The Washington Commanders suffered yet another avoidable loss against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night.
The first half was ugly. The Commanders lost Terry McLaurin to what appears to be a devastating knee injury, and the defense could not find a way to stop the 49ers offense. The Niners took a 20-3 lead into the locker room at halftime, and it seemed like the Commanders just wanted to get off the field and regroup.
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They managed to regroup in the second half. The defense held San Francisco to just a field goal in the second half, while the offense found its mojo and added a touchdown in both the third and fourth quarters. Unfortunately, yet another coaching mistake cost the Commanders the game.
On Washington’s second drive of the fourth quarter, after forcing the 49ers to punt twice, they had a chance to put more points on the board with two minutes left on the clock. On fourth down, quarterback Jayden Daniels’ pass to Treylon Burks was incomplete after an outstanding play by 49ers safety Malik Mustapha.
The defense managed to force another punt, and Washington got the ball back with 52 seconds left to play, but an intentional grounding call followed by a sack ended the game at 23-17.
As we enter Week 7, here’s where the Commanders rank across multiple power rankings.
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After their Week 5 debacle and a nearly as uninspiring first half Monday night, Jayden Daniels and Co. finally came to life, almost derailing the Niners’ still-perfect season … and maybe laying the groundwork for their own surge in the eminently winnable NFC East.
Jayden Daniels throwing the ball away even though it was fourth down and Dan Quinn seemingly not knowing it was fourth down at all says everything that needs to be said about the 2026 Commanders. If that wasn’t enough on Monday night, after last week’s game-management debacle at the end of overtime against the Giants, the Commanders had to use a timeout with the clock stopped with 3:01 left in the game before a fourth down play. That ended up costing Washington a valuable 40 seconds, as it ran out of time on a comeback attempt in a 23-17 loss to the 49ers. Washington has a bye coming up next, and whatever answers Quinn gives to why he seemingly didn’t know it was fourth down will be a big discussion point, not just among fans and media, but also within the organization. It seems like a team in desperate need of a reset.
Super Bowl odds: +12500 (tied for 22nd-best)
Jayden Daniels looks closer to his old, magical self, but it all came too late to pull off the upset in San Francisco Monday night, and it might be too late to save the season in Washington. It might be too late for Dan Quinn too, since, for the second week in a row, his game management skills were exposed as … well, something. This time he was caught on camera seemingly surprised that the Commanders’ last play was a fourth-down play, as he tried to send the field goal unit on. Add that to last week’s clock disaster and Washington’s 1-4-1 record, and Quinn might not still be the Commanders coach anymore when they return from their bye.
