The San Francisco 49ers have said farewell to Candlestick Park with a suitably exciting and important victory, beating the Atlanta Falcons 34-24 to seal a berth in the NFL playoffs.
Navarro Bowman returned an interception 89 yards for a touchdown with 1:10 remaining on Monday, fittingly providing a 49ers' win in what was likely to be the final game at San Francisco's longtime home.
"There's a lot of history in this stadium," Bowman said. "For this to be the last game, we cannot leave it with an L. So I'm glad we got the W."
Tramaine Brock deflected a pass intended for Harry Douglas and Bowman got his hands on the ball and took off for the sealing TD.
"I always say a lot of plays are made when you run to the ball," Bowman said. "That's all I was doing was just running to the ball, trying to make a tackle, and it popped up and I was able to make a play for my team."
The 49ers still have a slim chance at winning a third consecutive NFC West crown if St Louis wins at Seattle in next Sunday's conclusion of the regular season and they beat Arizona on the road.
While the current team is focused on the immediate future, Monday's game was also as much about recalling Candlestick Park's past and the former great 49ers teams that called it home while winning five Super Bowl titles.
The 49ers are set to move into the $US1.2 billion ($A1.35 billion) Levi's Stadium at team headquarters in Santa Clara while Candlestick Park is set to be knocked down, likely in late 2014.
