49ers take step forward in last-second loss to Cardinals

Arizona won on Chandler Catanzaro's 34-yard field goal as time expired, a kick that foiled the 49ers' inspired comeback in a game that initially appeared destined to go down as another beatdown. The 49ers clawed back from a 14-0 second-quarter deficit and tied the game at 20 on Colin Kaepernick's 4-yard bootleg touchdown run on the first play after the two-minute warning. OK, there supposedly aren't moral victories in professional sports, but the 49ers (1-8), losers of eight straight, certainly preferred this to the alternative. On Sunday, their defense, on pace to allow the second-most points in NFL history, had four takeaways and limited running back David Johnson to 55 yards, 102 fewer than he had in a Week 5 win over the 49ers. [...] Kaepernick, whose 398-yard performance a week earlier came against the porous Saints defense, delivered a solid performance against the NFL's top-ranked unit. [...] on 3rd-and-2 at the 4, Kaepernick ran around right end to cap the game-tying drive. Kaepernick, who completed 4-of-4 passes for 9 yards in the first 15 minutes, opened it up on a where-did-that-come-from six-play, 75-yard touchdown drive he capped with a 17-yard pass to Kerley. Leading...