San Francisco built a 23-3 lead, then needed four sacks and two fourth-down stops to beat the Commanders 23-17 on Monday Night Football
SANTA CLARA — For a half, the 49ers looked like a team that could name the score. By the end of Monday night, they were just glad the clock ran out.
San Francisco beat the Washington Commanders 23-17 at Levi’s Stadium to stay perfect at 6-0, the last unbeaten record anybody in the Bay is going to brag about this week.
It started like a blowout. Brock Purdy hit George Kittle for an 11-yard touchdown on the opening drive. Christian McCaffrey punched in two 1-yard touchdowns, the second with 18 seconds left in the half, and the Niners went to the locker room up 20-3. Eddy Piñeiro missed an extra point but added a 33-yard field goal in the third that made it 23-3.
Then Jayden Daniels went to work. He threw a touchdown pass just before the end of the third quarter and another with 9:26 left in the game, and suddenly 23-3 was 23-17 with a whole lot of football left.
The Niners offense didn’t score after the third quarter. The defense didn’t need it to.
San Francisco sacked Daniels four times, hit him 10 times and stopped Washington on fourth down twice. The Commanders ran for only 53 yards all night.
The offense was sharp when it wasn’t tripping over itself. The 49ers completed 21 of 29 passes for 264 yards with no interceptions and ran for 126 more. They also committed 11 penalties for 88 yards and lost a fumble, the kind of sloppiness that makes a 20-point lead feel like six. Because it was six.
Doesn’t matter in the standings. Six games, six wins.
The Niners go on the road Sunday to face the Atlanta Falcons. Kickoff is 10 a.m. Pacific.
Photo: Brock Purdy warms up before a 2026 preseason game against the Los Angeles Chargers. Via Wikimedia Commons, public domain (CC0).
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