The loss dropped the Bears to 4-3 and snapped their three-game winning streak.
With the offense struggling for the first two-and-a-half quarters, the defense kept the Bears in the game by forcing the Commanders to settle for four Austin Seibert field goals of 27, 30, 28 and 47 yards.
The Bears eventually cut the deficit from 12-0 to 12-7 on D’Andre Swift’s sensational 56-yard touchdown run with :43 to play in the third quarter.
They had a chance to take the lead midway through the fourth period. But on third-and-goal from the 1, Caleb Williams attempted to hand off to Doug Kramer Jr., an offensive lineman who was lined up at fullback on the play. Kramer never secured the ball, and the Commanders recovered the fumble at the 3.
“We’ve worked that play since he’s been in there,” Eberflus said of Kramer. “We’ve worked the mechanics of it, the hand-off to him. We’ve just got to do it better. We’re wedge blocking. You’re on the 1-yard line. You’ve got a big guy to get the ball. We’ve practiced it a lot.”
The Bears rebounded to take their first lead at 13-12 with :25 remaining in the game on Roschon Johnson’s 1-yard TD burst, capping a 10-play, 62-yard drive. The score came after Keenan Allen had drawn a pass interference penalty in the end zone on fourth-and-3 at the 12.
Williams followed with a two-point conversion pass to Cole Kmet, putting the Bears ahead 15-12.
Daniels completed back-to-back passes of 11 and 13 yards to the Washington 48, leaving :02 on the clock. On the final play, he scrambled around in the backfield for about 12 seconds before launching the ball deep down the middle of the field. When it settled in Brown’s hands, the stadium erupted.
“We’ve practiced that play 100 times since we’ve been here,” Eberflus said. “I’ll have to look at what the execution was of that. But we have a body on a body, boxing out guys like basketball. We have one guy that knocks the ball down. We’ve got a back tip guy that goes behind the pile. Again, I’ve got to look at it and detail it out and make sure we’re better next time.”
“In that scenario, I’m supposed to be the jumper and try to jump and [bat] the ball down,” said safety Kevin Byard III. “But I was standing back there, and everybody was just kind of piling up. It’s kind of hard to get an angle, try to get a running start. When the ball is in the air, you’re trying to fight to get position.”
Nickel back Josh Blackwell was also in the scrum of players leaping for the ball.
“That was tough,” Blackwell said. “We had them. We had the win and unfortunately just that last ball was caught.”
The Bears trailed 9-0 at halftime after being outgained by the Commanders 267-90 in the first half. The defense forced Washington to settle for three field goals after reaching the Chicago 7, 7 and 9.
After their first three possessions resulted in punts, the Bears turned the ball over on downs at their own 40 when DJ Moore was tackled for no gain after a catching a quick pass from Williams on fourth-and-1.
The Bears picked up three first downs on their final drive of the first half, reaching the Commanders’ 23. But on third-and-12 from the 25, Williams was sacked for a 15-yard loss, knocking them out of field-goal range.
In the first half, Williams completed 3 of 8 passes for 38 yards. For the game, he connected on 10 of 24 passes for 131 yards and a 59.5 passer rating, snapping a streak of three straight outings with a rating of at least 100.0.
“The progressions, I thought he got off them a little bit, but I’ll have to look at them,” Eberflus said. “The rhythm and timing we’ve seen the last couple weeks … it could be guys that are covered, pressure in his face, whatever that might be. Again, that’s an everybody thing. That’s a protection thing. That’s a route running thing. And that’s a quarterback thing.”
While the defense didn’t permit a touchdown until the final play of the game, the Commanders compiled 481 total yards, 168 on the ground and 313 in the air. Daniels completed 21 of 38 passes for 326 yards and a 92.7 passer rating and rushed for 52 yards on eight carries. Terry McLaurin caught five passes for 125 yards. And Brian Robinson Jr. rushed for 65 yards on 16 attempts.
Swift had another stellar outing, rushing for 129 yards on 18 carries. On his 56-yard TD run, he bounced outside and raced down the left sideline, picking up blocks by Kmet and left tackle Kiran Amegadjie, who had entered the game in the first half when Braxton Jones exited with a knee injury.
Before Swift’s TD, the Bears had failed to score on their first seven possessions, a vast departure from their previous two contests in which they had generated five TDs in back-to-back games for the first time since 1956.
“Sometimes when you have those days, you’ve just got to make sure you keep finding answers,” Eberflus said. “Some of the answers could have been getting the ball to our tight ends and running backs as I look at the stat sheet. I know we were trying to do that. They did pressure with their linebackers. We knew they were going to do some of those. Those were effective for them. We’ve got to do a better job handling those. It’s always about working to the next series and finding answers, and we’ve got to do a better job of that.”
Eberflus is not concerned that the Bears will allow Sunday’s devastating loss to define their season.
“Our guys believe in each other, trust each other, have faith in each other,” he said. “They’re a resilient bunch. They’re going to come back more determined. The game didn’t go the way we wanted it to. But we had a chance to win it. We did everything we could at the very end. We’ve just got to execute better.”
The Bears will be back on the road next Sunday against the Cardinals in Arizona.
