There were special moments for the Washington Commanders on Sunday Night Football, including a milestone accomplishment. But here are the Commanders most to blame for the crushing overtime loss to the Broncos.
What matters most is that the Broncos earned the 27-26 win, thanks to a tremendous defensive play by Nik Bonitto. He swatted down a potential game-winning 2-point conversion pass by Marcus Mariota. The timing was perfect, according to ESPN.
“We call it a Kodak situation where you have a timeout, the game's going to end, so call the timeout, regroup, collect your thoughts,” Denver head coach Sean Payton said. “The challenge is those plays are designed QB runs, which we were concerned with … we went from one pressure to another.
“But there's going to be a free rusher if you pressure the way we did it. And you don't know who's going to be the free rusher because the protection … and so they left Nik free, and the timing and everything was great.”
Commanders' run game wasn’t effective enough
Some may say that Washington rushed for 143 yards and think that’s pretty good. However, the Commanders got 58 yards on four sizable runs. That means the remaining 29 attempts went for just 95 yards and 3.3 yards a carry.
The Commanders often found themselves in negative down-and-distance situations because of short gains on first downs. In most games, this would have led to killed drives. That’s especially true with Mariota at quarterback.
However, the Commanders went 8 for 17 on third-down conversions against a Broncos defense that had been allowing a success rate of only 29%.
Still, the Commanders don’t have anything special in the backfield. All of that preseason and early season talk about Jacory Croskey-Merritt has faded. He can’t even get on the field now behind NFL retreads like Chris Rodriguez Jr. and Jeremy McNichols.
It makes Commanders fans lose faith in people like head coach Dan Quinn and GM Adam Peters for hyping a player who has proven to be a flop.
HC Dan Quinn waited too long to take over defense
If all the Commanders needed to do to have a competitive defense was for Quinn to take over the play-calling duties, why did he wait until the season shattered into ruins to do it?
This points to Quinn either being aloof or not a strong enough leader to step up. His loyalty to DC Joe Whitt Jr. has been a detriment to the organization.
Despite a season falling apart, the Commanders have been admirable on defense for two straight weeks with Quinn calling the shots. It has been obvious, according to The Athletic.
“The Commanders’ improvement on defense since Quinn took over the play calling has been astounding,” Nicki Jhabvala wrote. “Virtually the same personnel couldn’t get off the field a few weeks ago, but it more than held its own in an overtime loss against the Miami Dolphins and came up with big play after big play against Denver. Granted, the Commanders faced two not-stellar offenses, but considering how badly they had been losing games, this is a remarkable turnaround for Washington.”
Quinn said his team showed a lot in the loss, according to a post on X by Zach Selby.
“Hate the outcome,” Quinn said. “Loved the fight. We can get better. Obviously, there’s plenty of room for us to continue to do that.”
Honestly, it’s starting to look like Quinn’s best role remains as a defensive coordinator. He caught lightning in a bottle with the Falcons before the Super Bowl collapse in 2016. And he did it again last year with the Commanders in their run to the NFC Championship game.
Clearly, the man can coach. But his head-coaching leadership has to come into question. Maybe he's too much of a buddy-buddy guy with the players?
Also, Quinn is part of a disaster roster build that will take years to undo. The Commanders went all-in on old dudes in 2025. And nearly all of those guys will be useless for 2026. But you only get so many draft picks. And free agents of any value tend to be older.
The Commanders’ disaster may not be fixable until 2027.
Looking ahead this year, the Commanders have two winnable games before likely ending the year with three straight losses. If that happens, they’ll finish 5-12 and get a rather unexciting position in the 2026 NFL Draft.
But there's also a chance the Commanders putter out to a 3-14 finish. That would likely be bad enough for a top-three pick in the draft. And since they already have the quarterback they want, maybe they can find a dynamic playmaker at running back to receiver to help Jayden Daniels succeed in 2026.
