A Kick Goes Right for the Bills, Who Outlast 49ers : Interconference: Cofer’s 47-yard field-goal attempt is wide with 54 seconds left and Buffalo wins, 34-31.

SAN FRANCISCO — This time, it was the other guys who missed the 47-yard field goal.

The Buffalo Bills took a significant step Sunday in their attempt to get back to the Super Bowl for a third consecutive season, beating the San Francisco 49ers, 34-31, when Mike Cofer’s field-goal attempt went wide to the right with 54 seconds left.

The Bills lost the 1990 Super Bowl when Scott Norwood missed from 47 yards as time ran out in a 20-19 loss to the New York Giants.

“We have a long way to go, but the 49ers are a great team and there’s this AFC-NFC thing,” said tight end Pete Metzelaars, who caught two touchdown passes. “To win a game against the NFC is a great thing for us.”

It was a major victory for Buffalo (2-0) in its bid to overcome the stigma of losing two Super Bowls.

The Bills held on to win on the road against a good NFC team despite giving up 598 yards to the 49ers (1-1) during a game in which neither team punted.

“We had a lot to prove to ourselves,” said quarterback Jim Kelly, who completed 22 of 33 passes for 403 yards.

Kelly’s 403 yards passing put him over 20,000 for his career (20,083).

Steve Young of the 49ers completed 26 of 37 passes for 449 yards and became the only 49er quarterback other than Joe Montana to pass for more than 400 yards. Montana has done it seven times.

An interception by Buffalo’s Nate Odomes at the Bills’ 27 with 6:48 left sent the Bills on the drive to the winning touchdown. The drive was kept alive by an 11-yard pass from Kelly to James Lofton on fourth down and four. On the next play, Thurman Thomas ran 11 yards for the score with 3:04 left.

The 49ers came right back, but after Tom Rathman dropped a pass on third down, they were forced to settle for the 47-yard try by Cofer, who earlier missed from 33 yards and barely made a 24-yarder that bounced through off the left upright.

This one started out straight, then faded right.

“I don’t really feel like anything went wrong except the ball didn’t go through the goal post,” Cofer said. “If you got points for a kick looking good, we would have won the game.”

Both Kelly and Young had three touchdown passes, though each was missing a key receiver. Buffalo tight end Keith McKellar is on injured reserve and the 49ers lost Jerry Rice with a concussion in the first quarter.

Young threw 23 yards for a score to Odessa Turner, then added scoring passes of seven and 54 yards to John Taylor.

Kelly threw for 20 yards to Thomas and 53 and 24 yards to Metzelaars, McKellar’s replacement.

“We weren’t able to contain or slow down their offense and that ultimately was our undoing,” said San Francisco linebacker Mike Walter.

The tone was set on the opening drive, when the 49ers went 67 yards to the Buffalo 15, where Cofer, who made 50% of his field goal attempts a year ago, missed a 33-yarder. But Tim Harris recovered Kelly’s fumble and, six plays later, Young connected with a wide-open Turner for a score.

Steve Christie’s 41-yard field goal cut it to 7-3, and then the action really began.

A 57-yard Young-to-Turner connection set up Rathman’s five-yard scoring run early in the second quarter. A little over two minutes later, Kelly passed 20 yards to Thomas and it was 14-10.

Cofer’s 24-yard field goal made it 17-10. Christie hit a 28-yarder, then Young found Taylor from the seven with 11 seconds left in the half to make it 24-13.

Buffalo retaliated quickly at the start of the second half, going 80 yards in five plays, the last a 53-yard pass play to a wide-open Metzelaars.

Keith Henderson’s fumble, forced by Bruce Smith and recovered by Cornelius Bennett, gave the Bills another chance.

Kelly took only five plays and 1:46 to get it into the end zone, passing 24 yards to Metzelaars.

Instead of punts, the teams exchanged fumbles, Jamie Williams giving it to Buffalo and Kenneth Davis giving it back when stripped of the ball by Walter.

Then Young, on third-and-20, found Taylor over the middle, who broke free of Henry Jones and Odomes.

Merton Hanks’ interception stopped the next Buffalo drive, but then Odomes made up for the missed tackle, setting the Bills off on their winning drive.

Then it was up to Cofer.

Like Norwood 20 months ago, he was wide right.