Christian Holmes recovered a muffed punt by Velus Jones deep in Chicago territory to set up a one-yard touchdown run by Brian Robinson midway through the fourth quarter, and the Washington Commanders ended a four-game losing streak, hanging on to beat the Bears 12-7 on Thursday night.
Robinson’s decisive score came less than two months after he was shot during a robbery. “I really wanted to be back around my team,” said the rookie running back after the game. “I really wanted to be back around football.”
The 23-year-old paid tribute to his mother for helping him back from injury.
“I want to tell my mom thank you, I love you,” he said. “Without you I wouldn’t be here today.”
This one might not have been quite as ugly as the Colts-Broncos yawner that had play-by-play announcer Al Michaels launching zingers and creating a buzz on social media, but there were plenty of bad reads, tipped balls, overthrown passes and sloppy play in general. There was also no shortage of drama down the stretch.
The Commanders (2-4) did just enough to come away with their first win since beating Jacksonville in the opener and handed the Bears (2-4) their third straight loss.
Washington caught a huge break in the fourth-quarter when they punted on fourth down at their own 36. Jones had trouble tracking the ball, then let it hit off his arms. Holmes recovered it at the six-yard line, and Robinson scored two plays later, making the score 12-7 with 7:21 remaining. Carson Wentz overthrew Curtis Samuel in the back of the end zone on the two-point conversion attempt, and Joey Slye missed a 48-yard field goal wide left with 1:48 remaining.
On Chicago’s final drive of the night, Justin Fields broke off a 39-yard run to the five. But after blowing two big scoring chances in the first half, the Bears let another slip away. Dante Pettis was unable to hang onto a third-down pass in the end zone with Darrick Forrest all over him. Then a leaping Darnell Mooney was knocked out of bounds by Benjamin St-Juste inches shy of the goalline as he hauled in a pass to effectively end the game.
Wentz struggled again for the Commanders, going 12 for 22 for 88 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions. Fields was a little better for the Bears: he gained 88 yards on the ground and was 14 for 27 with 190 passing yards. He was intercepted once but also threw the only passing touchdown of the game with a 40-yard bomb to Pettis.