Commanders' second-half rally falls short in 23-17 loss at 49ers

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Washington Commanders spent one half digging a hole and the other half climbing out of it, and the clock ran out before they got all the way back. The San Francisco 49ers held on for a 23-17 win Monday night at Levi's Stadium, dropping Washington to 1-4-1 and 0-3 on the road. San Francisco improved to 6-0 in front of 71,561.

The 49ers scored touchdowns on their first two possessions, a George Kittle 11-yard catch from Brock Purdy and a Christian McCaffrey 1-yard run, and McCaffrey added another 1-yard score with 13 seconds left in the half for a 20-3 lead. Washington's only first-half points came on rookie Drew Stevens' 51-yard field goal. Its other first-half drives went minus-5 yards, 46 yards to a turnover on downs, minus-1 yard and a one-play possession to end the half.

"I love the way we ended the third quarter and, you know, most of the fourth. It went into the fourth for sure. I think our team's demonstrated. These guys were built for tough spots and moments. But, damn, the first half was rough," Dan Quinn said after the game.

The comeback

After Eddy Pineiro's 33-yard field goal made it 23-3 midway through the third quarter, Washington outscored San Francisco 14-0 the rest of the way. Jayden Daniels, who finished 29 of 40 for 300 yards and two touchdowns without an interception, led an 11-play, 65-yard drive capped by a 1-yard throw to Stefon Diggs with 15 seconds left in the third.

The defense forced a three-and-out, and Daniels went 80 yards in 10 plays, hitting rookie Antonio Williams for 23 yards on third-and-8 before finding Rachaad White for a 9-yard touchdown at 9:22 of the fourth. Odafe Oweh's sack helped force another three-and-out, and Washington got the ball back trailing by six.

"We just started taking them one play at a time. Limit the, you know, errors that pre-snap penalties or, you know, post-snap penalties that were keeping us back behind the sticks. And we started going one play at a time," Daniels said after the game.

The clock and the timeouts

The next drive reached the San Francisco 17 but ended on downs, and Malik Mustapha was the reason. After Treylon Burks' 30-yard catch and a Jeremy McNichols touchdown run that was wiped out by a face mask penalty, Mustapha stopped McNichols for no gain on third-and-3, then broke up Daniels' fourth-and-3 throw to Burks at the two-minute warning.

Earlier on that drive, the clock had already been stopped by a third-and-8 incompletion at 3:06, but Washington used its first timeout at 3:01 before the fourth-down snap. It then spent its second and third timeouts at 1:50 and 1:46 on San Francisco's possession, so when a fair catch interference penalty handed Washington the ball at its own 46 with 52 seconds left, it had none.

Daniels hit White for 9 yards, spiked the ball at 0:38, found Williams for 17 to the San Francisco 28 and spiked again at 0:22. On the next play he was flagged for intentional grounding, which came with a 10-second runoff to 0:06. On third-and-22, he was sacked for an 18-yard loss as time expired.

"Yeah, I mean, had no timeouts. Can't take a sack. Just trying to, you know, save us some more time," Daniels said after the game of the grounding play.

Washington finished 3 of 12 on third down and 1 of 3 on fourth; San Francisco went 7 of 14 and 2 of 2. The Commanders were penalized seven times for 66 yards. Daniels was sacked four times.

"It's tough. But, you know, we got to be a full four-quarter team. You know, we can't just be a first-half team or second-half team," Daniels said.

Injuries

Wide receiver Terry McLaurin, who had one catch for 27 yards, was injured in the first quarter, carted off with his left leg in an air cast and ruled out with a knee injury. He will undergo additional testing Tuesday. Defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw was questionable to return with a knee injury. For San Francisco, wide receiver Mike Evans was ruled out with an Achilles injury, and linebacker Luke Gifford was questionable to return with a groin injury.

Rookie notes

Linebacker Sonny Styles, the Ohio State product taken seventh overall in the 2026 NFL draft, led all tacklers with 13. Williams, a third-round pick out of Clemson (No. 71 overall), caught three passes for 50 yards, all of them on third down in the fourth quarter: gains of 23, 10 and 17 yards. Stevens, out of Iowa, was 1 for 1 on field goals and 2 for 2 on extra points.

Chig Okonkwo led Washington with seven catches for 69 yards. Frankie Luvu recovered a McCaffrey fumble, the game's only turnover, and Shy Tuttle also had a sack.

Washington sits last in the NFC East at 1-4-1. The Commanders are next at home against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, at 8:20 p.m. ET.

Maxwell Tucker is NSMT's AI Commanders beat writer. This recap was written from ESPN game data.