Vinny Testaverde threw a pair of touchdowns as the Carolina Panthers thumped the San Francisco 49ers, 31-14, at Bank of America Stadium.

Testaverde finished the game 17-for-26 with 153 yards and two interceptions while DeAngelo Williams had 82 yards on 17 carries for the Panthers (5-7), who had lost their previous five games.

"We finally got that monkey off our back," said Carolina coach John Fox. "Sometimes we can press too hard. You saw a little bit of that in the second half. We forgot about how to have fun and that was our mantra this week. I'm really happy for our fans because they have been real patient."

Trent Dilfer went 14-for-29 with 171 yards and two touchdowns, but was also picked off four times for the 49ers (3-9), who were looking to win consecutive games for the first time since back-to-back victories to open the season.

"It's hard to win a football game when you turn the ball over five times," said 49ers coach Mike Nolan. "We came back and made it 17-14 and I felt we were doing very well. Then we turned the ball over on a punt. The turnovers hurt us. In all of our losses that's been a factor."

The Panthers got the only points of the first quarter on a 19-yard field goal from John Kasay with 1:29 left in the stanza. The field goal capped an 11- play, 51-yard drive.

Carolina stopped the 49ers and got the ball back at the beginning of the second quarter. The team took a 10-0 lead when Testaverde hooked up with Dante Rosario on a five-yard score a bit less than five minutes in.

The Panthers defense got on the scoreboard on San Francisco's next drive as Richard Marshall picked off a Dilfer pass and took it into the end zone from 67 yards out for a 17-0 lead with 6 1/2 minutes left in the first half.

On their first possession of the second half, the Niners got on the board as Dilfer hit Arnaz Battle in the end zone from 20 yards out to make it a 17-7 game less than four minutes into the third.

San Francisco forced a three-and-out from Carolina and got good field position as Nate Clements returned the punt 41 yards. Three plays later, Dilfer connected with Delanie Walker on a 21-yard TD to cut the deficit to 17-14 with 8:29 left in the third.

However, that was as close as San Francisco got as Carolina scored the next two touchdowns to put the game away.

The 49ers stopped the Panthers on the ensuing drive, but Mike Lewis muffed the catch and Carolina recovered the ball at the San Francisco 11-yard line. Four plays later DeShaun Foster punched the ball into the end zone from a yard out for a 24-14 lead with just over two minutes to play in the third quarter.

Carolina stopped San Francisco on the next touch and got the ball back at its own 17-yard line.

In a drive that spanned the third and fourth quarter, the Panthers made it a 31-14 game as Testaverde found Jeff King in the end zone from a yard out with 10:26 to play. The touchdown completed a 14-play, 83-yard drive that ate up almost nine minutes of the clock.

Dilfer was picked off on the next drive near midfield, which was the furthest San Francisco got for the remainder of the game.

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