In 2024, the Washington Commanders were celebrating the Maryland Miracle in a rapturous Northwest Stadium. You remember, Jayden Daniels Hail Mary throw to Noah Brown in the end zone as time expired to lift Washington to an 18-15 win over the Chicago Bears to improve to 6-2 and sling shot the franchise to its first NFC championship game in more than 30 years?
Fast forward almost 365 days and the Commanders watched a Jake Moody 38-yard field goal sail through the uprights with no time left to give the Bears a 25-24 win on the same field.
“This one stings,” head coach Dan Quinn said. “You have a chance even to dig yourself out and go battle for it and not get that job done. But like I said, you have to create [turnovers] also to finish in the plus.”
Turnovers. The biggest factor in sending Washington home unhappy last night. The Commanders committed three of them, two by quarterback Jayden Daniels.
Trailing 3-0 in the first quarter, Daniels moved the offense into the red zone. On second and five from the Chicago 21 yard-line, Daniels dropped back and looked for Deebo Samuel in the end zone. He zipped a pass that was picked off by Jaquan Brisker who returned it 34 yards to the Bears 32-yard line.
“Being aggressive. Just going through my keys,” Daniels said in his post-game press conference. “But like I said, I didn’t play how I should’ve, how I hold myself and how I should play. I’ll be better.”
The interception led to Chicago’s second field goal of the night and a 6-0 lead. On the next series, running back Jacory Croskey Merritt fumbled for the second time in two weeks, giving the Bears the ball on Washington’s 35-yard line. Five plays later, quarterback Caleb Williams scored from the one-yard line to give Chicago a 13-0 lead.
I just got to be better at my job, and that’ll get fixed, for sure,” Merritt said. “That’s why we got to practice and go back to work on the things that we need to work on to get ready next week.”
As they have done before, the Commanders were able to dig themselves out of the early hole. Daniels brought the offense right back with a 22-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Chris Moore to cut the lead to 13-7 at the half. Kicker Matt Gay missed a 50-yard field goal late that would have cut the deficit to three points.
He made up for it with a 53-yard kick in the third quarter and then Daniels hit Luke McCaffrey on a 33-yard touchdown to give Washington its first lead of the game, 17-16.
The Commanders took an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter. Following a blocked field goal, Daniels found tight end Zach Ertz in the back of the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown to make the score 24-16.
Then, karma swung the other way.
On the next series, Williams found D’Andre Swift on what should have been a short completion, but safety Quan Martin missed the tackle turning a short gain into a 55-yard catch and run for a touchdown. Chicago missed the two-point conversion, but the lead was cut to 24-22.
“It was a blitz, and so he had a man-to-man but that was the negative of it,” Quinn said. “I guess, when you’re all risk on it, you know. But we also expect him to make that too. Like, Quan’s an excellent player and he wants that one back, there’s no doubt.”
Then came Daniels last and costliest mistake.
Washington was trying to run the clock out. With three minutes and ten seconds left in the game, Daniels mishandled the snap and never got the ball to Croskey Merritt. Chicago recovered, drove 36 yards, and kicked the winning field goal.
Daniels refused to blame the weather conditions, a mist hung over the field all night.
“I’m not going to sit up here and blame it on the elements,” Daniels said. “At the end of the day, I have to focus. I get paid to go out there and focus on playing the play out. I had a lack of focus right there and it cost us the game.”
The loss gives the season an entirely different look. Washington is now 3-3 with road games against Dallas on Sunday, Kansas City the week after, followed by home games against Seattle and Detroit. Those teams have a combined record of 12-10-1.
Post Game Notes:
The Commanders blocked a field goal for the first time since week 12 of 2024… Jayden Daniels completed 19 of 26 passes for 211 yards, three touchdowns and one interception… Chris Moore’s touchdown was his first since week nine of the 2022 season.
Bob Matthews is a 33 year veteran broadcast journalist, spending the last 29 years of his career in Virginia. Bob has covered both news and sports stories and for the last three seasons, the Washington Commanders. He looks forward to continuing to provide coverage to Sportsjourney.com both on the website and through his podcast, The Bob Matthews Show.
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