49ers Rebound Brilliantly in 27-10 Victory Over the Commanders
Christmas day was one that the San Francisco 49ers wanted to forget quickly.
Their chance to do so was by getting back into the winner's circle against the Washington Commanders. And they took advantage of that chance by rebounding brilliantly in their victory over the Commanders.
It wasn't an entirely brilliant performance by the 49ers. Their first-half outing was sluggish as they went into halftime with only a 13-10 lead. San Francisco had been in the red-zone twice and failed to maximize their opportunities. Running the football was efficient, but it wasn't enough. And outside of the touchdown scoring drive in that half, Brock Purdy wasn't making too much of an impact. Even the defense was underwhelming. The secondary was struggling to hold up in coverage initially, which made the pass rush irrelevant.
However, that all changed in the second-half, which is where the 49ers salvaged the game to look brilliant. The defense started to wake up by playing stickier coverage with the pass rush starting to get to quarterback Sam Howell. Washington's offense had one dominant drive in the second-half, but would end in misery when Charvarius Ward would pick off Howell in the red-zone for his fifth interception of the year. The case for Ward to be an All-Pro grows stronger. San Francisco's defense would give no quarter following Ward's interception.
As for the offense of the 49ers, moving the ball becomes easier. Elijah Mitchell would have to step up as Christian McCaffrey sat back due to a calf issue. Mitchell looked like his 2021 self in that half as the ground game didn't skip a beat. He ran the ball incredibly well. The passing game would also start to take off and obliterate the Washington defense. That was all thanks to Purdy who was slinging it so well. He had several dimes with one of them being arguably his best throw of the year to Brandon Aiyuk early in the fourth quarter.
This is a throw that is going to live rent free in many fan's heads. That offensive series would finish off with Purdy going off script by scrambling to his right and finding Aiyuk in the back of the center-left end zone. Aiyuk would finish the game with seven catches for 114 yards and one touchdown. It was an incredible day for him and the offense in the second half, but what put the exclamation point into it being a brilliant performance is when Purdy broke the 49ers' single season passing yards record.
He dethrones Jeff Garcia who held the record for 23 years with 4,278 yards. Purdy beats that by one yard with 4,280 yards. It just goes to show that Purdy is more than a "system quarterback" that his critics claim he is. Otherwise, any quarterback prior to him under Kyle Shanahan would've done that with the 49ers. The 49ers will turn their attention to the Los Angeles Rams, but will quickly look to the Philadelphia Eagles game right now to see if they will be crowned the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
