Week 6 Grades Say the 49ers Survived. The Box Score Says Washington Never Really Led a Comeback.
CBS's Week 6 grade book calls it a furious Commanders rally, and the natural read is San Francisco resilience plus a Washington moral victory. The box score doesn't support the second half of that.
Jayden Daniels finished 29 of 40 for 300 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and a 110.4 passer rating. He also posted a 44.6 QBR. That split is the whole game. A 7.5-yard average on 40 attempts is dink-and-dunk, and the four sacks for 39 lost yards are what dragged the efficiency number into the dirt. Washington moved the ball. Washington did not stress the scoreboard when it mattered.
The detail nobody will lead with: Terry McLaurin got one target. One catch, 27 yards. A receiver of that caliber drawing a single look in a game his quarterback throws 40 times is not coverage, it's design. The completions went to Chig Okonkwo (7 for 69), Treylon Burks (4 for 66), Antonio Williams (3 for 50) and Rachaad White (4 for 30 and the touchdown). That's a passing game distributed by default rather than intent, and defenses will happily let Okonkwo and Burks beat them.
Compare the other sideline. Brock Purdy went 21 of 29 for 264, a 9.1 average, a 111.9 rating and a 65.6 QBR. Fewer throws, more per throw, and a far better efficiency grade. The 49ers' quarterback played the cleaner game while the highlight package belonged to the guy who lost.
Which is why I'd grade this one against the consensus. The easy card is to dock San Francisco's defense for letting it get close. My grade goes the other way: four sacks, and two of them from Shy Tuttle and Odafe Oweh on the interior and edge, is a defense winning the down that decides games. Sonny Styles' 13 tackles and Frankie Luvu's eight plus a fumble recovery read to me as a lot of chasing, not a lot of stopping. Drew Stevens hitting from 51 and Tress Way averaging 52 a punt kept Washington close. That's special teams, not an offense overpowering anybody.
The Colts' F is the other headline, and it's the rare grade that needs no argument attached. When a room full of graders handing out marks to every team that played singles you out in the headline, the film already made the case.
My verdict, signed: Washington's rally was cosmetic, and the 49ers are getting graded for surviving a test they mostly controlled. Until McLaurin is the center of that passing game again instead of its decoy, one target is the number I'd circle over the 300 yards.
