The San Francisco 49ers have an opportunity to go into the bye week undefeated with a win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
San Francisco almost lost that opportunity on Monday night with a shaky fourth quarter, allowing the lesser Washington Commanders to nearly come back from a 20-point deficit, holding on to a 23-17 win.
Let’s take one last look at the win before moving our attention to Week 7 in Atlanta:
The 49ers suddenly have a solid defensive line
The ascension of Gracen Halton has done wonders
for the 49ers’ defensive line outlook.
Halton continued his good form with a one-sack, one-tackle-for-loss performance to aid what might have been the best game from the 49ers’ defensive front this season. Of the 49ers’ 25 pressures, 21 came from the defensive line, with Halton’s fellow rookie Romello Height leading the way with five.
Height was one of five pass rushers to record at least half a sack on Monday night, sharing a sack with Keion White to close the game. White was right behind Height with four pressures of his own.
Height and White weren’t the only two players on the ends to record a sack, as Mykel Williams joined the party in a solid performance in his second game back from an ACL tear. Williams had three pressures of his own while recording a sack of his own to end the Commanders’ opening drive of the second half.
Veteran Osa Odighizuwa saw the younger members collect sacks and turned in a solid pass-rushing performance from the interior. Odighizuwa matched Height with five pressures, sacking Daniels once.
Oh, and that’s not to mention the defensive line and linebackers holding Washington to 53 rushing yards on 17 attempts, with Daniels rushing for 10 yards on four attempts.
With Nick Bosa’s return nearing, the defensive line can only get better. And who knows, maybe a deadline trade (Khalil Mack? DeForest Buckner?) will make the group even deeper.
Same dance, different song
The honeymoon phase is over. The 49ers have an issue at kicker once again.
Eddy Pineiro stole the hearts of 49ers fans last season, replacing Jake Moody by missing only five kicks in 14 games, converting 28-of-29 field goals and making 34-of-38 PATs.
In six games this season, Pineiro has already missed six kicks, missing at least one in each of his last four games. After missing one field goal in 2025, Pineiro has already missed three, going six-for-nine with his most recent miss coming against Seattle. But the missed PATs have been a concern, with Pineiro missing his third of the season on Monday night, and that miss almost cost San Francisco.
At first it seemed like an innocuous miss, San Francisco having just scored their second touchdown in as many drives, but Pineiro’s missed PAT would keep San Francisco at 13 points. The 49ers’ lead would only extend, as late in the third, San Francisco would be up 23-3, making Pineiro’s miss a mere footnote.
But then Washington came back, first cutting the deficit to 13 before the start of the fourth quarter and then cutting it to six early in the fourth. In an instant, Pineiro’s missed PAT loomed large as the Commanders offense neared the red zone late in the fourth quarter, but Malik Mustapha’s heroics prevented Washington’s chance to take the lead.
We aren’t in Moody territory yet with Pineiro, but the misses have become all too common. Pineiro needs to start making kicks soon, or he will cost the 49ers a game, as was almost the case on Monday night.
An alarming increase in usage
One of the more impressive things about the 49ers’ 30.8 points per game over the first five games of the season was how well-managed Christian McCaffrey touches have been.
In 2025, Christian McCaffrey was the 49ers’ offense. He finished with a league-high 413 touches in what was his highest-usage season since 2019. In 17 games last season, McCaffrey had 20 or more touches in 13, averaging just under 25 touches per game.
Through the first five games of the season, McCaffrey already had more games with fewer than 20 touches than he did all of last season. But Monday night saw McCaffrey’s most active game of the season.
And the high usage started even before the Mike Evans injury. With Deebo Samuel out, McCaffrey seemed to be his replacement, finishing the first half with 16 touches, just three shy of his season-high 19.
But then Evans went down, and the high usage continued. After touching the ball on 39 percent of the 49ers’ 41 first-half plays, McCaffrey got nine more touches on 19 second-half plays, a whopping 47 percent of the 49ers’ offense.
McCaffrey returned the favor in usage with a pair of touchdowns, but he finished with a season-high 25 touches to do so. Kyle Shanahan did a good job managing McCaffrey’s workload in the first five games of the season. But as the offense’s weapons dwindle from injury, Shanahan may be forced to bring McCaffrey closer to his 2025 usage.
