The San Francisco 49ers beat the Washington Commanders 23-17 in Week 6, improving to 6-0 in a game where they nearly blew a 20-point lead in the second half.
The injury problem continued for the 49ers, with Mike Evans missing the second half with Achilles tendinitis, which coincided with San Francisco scoring just three points in the final 30 minutes, while scoring three points on its last three drives.
There was still a lot to enjoy from the victory and a few trends showing for the 49ers in their hot start to the season. Here are five final observations from the Niners’ win Monday night.
The Niners running game is coming
Much has been made of the passing game, especially given how effective Brock Purdy was when Mike Evans was up front in the first half. San Francisco ended up scoring three touchdowns on five drives in the first half, holding a 20-3 halftime lead.
But it wasn’t just their passing game that tied things together. The 49ers run game is really starting to happen over the last two weeks. San Francisco had by far the highest EPA per rush in the NFL in Week 6. Their rushing success rate was 66.7 percent, easily the best by over 16 percent over the next best team.
With the injuries in the passing game, the 49ers gave Christian McCaffrey 25 total touches (16 carries, nine targets), as he rushed for 117 yards from scrimmage with two touchdowns. While his 4.0 yards per carry may not stand out on the box score, from an efficiency standpoint, San Francisco had a great day on the field.
What’s even more impressive is that he ran into the No. 8 EPA run-allowed defense on Monday.
A week ago, McCaffrey ran for 68 yards on 11 carries against Seattle’s elite defense. Now they had another pretty good game on the field, which comes at a good time with the Niners’ issues at wide receiver.
Brock Purdy is a serious MVP contender for good reason; he’s played at an extremely high level all year with his decision-making, and the quarterback had another good game on Monday.
But the offensive line, which has received a lot of criticism over the years, has really done its part this season. The 49ers have been pretty good in pass protection this season, as Purdy hasn’t been sacked through the first four weeks of the year. He’s taken five in the last two weeks, but I’d say the two on Monday weren’t against the offensive line.
Additionally, we are finally seeing the running game come to fruition over the last couple of weeks, and the blocks have started to come to fruition. Trent Williams is playing at a high level. Dominick Puni has had a good season aside from a tough Week 6. The group as a whole works well, and you see that continuity and experience are also key factors.
Mike Evans certainly has a strong case to be the offense’s other MVP, but the offensive line has done its part this season.
Raheem Morris’ pressure plan works
Monday’s game was one where I had to tip my cap to Jayden Daniels. He had a great game, throwing for 300 yards while completing over 72 percent of his passes. It wasn’t a good day for the 49ers cornerbacks overall, but Daniels has been a dangerous quarterback when healthy, and he was on Monday as well.
That’s why it’s impressive that the 49ers were able to hold Washington to just three points at halftime and 17 for the entire game. Normally, when a quarterback clicks like Daniels did on Monday, the pass rush doesn’t consistently get there. But the 49ers pressured Daniels on 21 of his 47 dropbacks Monday and had five sacks, even though they were still without Nick Bosa.
It was a very good day for the Niners’ young defensive linemen. As I mentioned in the takeaways, Keion White, Romello Height, Gracen Halton, Sebastian Valdez and Mykel Williams made plays, while Osa Odighizuwa also added five pressures and a sack.
Even on a tough day for his secondary and with Jayden Daniels constantly getting the ball out quickly, Raheem Morris foiled with another good pressure plan against a pretty solid offensive line.
Interestingly, despite the 49ers’ lead and injuries at wide receiver, Brock Purdy had a 14 percent higher-than-expected success rate (69.6 percent versus 55.5 percent) in “non-garbage time” situations.
With the way the 49ers were running the ball from a success rate and efficiency standpoint, I thought that number would end up being lower, but the 49ers were throwing the ball at a very efficient rate in the first half.
For the season, this figure has just been 3.5 percent higher than expected. So it was interesting to see such a spike in Week 6. In these situations, the 49ers threw the ball 62.5% of the time on 1st down (5 of 8). We’ll see what trends change in Week 7 if the 49ers have to be without Mike Evans, but it’s a number that caught my eye when thinking back to Monday’s game.
To me, a win against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 7 seems like a luxury right now.
San Francisco will face an elite defense, and I don’t expect Mike Evans to return at this time after missing the second half on Monday. I didn’t defend the 49ers trading for a receiver, and I think that position still stands as the trade deadline approaches.
While Evans will battle Achilles tendinitis for the remainder of the season, he is expected to give it a shot after the bye week. The 49ers are also getting Christian Kirk back soon, and Deebo Samuel and Demarcus Robinson could be other candidates to return after the bye. There’s also De’Zhaun Stribling, who could return around Week 12 or so depending on his schedule.
So the 49ers are certainly banged up right now at the wide receiver position, but I don’t know if they’ll take a step forward given the depth they have coming back from injury.
Now, we learned a little more about the 49ers receiver room this week. Jordan Watkins got the start and Jacob Cowing’s role continued to diminish (he also had a bad return decision). Watkins played 47 snaps, while Cooks played 32 snaps. Cowing could step in again here in Week 8 with the room destroyed, but he could be the one inactive when all the injured return.
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