The 49ers didn’t make many big plays on offense Sunday, but wide receiver Anquan Boldin came up with one at exactly the right moment in the fourth quarter.
Boldin caught a pass in traffic and shrugged off a hit from Redskins safety Ryan Clark, who led with his helmet, to gain 29 yards. Clark’s penalty added 15 more yards to the total, pushing the 49ers into the red zone. Carlos Hyde scored three plays later and the 49ers had a 17-13 lead with three minutes left to play.
That was plenty of time for the Washington offense to make something happen, but they weren’t able to do it. Aldon Smith sacked Robert Griffin III to help thwart one drive and the final Redskins possession of the day ended when Griffin lost a fumble on a sack by Justin Smith. Those were two of the five sacks that the 49ers racked up along with numerous other big hits on Griffin that left the quarterback even more beleaguered than he was during a week that saw him torn apart by fans, the media and coach Jay Gruden.
Nothing Griffin did on Sunday will stop the criticism from mounting. He was 11-of-19 for 109 yards and the Redskins couldn’t take enough advantage of three 49ers turnovers. It was never bad enough that it felt like Colt McCoy would be getting the call from the sideline, if only because the pass rush would have suffocated him as well, but it wasn’t good enough to make anyone feel better about the overall offensive situation either.
Neither was the 49ers offense for much of the day. Colin Kaepernick was 20-of-29 for 256 yards and Boldin caught nine balls for 137 yards, but Hyde and Frank Gore each fumbled while combining for 52 yards on 20 carries.
The Niners have now scored 33 points in the last two weeks against two NFC East teams going nowhere and they’ll need to find a way to generate more points if they are going to win the games against the Seahawks and Cardinals that they’ll need to win to ensure themselves a playoff spot. The defense will make it hard for anyone to blow them out, but close losses will be just as costly.
They’ll get their first chance to do better on Thanksgiving night against Seattle.