49ers survive turnovers to earn 17-13 win over Redskins (w/video)

SANTA CLARA - The 49ers were solid favorites against an NFC East team for the second week in a row. And for the second straight week, you had to wonder why.

The Washington team came into this game as the most dysfunctional group in the NFL, with the quarterback pointing a finger at his teammates, the head coach pointing a finger at the quarterback and much of the nation pointing out the franchise’s controversial mascot. Washington brought a 3-7 record into Sunday’s game at Levi’s Stadium and was missing four starters, one of whom, cornerback David Amerson, was benched for disciplinary reasons.

And yet the 49ers struggled to separate, just as they did against the scattershot New York Giants a week earlier. When the Niners got the ball with 7:42 to play Sunday, they trailed 13-10. Considering the first-team offense had not scored a fourth-quarter touchdown all season, it appeared this game could be headed for overtime - or, more shocking, a loss for a San Francisco team in danger of missing the playoffs.

Three plays saved the 49ers’ afternoon. Who knows, we may all look back in January and say they salvaged the season.

When it was over, the Niners had secured a plodding, infuriating and gutty 17-13 victory, giving the team a three-game winning streak as it heads toward a Thanksgiving showdown with rival Seattle.

“Under a lot of pressure, team takes the ball and takes it the length of the field and scores the game-winning touchdown, that’s big-time stuff, a good team doing what it has to do to win a football game,” coach Jim Harbaugh said. “… It’s never going to be perfect.”

The first of the three big offensive plays came with 5:28 left, after a third-down catch by tight end Vernon Davis that was initially ruled a first down, but was placed a half-yard short of the marker after a Washington challenge. That created a fourth-and-1 play at the San Francisco 34.

Considering the 49ers would finish the game with a 2.3-yard average on 29 running plays, this was no gimme. And yet coach Jim Harbaugh would have had to physically drag the offense off the field himself.

“I didn’t see anybody kind of going off the field,” left tackle Joe Staley said. “That was like the last drive we were looking for. I don’t think there was any hesitation there.”

The 49ers gave the ball to halfback Frank Gore, who let his blocking set up and then knifed up the middle for the first down.

On the next play, quarterback Colin Kaepernick fired a bullet downfield to his favorite receiver. Anquan Boldin went up for the ball in traffic and absorbed a crushing blow from safety Ryan Clark. Clark was whistled for unnecessary roughness and wound up lying on the ground, hurt. Boldin somehow managed to keep his feet and run for a few more yards.

The catch, plus the penalty, set up the 49ers at the Washington 19.

“Just classic Anquan Boldin,” Niners fullback Bruce Miller said. “Made a big play, took a big shot and held onto the football, and essentially won the game for us.”

But the 49ers still needed one more big offensive play. It came three snaps later, when rookie back Carlos Hyde took a handoff on first-and-goal from the 4 and ran through Clark’s attempted tackle for a touchdown.

San Francisco had a 17-13 lead. Washington would wind up with two more cracks at points, but simply didn’t have the firepower. A sack by rookie linebacker Aaron Lynch helped force a punt. And after Washington got the ball again for one last shot, its timeouts exhausted, the 49ers defense came up big again.

Defensive end Justin Smith hit quarterback Robert Griffin III from behind on third down, and the ball squirted right into the arms of linebacker Aaron Brooks at about the Washington 5-yard line.

“I could’ve scored, but (defensive lineman) Ray McDonald told me not to score,” Brooks said. “I could have easily tiptoed in the end zone.”

The Niners were no doubt feeling relieved after another week of defensive excellence and offensive inconsistency.

The San Francisco defense allowed Washington’s Alfred Morris to pound out 125 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. But they battered and subdued Griffin, sacking him five times and hitting him eight times. The embattled quarterback completed 11 of 19 passes for just 106 yards, and showed little of the elusiveness and confidence that made him a rookie sensation in 2012.

On the other side of the ball, Kaepernick was 20 of 29 for 256 yards, but he threw an interception, and the running game largely went nowhere behind a patched-together offensive line. Gore and Hyde each lost a fumble, Gore’s miscue setting up the Kai Forbath field goal that gave Washington a 13-10 lead midway through the fourth quarter.

The 49ers, including Harbaugh, emphasized the victory over the offensive stumbles, but the trend has to be worrisome - especially with the hated Seahawks coming to town Thursday.

When the NFL released its 2014 schedule in April, this Thanksgiving showdown looked like it could help determine home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs. Now it shapes up as something less lofty, but perhaps more intense. With both teams at 7-4 in a crowded NFC field, the loser will on the bubble of playoff elimination.

Oh, and the 49ers and Seahawks still don’t like each other.

“Playing Seattle later in the year, lots at stake, primetime game - there’s not gonna be any pregame speeches for this one,” Staley said. “Everybody’s gonna be hyped up and ready to go. We got a challenge ahead of us. They’re a really good football team, and we’ve got to play better than we did today.”