WASHINGTON (AP) — Stop me if you've heard this before: The Washington Commanders got off to a slow start, and their defense had plenty of trouble tackling.
Yes, neither of those is a new development for the 2025 Commanders. The problem this time, in a 25-24 loss to the Chicago Bears — but not, coach Dan Quinn hopes, again next Sunday at the NFC East rival Dallas Cowboys — was that, in addition to those recurring issues, Washington (3-3) also had trouble running and stopping the run and kept giving the ball away.
That included two turnovers by star quarterback Jayden Daniels, whose first interception of the season arrived on a bad underthrow with a receiver open in the end zone Monday night and whose first fumble came when he and running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt couldn't connect properly on a handoff with about three minutes left in the game.
The Bears took that gift and turned it into Jake Moody’s go-ahead field goal on the last play.
Daniels took responsibility for that final flub, saying he lost focus.
“I'm not surprised that he said that. I had texts that we exchanged today; I won't share that,” Quinn said Tuesday, “Just about how important it is how he plays. And I'm certain he'll learn from it.”
The beginning of the evening wasn't great, either: Washington trailed Chicago 13-0 less than a minute into the second quarter. It was the fourth time in six games that the Commanders trailed by double digits early — twice by 10-0 and once by 14-0.
They're 1-3 after getting themselves into such situations.
Chris Moore. The 10th-year receiver had three catches for 46 yards and his first NFL touchdown since 2022. The three receptions matched the number he accumulated through the first five games. Moore was criticized throughout the week on social media by Commanders fans who focused on the would-be TD pass that went through his hands in Washington’s previous game.
The defense. Things did seem to be looking up for defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. when Washington held Justin Herbert and the Chargers without a point after the first quarter in Week 5. But there were plenty of issues against Chicago, including an inability to stop the run: D'Andre Swift gained 108 yards on 14 carries, including 34 of the 36 yards on the game-ending drive. Nothing stood out quite as much as Quan Martin's inability to stop Swift near the sideline on what turned into a 55-yard catch-and-run TD pass from Caleb Williams. Quinn called the whiff by Martin “unfortunate.” ... The Commanders are adding DE Drake Jackson, according to his agent, Drew Rosenhaus. Jackson, a second-round pick in the 2022 draft, was waived with a failed physical designation by the 49ers in May after missing the previous 1 1/2 seasons with a torn patellar tendon in his left knee. Jackson played 23 games for San Francisco in 2022-23 with six sacks — including three in one game.
Luke McCaffrey. The second-year receiver out of Rice — and younger brother of San Francisco 49ers star Christian — has scored a touchdown in three of the past four games after not getting into the end zone once in his first 19 career NFL contests. McCaffrey's 33-yard TD catch against Chicago was his only target. “I was happy that we called it,” McCaffrey said about the scoring play, which was set up by a pump-fake by Daniels. “We’d had that one in the bag for a couple of weeks.”
Croskey-Merritt. A week after a breakout performance by the rookie — the seventh-round draft pick rushed for 111 yards on 14 carries, a 7.9-yard average, with two TDs at LA — the guy everyone calls “Bill” turned in a dud. Forget for a moment that he only gained 61 yards on 17 carries, which works out to just 3.6 a pop, against a run defense ranked 31st out of the league's 32 clubs. Far worse was Croskey-Merritt's fumble in a second consecutive game. And that was before his bad exchange with Daniels.
The status of two of Washington's top three receivers, Terry McLaurin and Noah Brown, is going to be worth keeping an eye on this week. McLaurin (quadriceps) missed the past three games; Brown (knee, groin) sat out four in a row. Something else to monitor: Can starting right guard Sam Cosmi make his season debut next Sunday? He's been out since injuring a knee ligament during last season's playoffs.
3 — Turnovers committed by Washington against Chicago, equaling the total number the Commanders gave up across their first five games combined.
Washington has alternated wins and losses all season going into Sunday's game at Dallas (2-3-1).
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Chicago Bears running back D'Andre Swift (4) gets away from Washington Commanders defensive end Jacob Martin (55) during the second half of an NFL football game Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels (5) is tackled by Chicago Bears defensive lineman Chris Williams (91) with cornerback Kyler Gordon (6) and safety Jaquan Brisker (9) nearby during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Washington Commanders running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt (22)fumbles the ball as he is hit by Chicago Bears defensive end Montez Sweat (98) during the first half of an NFL football game Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
The Seattle Seahawks had greatness in their grasp, the end zone in their sights, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots on the ropes and Marshawn Lynch in their backfield.
What could go wrong?
Super Bowl 49 between the two teams who are playing again Sunday in Super Bowl 60 came down to this: Trailing 28-24, Seattle had the ball at the Patriots 1 with 26 seconds, a timeout and three plays to try to win the game and hoist their second straight Lombardi Trophy.
Lynch had just bulled his way to the 1 after Jermaine Kearse’s juggling 33-yard catch bounced off his legs and into his arms while he was on the ground at the Patriots 5-yard line.
“I tipped the ball and Kearse still caught it,” former cornerback Malcolm Butler recounted this week in a radio row interview with Boston's WEEI-FM. “I said this game is over. We lose, it's my fault, even though I made a great play. It wasn't good enough.”
On the New England sideline sat Brady, who had witnessed two other improbable catches that led to devastating Super Bowl defeats: David Tyree's 32-yard helmet-pinning catch that helped the New York Giants deny the Patriots a perfect season, and Mario Manningham's 38-yard sideline reception four years later that again helped Eli Manning prevail.
“And then I got another opportunity,” Butler said.
Second-and-goal from the 1, the stage was set for the unknown, undrafted rookie out of West Alabama to become the unlikely hero.
There are a handful of iconic moments in sports that live in glory or infamy, or both.
Tiger's chip-in on 16. Auburn's kick-six. Gibson's pinch-hit homer. LeBron's chase-down block. The Miracle on Ice. Vince Carter's Dunk of Death. Kobe's 81 points. Brandi Chastain's penalty kick.
The calls live in our heads.
“Down goes Frazier.”
“Havlicek stole the ball!”
“Do you believe in miracles?”
Bill Belichick sent in a three-cornerback personnel grouping he hadn't used all season and Pete Carroll decided eight big guys would be hard to score against if Russell Wilson handed the ball to Lynch again, so he called for a quick slant to Ricardo Lockette.
Butler saw the stacked receivers on the right side of the field and asked cornerback Brandon Browner, “Who I got? Who I got? He said, ‘You got the guy in the back,”" Butler told WEEI. “I said this guy hits any kind of crossover, it’s on. And he did. And I just drove on the ball.”
Butler ducked inside of Lockette and beat the receiver to the ball, intercepting Wilson's pass to preserve New England's win and stamp his name in Super Bowl history.
“I'm sorry, but I can't believe the call,” exclaimed NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth, who was in the broadcast booth alongside Al Michaels that day. “I cannot believe the call. You've got Marshawn Lynch in the backfield, you've got a guy who's been borderline unstoppable in this part of the field. I can't believe the call.”
Collinsworth, who's doing the game again Sunday, said this week that he thinks about that play “all the time” and is still stumped by the call.
"When the interception actually happened, I didn’t know what happened,” Collinsworth said. “I can tell you that now. I was watching the field. I started to watch the monitor so I could see it up close, and I remember going, no, this is a piece of history. I want to see it with my own two eyes. I didn’t want to just watch it on the monitor.”
What he saw he couldn't believe: Wilson firing into a cluster of blue and white shirts, Butler digging inside of Lockette and corralling the first interception of his career.
“There was an explosion of bodies that all hit at the same time, and the crowd went crazy, and my first thought was, ‘I don’t know who has the ball,’” Collinsworth said. "Secondly, it was, ‘I don’t even know who those players are that just ran into each other.’ It was so chaotic.
“And then in a moment’s time, Al screamed out, ‘Malcolm Butler, interception!’ And I'm just sitting there going over and over again in my mind thinking, Marshawn Lynch had two tries from the 1. If he didn’t make it the first time, then so be it; but you’re also going to take additional clock off, which is going to give Tom Brady less opportunity to make a play.”
It wasn't just the play call but the pass itself that took Collinsworth by surprise.
“I did consider the possibility of it being a pass, but I thought for sure it would have been a run/pass option out of the pocket in some way,” he said. “So the play shocked me in every way imaginable.”
He had plenty of company in his bewilderment.
“Dumbest play call in the HISTORY of NFL football,” tweeted former 49ers receiver Dwight Clark, who made a pretty good grab himself: The Catch.
And this from NFL career rushing leader Emmitt Smith: “Worst play call I’ve seen in the history of football.”
Carroll explained that he figured it would have been tough for Lynch to score against eight big guys in the box: “It’s not a great matchup for us to run the football, so we were going to throw the ball, really to waste a play. If we score, we do, if we don’t, we’ll run it in on third or fourth down.”
They never got the chance, and Carroll insisted he and not offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell was to blame: "I made the decision. I said, ’Throw the ball.' Nobody to blame but me.”
Wilson, who would later have a falling out with Carroll and bounce around the league trying to recapture his old form for a shot at Super Bowl redemption, said he was ultimately the one responsible.
“Put the blame on me," Wilson said after the game. "I’m the one who threw it.”
The one who caught it was Butler, who was on the bubble in training camp and eight months later had an inkling he'd make a big play in the Super Bowl, “but not that big.”
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FILE - Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch (24) walks off the field after the Seahawks lost to the New England Patriots during the NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game, Feb. 1, 2015, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
FILE - New England Patriots strong safety Malcolm Butler (21) intercepts a pass intended for Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Ricardo Lockette (83) during the second half of NFL Super Bowl XLIX football game, Feb. 1, 2015, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
