SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- San Francisco's No. 1 offense still looks shaky two weeks from the regular season, and the 49ers did just enough for their first preseason victory in a 21-7 win against the San Diego Chargers on Sunday.
There were tens of thousands of empty seats hours after an overnight 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck in the Northern California wine country near Napa. The quake affected some public transportation options to the new $1.2 billion stadium, which sold out last Sunday.
The patchy field is still hardly ideal, with visible lines where new sod was placed Friday after the initial turf failed to hold.
Phil Dawson kicked a 39-yard field goal at the 9:27 mark of the second quarter, ending an eight-quarter scoreless drought for the 49ers as they doubled their preseason total. Dawson added another from 28 yards a week after missing twice.
Backup Blaine Gabbert threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Vance McDonald late in the first half for the 49ers' first TD of the preseason. That capped a drive in which Gabbert went 5 for 6.
Philip Rivers completed his first five passes and finished 9 of 10 for 85 yards and a touchdown. San Francisco's Colin Kaepernick was 6 of 12 for 59 yards.
With Rivers' outing and Peyton Manning's 12-of-14 performance in a 34-0 rout last Sunday, the new-look 49ers secondary allowed the past two starting quarterbacks to complete 21 of 24 passes for 187 yards and passer ratings of 120 or better.
San Francisco's offensive line had major problems protecting Kaepernick, who was hit hard four times in three first-quarter series.
Sports on 08/25/2014