The second drive was promising for the Niners
The San Francisco 49ers offense took the field first. Aaron Banks was active, but Jon Feliciano started at left guard. Kyle Shanahan ran right behind Feliciano and Christian McCaffrey ran for a gain of nine yards.
Brock Purdy scrambled for a first down on 3rd & 3 to move the chains. After a pass to George Kittle and another sizeable gain from McCaffrey, the Niners were knocking on the door of the red zone.
Kyle Juszczyk nearly hauled in a deep pass, but couldn’t hold on to the ball through the ground. He did draw a defensive holding penalty, however. But a loss of five yards on second down brought up third and long on the opening drive, and the Niners would be forced to settle for a field goal.
The Commanders were down three starters along their offensive line. So, this game set up well for the Niners defensive line to pressure Sam Howell.
On the first drive, Deommodore Lenoir had two hands on the pass after jumping the route on third down, but couldn’t hang on.
Brock Purdy hooked up with Brandon Aiyuk twice on the second drive, with one putting the Niners into Washington territory. A Deebo Samuel 16-yard reception put the 49ers inside of the red zone. Samuel took an end around to give San Francisco a 10-0 lead.
Technically, it was a shovel pass. That meant Purdy was the second quarterback in 49ers history to throw for at least 30 touchdowns with 4,000 yards in the same season. The other player was Steve young, who you may have heard of. Young accomplished the feat in 1998.
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