29 yards to get his side on the scoreboard.
Kaepernick clicked into gear early in the second quarter as he edged the 49ers ahead by picking out Frank Gore with a touchdown pass from 54 yards.
However, the Eagles hit back in spectacular fashion as Malcolm Jenkins intercepted a Kaepernick pass before sprinting over 50 yards to put his side ahead.
Philadelphia earned a 21-10 lead with an equally impressive effort from Darren Sproles, who returned a punt by carrying the ball 82 yards for the touchdown.
Dawson ensured the deficit would be just eight points at the interval thanks to a late field goal.
After the break, Kaepernick engineered a drive to get his side back into the game when he fired a touchdown pass to the left side of the endzone for Stevie Johnson, who made an excellent catch to keep his toes in bounds.
The Eagles struggled on offense and Nick Foles threw an interception as he tried to find Jeremy Maclin deep downfield and Antoine Bethea picked the ball off. From the resulting possession the 49ers added another three points from the boot of Dawson.
In the fourth quarter, the 49ers were edging the game on offense and went five points ahead of the visitors when Dawson fired a 31-yarder through the posts.
Foles moved his side downfield with a series of excellent throws and had four attempts to find the endzone for the five-yard line but the Eagles failed to punch the ball in. An excellent effort from their defense gave them one more chance, but Foles threw a late interception to end the game.
Simon Sinclair
