By Canadian Press

Purdy leads surging 49ers past Commanders 37-20

Dec 24, 2022 | 5:46 PM

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Brock Purdy threw two more long touchdown passes to George Kittle and the San Francisco 49ers beat the Washington Commanders 37-20 on Saturday for their eighth straight win.

Purdy kept up his impressive play since taking over for the injured Jimmy Garoppolo early in Week 13, looking far better than expected for the player picked last in this year’s NFL draft.

He has thrown two TD passes in four straight games for the 49ers (11-4) and has won all three of his starts as San Francisco keeps the pressure on Minnesota in the race for the No. 2 seed in the NFC.

Taylor Heinicke threw two TD passes for Washington (7-7-1) but also lost a fumble and threw an interception in the fourth quarter. He was replaced after his second giveaway by Carson Wentz.

The Commanders are winless in their last three games, but still hold a half-game lead over Seattle and Detroit in the race for the final playoff spot in the NFC.

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The Niners broke the game open in the third quarter thanks to some more big plays from Purdy. They took the opening kickoff of the second half and drove to the go-ahead score when Kittle got open deep for a 34-yard score.

Kittle scored again later in the quarter on a 33-yard catch and run to make it 21-7. Kittle also had two TD catches last week, giving him a career-high eight on the season.

San Francisco capitalized on big plays all game, also scoring their first touchdown on a 71-yard end around by Ray Ray McCloud.

Nick Bosa and the Niners defence did the rest of the work with Bosa setting up one field goal by Robbie Gould with a strip-sack of Heinicke and San Francisco adding another after Jimmie Ward got an interception deep in Washington territory.

Wentz, playing for the first time since Week 6, threw a 20-yard TD pass to Curtis Samuel but it was too little too late for Washington.

TIP DRILL

The Commanders took advantage of a couple of tipped passes to tie the game late in the first half.

The first came when Purdy appeared to complete a throw over the middle to Jauan Jennings. But Jennings bobbled the ball and tipped it right to Darrick Forrest for an interception.

On the ensuing drive, Washington converted a third-and-five on a pass that Jahan Dotson bobbled before catching it off a ricochet.

That set up Heinicke’s four-yard TD pass to Dotson that made it 7-7 at the break.

FOURTH-DOWN STOPS

Both teams got stopped on fourth down in the red zone in the first half.

San Francisco drove to the 15 on its first drive before Christian McCaffrey was stopped by David Mayo for no gain on a fourth-and-one pitch from fullback Kyle Juszczyk.

Washington got down to the one early in the second quarter when Antonio Gibson was stuffed on fourth down by Fred Warner and Javon Kinlaw.

The Commanders got stopped again in the third quarter on fourth and one from their own 34.

INJURIES

Commanders: LB Jon Bostic (pectoral) left the game in the second half and didn’t return. … DE James Smith-Williams left in the fourth quarter to be evaluated for a head injury.

49ers: CB Charvarius Ward went to the locker room with nausea in the second half, but returned to the game.

UP NEXT

Commanders: Host Cleveland on Jan. 1.

49ers: Visit Las Vegas on Jan. 1.

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Josh Dubow, The Associated Press