Week 6 Takeaways – Chicago Bears at Washington Commanders

By: Sam Myer 10/14/25

In a high-profile Monday Night Football matchup, Chicago Bears defeated the Washington Commanders 25-24 on a game-winning field goal as time expired. Washington had the ball up 24-22 with 3 minutes left in the game when Jayden Daniels fumbled the hand-off and the Bears recovered. Following the fumble, the Bears marched down the field as D’Andre Swift had 34 rushing yards on the drive including a 15-yard burst to the Washington 18-yard line. From there the Bears kneeled out the clock until 0:03 seconds remaining and then had Jake Moody kick the game winning field-goal. Both offenses performed well moving the ball down the field; however, the Bears dealt with penalties all game while Washington dealt with turnovers. In the end, the turnovers were consequential for the Commanders and cost them the opportunity to ice the game.

Washington came into the game expecting to dominate in the run game, as they came off their best rushing game all year. Instead, they ran headfirst into a Bears front that was fresh off of 15 days rest and struggled to move the ball efficiently on the ground. Bill Croskey-Merritt, fresh off his breakout game in LA, had his least efficient day running the ball of his rookie season. Washington fans finally got what they wanted and saw Bill get 18 opportunities compared to Jeremy McNichols who received 5 touches all game. Unfortunately, Bill only averaged 3.6 yards per carry on 17 attempts, and his longest run was only 11 yards. While it wasn’t a total disaster on the ground, it was certainly a disappointment considering the Commanders led the league in rush yards per game and yards per carry. The explosive run game that Washington had been leaning on was not there to lead the charge in week 6.

This led to Jayden Daniels being forced to put the offense on his back and he responded well. After throwing an interception on the Commanders opening drive, Daniels went 16-21 for 190 yards passing with 3 touchdowns and 50 yards rushing. It looked as though Jayden’s passing prowess as he made impressive throws throughout. His first touchdown pass to Chris Moore was an absolute rainbow that dropped in the bucket from 22 yards out. His elusiveness in the pocket was also truly impressive as he frequently escaped to accumulate 52 yards rushing the night. Daniels was also able to push the ball down the field with two 30+ yard passes. Unfortunately, both of his turnovers cost the Commanders the chance to win the game. The interception in the first quarter came in the redzone as Washington was driving to take a 7-3 lead to start the game. The fumble on final drive will likely go down as one of the biggest mistakes of his career, as Washington was marching down to ice the game. All in all, there were many positives from Jaydens performance, but certainly some costly mistakes to clean up.

While Washington had a solid night on offense, the defense left much to be desired once again. The defensive front was expected to have a solid night; however, D’Andre Swift and the Bears offensive line dominated them all night long. Swift averaged 7.7 yards per carry with 108 total yards rushing and two receptions for 67 yards including a massive 55-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. The Commanders defensive line was able to sack Caleb Williams three times; however, there were only 5 total QB hits meaning Williams was mostly unscathed throughout the game. In truth, Caleb Williams had his most consistent performance getting the ball out quickly as Ben Johnson utilized the screen game to neutralize the Commanders pass rush. It was an impressive play calling display from Ben Johnson who put his offense in positions to succeed on a regular basis.

Part of Chicago’s consistent success on offense was due to poor coverage once again from the Washington secondary. Trey Amos and Marshon Lattimore had decent nights in coverage, but the rest of the secondary struggled to contain the Bears skill players. Mike Sainristil was consistently targeted as was Quan Martin by whoever Ben Johnson could scheme up against them. None of the Chicago pass catchers had more than four receptions since Ben Johnson was always moving players around to create misdirection in the pre-snap. Regardless of the box score, it was clear that the Bears were able to do whatever they wanted underneath and, in the flats, as they were getting blockers set up on almost every pass at or around the line of scrimmage. It has become clear that unless the defensive line is consistently stopping the run and putting pressure on the quarterback, this defense is liability.

In the end, the causation for the Commanders letting this game slip away from them came down to two things. They lost the turnover battle 0-3 and they lost at the line of scrimmage on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. No football team is ever going to win a game while losing both of these battles and that is a core principle that helped this team win last year. Washington needs to find a way to return to their mistake-free football that the led them so much success in 2024.