The Commanders are capable of beating another bad team. What does that mean for next season?

All the Washington Commanders’ first victory in quite some time truly proved was that they can, indeed, beat one of the other worst teams in the NFL.

“We were going to get in the left-hand column by any means necessary, it felt like, and however long that took,” coach Dan Quinn said. “The last two months have been extremely challenging."

There were some hints in the 29-21 win at the New York Giants on Sunday — which ended Washington's eight-game losing skid — related to what certain players might be able to provide in 2026.

Even if linebacker Bobby Wagner insisted: “We’re not trying to think about next season.”

Running back Jacory “Bill” Croskey-Merritt looked, once more, like a possible starter.

Another rookie, wideout and punt returner Jaylin Lane, looked like a keeper. Defensive back Mike Sainristil, a second-year player whose coverage has been shaky at times, showed with his fourth interception of the season that he has a nose for the ball and is maybe the only consistent turnover-maker on the defense. Tight end Ben Sinnott caught a 36-yard pass on his lone target in the first game since Zach Ertz was lost for the season to a torn ACL; Sinnott now has caught all 10 targets in his two-season career.

That's not to say things seem promising overall, of course, and not just because quarterback Jayden Daniels is being shut down for the rest of the season, a decision announced by Quinn on Monday.

There are far too many holes on the roster and questions about how to move forward. Earning half of your triumphs against the lowly Giants (2-12, with eight losses in a row) is not exactly something to brag about, especially one year after coming so close to reaching the Super Bowl.

“It’s been a long season,” acknowledged wideout Terry McLaurin, who scored on a 51-yard catch-and-run Sunday.

The run game, when offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury leans on it. With starter Chris Rodriguez Jr. sidelined by a groin injury, Jeremy McNichols got the chance to open the game at running back, but seventh-round draft pick Croskey-Merritt really shined against the Giants, getting 18 carries for 96 yards (an average of 5.3 per run) and a 16-yard touchdown — his first TD since Oct. 5, when he had two in what was Washington's most recent victory before Sunday. “It felt amazing to get back in the end zone,” Croskey-Merritt said. In all, the Commanders ran 37 times for 145 yards.

Holding onto the football. The Commanders fumbled four times — including one by Croskey-Merritt and two by quarterback Marcus Mariota, who again played in place of the injured Daniels (left elbow) — but were fortunate to lose only two of those, thanks to a couple of loose-ball recoveries by rookie right tackle Josh Conerly Jr. Mariota has turned the ball over three times in the past two games. “I have to find ways to stop with these,” he said.

Lane. His 63-yard punt return for a score in the second quarter was a big play in this sluggish game between a pair of bad teams. He's the first player for Washington to bring two punts back for TDs in a season since Brian Mitchell did it 31 years ago — and the first rookie to do it since Johnny Williams in 1952.

Wagner in coverage. He was beaten again while trying to deal with a running back on a route, giving up an 18-yard TD catch from Jaxson Dart to Tyrone Tracy in the third quarter.

LT Laremy Tunsil (shoulder, oblique), WR Noah Brown (rib) and TE Colson Yankoff (ankle) left Sunday's game. ... Daniels will sit out the last three games, meaning he will have appeared in only seven of 17 this season.

136 1/2 — Career sacks for Von Miller after he picked up another Sunday, moving him past Jared Allen for No. 12 on the all-time list since the NFL began recording the stat officially in 1982. Miller's seven sacks this season are the most on the Commanders and his personal best since 2022.

Another meaningless NFC East contest — well, meaningless for Washington — comes Saturday, when the Commanders host the division-leading and reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles (9-5) in a rematch of last season's conference title game. Two of Washington's last three games this season come against Jalen Hurts and Philadelphia, which snapped a three-game losing streak with a 31-0 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders this weekend.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

New York Giants running back Devin Singletary (26) is tackled by Washington Commanders outside linebacker Von Miller (24) during the second quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Washington Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota (8) carries the ball against the New York Giants during the first quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Washington Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin (17) celebrates with teammates after scoring a touchdown against the New York Giants during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Washington Commanders wide receiver Jaylin Lane (83) carries the ball for a touchdown against the New York Giants during the second quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Washington Commanders running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt (22) celebrates with teammates after scoring a touchdown against the New York Giants during the second quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The ongoing effort to find a man who walked onto Brown University ’s campus during a busy exam season and shot nearly a dozen students in a crowded lecture hall has raised questions about the school's security systems and the urgency of the investigation itself.

A day after Saturday's mass shooting, officials said a person of interest taken into custody would be released without charges, leaving investigators with little actionable insight from the limited security video they had recovered and scrambling to develop new leads.

Law enforcement officials were still doing the most basic investigative work two days after the shooting that killed two students and wounded nine, canvassing local residences and businesses for security camera footage and looking for physical evidence. That's left students and some Providence residents frustrated at gaps in the university’s security and camera systems that helped allow the shooter to disappear.

“The fact that we’re in such a surveillance state but that wasn’t used correctly at all is just so deeply frustrating,” said Li Ding, a student at the nearby Rhode Island School of Design who dances on a Brown University team.

Ding is among hundreds of students who have signed a petition to increase security at school buildings, saying that officials need to do a better job keeping the campus secure against threats like active shooters.

“I think honestly, the students are doing a more effective job at taking care of each other than the police,” Ding said.

Kristy dosReis, chief public information officer for the Providence Police Department, said that at no point did the investigation stand down even after officials appeared to have a breakthrough in the case, detaining a Wisconsin man who they now believe was not involved.

“The investigation continued as the scenes were still active. Nothing was cleared,” said dosReis.

Police and the FBI on Monday released new video and photographs of a man they believe carried out the attack. The man wore a mask in the footage captured before and after the attack.

FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks said a $50,000 reward was being offered for information that would lead to the identification, arrest and conviction of the shooter.

Docks described the investigation, including documenting the trajectory of bullets at the shooting scene, as “painstaking work.”

“We are asking the public to be patient as we continue to run down every lead so we can give victims, survivors, their families and all of you the answers you deserve,” Docks told reporters.

While Brown University is dotted with cameras, there were few in the Barus and Holley building, home of the engineering school that was targeted.

“Reality is, it’s an old building attached to a new one,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters about the lack of cameras nearby.

The lack of campus footage left police seeking tips from the public.

Katherine Baima said U.S. marshals came to her door on Monday, seeking footage from a security camera pointing toward the street.

“This is the first time any of us in my building, as far as I know, had heard from anyone,” Baima said.

Students said the school’s emergency alert system kept them relatively well-informed about the presence of an active shooter. But they were uncertain what to do during a prolonged campus lockdown.

Chiang-Heng Chien, a 32-year-old doctoral student in engineering, hid under desks and turned off the lights after receiving an alert about the shooting at 4:22 p.m. Saturday in a campus lab.

“While I was hiding in the lab, I heard the police yelling outside but my friends and I were debating whether we should open the door, since at that moment the shooter was believed to be (nearby),” he said in a text.

Law enforcement experts say colleges are often at a disadvantage when responding to threats like an active shooter. Their security officers are typically less trained and paid less than in other law enforcement departments. They also don’t always have close partnerships with better-resourced agencies.

Often, funding for campus police departments is not a top priority, even for schools with ample resources, said Terrance Gainer, a former Illinois law enforcement official who later served as the U.S. Senate’s sergeant-at-arms.

“They just aren’t as flush in law enforcement as you would think. They don’t like a lot of uniformed presence, they don’t like a lot of guns around,” said Gainer, who is now a consultant. “Whether it’s Brown or someone else, a key question is, what type of relationship do they have with the local police department?”

At Utah Valley University, where conservative leader Charlie Kirk was assassinated by a shooter on a school building roof last summer, the undersized campus police department never asked neighboring agencies to assist with security at the outdoor Kirk event that attracted thousands, an Associated Press review found.

Providence has an emergency alert system, but it switched from a mobile app to a web-based system in March. The new system requires someone to register online to receive alerts — something not all residents knew.

Emely Vallee, 35, lives about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Brown with her two young children. She said she received “absolutely nothing” in alerts. She relied instead on texts from friends and the news.

Vallee had expected to be notified through the city’s 311 app, but hadn’t realized that Mayor Brett Smiley phased out the app in March. Smiley said his administration sent out multiple alerts the day of the shooting using the new 311 system and has continued to send them.

Hailey Souza, 23, finished her shift at a smoothie shop just off-campus minutes before the shooting. Everything seemed normal and quiet, Souza said.

But driving home, she saw a boy bleeding on the sidewalk. “Then everyone started running and screaming,” she said. Souza said she saw a bystander rip off his T-shirt to help.

The shop Souza manages, In The Pink, is a block from the engineering building. One of the shooting victims, Ella Cook, was a regular at the store, Souza said. Cook had come in a few days earlier and said her last final was Saturday.

Souza later learned that police came by the store to tell her co-workers about an active shooter. But Souza never received an emergency alert. “Nothing,” she said.

Wieffering, Tau and Slodysko reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kimberlee Kruesi and Matt O’Brien in Providence and Michael Casey in Boston contributed to this report.

Visitors pause at a makeshift memorial for the victims of Saturday's shooting, at the Van Wickle Gate at Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Members of the FBI Evidence Response Team search for evidence near the campus of Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A member of the FBI Evidence Response Team searches for evidence near an ivy-covered wall following the shooting at Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Visitors pause at a makeshift memorial for the victims of Saturday's shooting, at the Van Wickle Gate at Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I.(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Pedestrians ask FBI agents, on the sidewalk on Cooke St. for updates, in Providence, R.I., two days after a shooting occurred on Brown University's campus, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Lily Speredelozzi/The Sun Chronicle via AP)

Members of the FBI Evidence Response Team search for evidence near the campus of Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Community flowers, notes and mementos are placed in a makeshift memorial display in front of Brown University's Van Wickle gates, in Providence, R.I., two days after a shooting took place on Brown University's campus, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Lily Speredelozzi/The Sun Chronicle via AP)

A community member looks at flowers, notes and mementos in a makeshift memorial display sitting in front of Brown University's Van Wickle gates, in Providence, R.I., two days after a shooting took place on the university's campus, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (Lily Speredelozzi/The Sun Chronicle via AP)