McCaffrey's Two TDs Enough as SF Edges Washington 23-17
Christian McCaffrey carried the ball 16 times for 64 yards and two touchdowns, and added 9 receptions for 53 yards as San Francisco held off Washington 23-17 on Tuesday. Jayden Daniels was sharp enough to win most games — 29-of-40 for 300 yards and two touchdowns — but sharp enough wasn't enough against the 49ers.
The story of this game appears to be the gap between volume and efficiency. McCaffrey was everywhere — 25 total touches, two scores, 117 yards from scrimmage — and that kind of workload from a back of his caliber looks like the difference in a six-point game. Brock Purdy was clean and controlled, completing 21 of 29 passes for 264 yards and a touchdown, and George Kittle did what Kittle does: 5 receptions, 69 yards, and a score that looks like it was a back-breaker for Washington's defense.
Daniels, to his credit, gave Washington every chance. A 72.5% completion rate and 300 yards passing is a legitimate performance, and his supporting cast chipped in — Stefon Diggs hauled in 6 catches for 44 yards and a touchdown, while Rachaad White added a receiving score on 4 catches for 30 yards. The ground game, though, appears to have been a problem Washington couldn't solve. White carried 7 times for just 27 yards, and Daniels himself picked up only 10 yards on 4 scrambles. When you can't move the chains on the ground, you're asking your quarterback to manufacture everything, and eventually San Francisco's defense made Daniels pay for it.
San Francisco's offense, by contrast, looked balanced in the way that makes them genuinely difficult to game-plan against. Purdy didn't need to force anything — Kittle's 69-yard, one-touchdown performance gave him a reliable chain-mover, and McCaffrey's dual-threat presence kept Washington's defenders guessing on every snap. The 49ers won this one the way they tend to win: methodically, without drama, and with McCaffrey touching the ball 25 times. Washington drops a game it was very much in, and the margin — six points — suggests this was a winnable afternoon that slipped away in the details.