49ers vs. Washington: Does San Francisco need a 'big' win?

Washington is a bad football team -- let's get that out there right now. Sure, there's some good players on both sides of the ball, and I'm even a believer in quarterback Robert Griffin III. But that team is rife with issues from top to bottom and they'd be nearing a massive implosion if they weren't already such a mess. They lose to better teams and they occasionally lose to worse teams, and there's little reason for their fans to be excited week-in and week-out.

The San Francisco 49ers, by all accounts, should treat the home crowd at Levi's Stadium with a solid and hopefully dominant win. Then again, I was saying a lot of the same things a week ago prior to San Francisco's match against the New York Giants (to be fair, I think the Giants are much better than Washington) and that didn't quite work out how any of us envisioned.

Whatever the case, what I want to know is simple: do the 49ers need a big win on Sunday? Obviously, they need to handle a bad Washington team to stay in the running for the NFC West and the wild card, but do they need to come out an make a statement? Ray Ratto of CSN Bay Area seems to think this is the case, noting the perception of Washington and all of their issues, and the perception of San Francisco on top of that.

There's been plenty of talk of issues within the 49ers organization, there's been a lot of criticism of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, there's injuries on both sides of the ball and they rank among the league's worst when it comes to actually scoring points from the red zone. Ratto suggests that Washington presents an even bigger opportunity for domination than the upcoming game against the Oakland Raiders.

I tend to agree with that, given that the Raiders game is sandwiched between two meetings with the NFC West rival Seattle Seahawks. It's an interesting situation for sure, and if the 49ers aren't totally focused on the Raiders at the time I wouldn't be surprised. I actually agree with Ratto on all points -- the 49ers need this big win and they need it bad. The season isn't over by any stretch of the imagination if they don't dominate (and technically it's not if they lose), but it sure would be nice.

What say you, Niners Nation hivemind?