49ers end preseason winless

San Francisco finished without an exhibition win for the first time since '74.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Drew Brees completed all five of his passes, engineered two touchdown drives in one quarter and watched rookie Philip Rivers struggle until San Francisco put in its backup defenders.
Despite that, Brees still hasn't been anointed San Diego's starting quarterback by coach Marty Schottenheimer.
"It's not my decision. It's obviously a decision Marty is going to make," Brees said after San Diego finished the preseason with a 31-15 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday night.
No name, yet
Schottenheimer was pleased with both quarterbacks but wasn't ready to pick a starter for the season opener at Houston on Sept. 12.
"We'll sit down and look at film and evaluate everything and make a decision Sunday or Monday," Schottenheimer said.
Brees, whose poor play last year contributed to San Diego's decision to acquire Rivers, made his case for keeping the job. He went 5-for-5 for 71 yards, including a 35-yard TD pass to Eric Parker, and led San Diego to 14 points on three drives.
"That's what we wanted to do -- score two touchdowns right away," Brees said. "It was nice to be able to do that."
Rivers, the fourth pick in this year's draft, missed the first two exhibition games in a contract holdout. Rivers went 5-for-14 with two interceptions in his debut against Seattle and didn't look any better in the first half against San Francisco.
Rivers had just three pass plays in the half -- a sack when he held onto the ball too long, an intentional grounding penalty and an interception.
Forced the action
"It was kind of a slow start. ... I forced something when it wasn't there," Rivers said about his interception.
But he quickly settled down, going 8-for-8 for 43 yards on the opening drive of the third quarter. He exploited San Francisco's defense with short throws on a 16-play drive, capped by rookie Michael Turner's 2-yard run.
A fumble by punt returner Arnaz Battle set up Rivers' first touchdown pass as a pro -- a 4-yarder to Kevin Dyson that made it 31-15 early in the fourth quarter. Rivers completed his first 13 passes of the second half and finished 13-for-16 for 85 yards.
San Francisco's defense couldn't stop San Diego on the ground or in the air and the 49ers finished the preseason winless for the first time since 1974.
With running back LaDainian Tomlinson sitting out once again to stay fresh for the regular season, Turner ran for 116 yards and Chatman had 65. Both also scored touchdowns.
"We need to have some kind of concern because nobody wants to go into the season losing all of the time," said All-Pro linebacker Julian Peterson, who played his first game after a long holdout. "It doesn't look good."