Chicago Bears shocked at the buzzer by the Commanders, lose on Hail Mary
WASHINGTON D.C. (WGN) — The Chicago Bears almost overcame a slow start on offense to steal a victory in Washington D.C., but then the Washington Commanders came away with what might be the play of the year as time expired to claim a last-second win over the Bears.
While Chicago lost, D’Andre Swift notched his fourth consecutive game with more than 100 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown. The Georgia-alum finished with 18 carries for 129 yards and a TD on the ground.
Here’s how the game played out.
Game Recap
The Bears’ first offensive drive of the game featured a stuffed run, a Caleb Williams sack and a delay of game penalty before Chicago punted on fourth-and-20. It was the fourth straight time the Bears punted to start a game, and the seventh straight opening drive where they failed to score a touchdown.
Washington outgained Chicago 140-38 in total yards in the first quarter, but the Bears defense held in the red zone, forcing a pair of Austin Seibert field goals to give the Commanders a 6-0 lead.
If not for a pair of costly drops, the lead would’ve been larger for Washington early on, but the Commanders added a third chip-shot field goal from Seibert with 5:24 remaining in the second quarter to go up 9-0.
Nearly 15 minutes later in the third quarter, Seibert knocked in a 47-yard field goal to expand Washington’s lead to 12-0.
As time wound down in the third quarter, Chicago hit a home run on a 56-yard rushing TD from D’Andre Swift to close the gap to 7-12.
The Bears defense forced a missed field goal and two punts before a 10 play, 62-yard drive ended with a Roschon Johnson rushing TD at the goal-line to give Chicago its first lead of the game with 0:25 remaining in the fourth quarter, 15-12.
But as time expired, Jayden Daniels completed a 52-yard Hail Mary pass to Noah Brown to steal victory from the jaws of defeat for the Commanders, who won 18-15.
How the Hail Mary came to be
Daniels scrambled for several seconds before heaving the ball from the Commanders 35-yard line. It was deflected about 3 yards short of the goal line and fell into the arms of Brown, who was standing alone in the end zone.
The unlikely TD was Daniels’ 21st completion on 38 attempts while playing through a rib injury that left his status uncertain until hours before kickoff. In the NFL’s sixth matchup of rookie quarterbacks taken with the top two picks in the draft, Daniels threw for 326 yards and ran for 52.
The unexpected ending ruined a turnaround for No. 1 overall draft pick Caleb Williams, the Washington-area native who engineered a late 62-yard scoring drive after starting the game completing just four of his first 16 passes. Williams finished 10 of 24 for 131 yards, and D’Andre Swift ran for a TD as part of his 129-yard performance.
Up Next
The Chicago Bears travel to the Arizona Cardinals next Sunday, where kickoff is set for 3:05 p.m. CT.
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