Treylon Burks, Commanders receivers shine in loss to Broncos
Washington lost its seventh consecutive game Sunday night, and second in a row in overtime, when a failed two-point conversion resulted in a 27-26 defeat against the Denver Broncos. But, amid the wreckage of their season, the Commanders can once more start to see what their offense could look like. When healthy, of course.
Quarterback Marcus Mariota, subbing for the injured Jayden Daniels, threw for 294 yards — the second-highest total of any QB against Denver this season. It also was the most a Washington quarterback has passed for in 2025.
Daniels, who dislocated his left elbow in Week 9 vs. Seattle, could return soon — possibly this week at Minnesota. When he does, it’s possible the Commanders will finally show what they had hoped to be offensively this season.
“Just the playmaking ability,” coach Dan Quinn said of what they finally started to see again. “Hopefully there’s some more guys on the way.”
Receiver Noah Brown, who hasn’t played since Week 2 and is on injured reserve with a groin injury, has returned to practice, but the 21-day window for his return has yet to open.
At 3-9 Washington’s playoff hopes will be extinguished with one more loss or another Eagles win, but that stopped being the focus long ago. Re-establishing their passing attack, when healthy, would at least provide a happy finish to a bad season.
“We’re all just trying to maximize who we are with this group before this thing’s over,” offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said last week, “and see what we can become.”
Commanders can’t hide their excitement over WR Treylon Burks
“In the short time that I’ve gotten to know him, I’ve sensed first like a hungry competitor, and uh, and we’ve seen that a lot where somebody needs a fresh start, a fresh space, a new outlook, and sometimes a new space to go do that and express who they are as a player,” Quinn said.Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!
After Sunday’s game, Quinn and the Commanders were buzzing about Burks.
“His hunger index is high,” Quinn said after Sunday’s game. “Like this a guy that is wanting to prove it, and there’s always a space for that type of competitor here. Coming in, man, like this was a fresh space. And to see him express how important it is, how hard he wants to go compete, like it’s been cool to see. Everybody’s got a journey, you know, and sometimes they start one way and doesn’t have to stay that way. And coming here I felt nothing but intensity from him to go. And then even with his finger, ‘Okay, is it going to be out longer? Nope’. And so, if you saw the stitches when you come out, I think there’s no way this guy’s playing next week [laughs], and then all of a sudden he’s got a big splint on it. ‘Yeah, I’m good, I’m playing.’”
“I think there’s a lot there, and I’m really excited he’s here,” Quinn continued. “I just visited with him earlier tonight before I came in, just he’s got gratitude for being here, but he’s also to me, it’s back to him. It’s like, no, no, I’ve got gratitude for the way you’re working and the way you’re putting out effort, and there’s going to be a big plan for you here.”
Did you catch that last line? There’s a ‘big plan for you here.’
Final thoughts | More updates on Jayden, Washington’s defense and the O-Line
“Our team showed a lot of resilience and a lot of fight. And I would say we recaptured some of that, and that was needed. I felt the energy they displayed for one another, I felt it on the field, on the sideline. It was there all night and that was a good deal. These moments matter; these close fights matter. Afterwards in the locker room, man, this was like two teams throwing blows back and forth to one another and those are the fights that matter. You love being in them. And I thought although the two-point conversion didn’t go our way, a lot of the other winning time moments did. And I thought that was a big part. In this game, we played some complimentary football, had some punts and had some field positions. So, there were some things about it that I like not to be confused. I hate the result.”
“It might have been Sam’s [Cosmi] best game, so that was good. That I would feel like, bigger comp, I’m talking about across the board for them to go. I think they hadn’t played talented guys. He knows that all the time, but I just thought their stunts, their blitz package, that part was good. I felt like him and [T] Josh [Conerly Jr.] have felt more cohesive and like that continuity is helping because now they’ve been in that rhythm good bit together.”
Commanders Still Have Big Hurdle to Clear With QB Jayden Daniels
As much as Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels says he wants to return from a dislocated left elbow to play this season, there are still benchmarks in place to make sure he doesn’t rush back.
One of those is — no surprise — a medical professional determining it’s safe for him to take contact. That hasn’t happened yet.
“Jayden Daniels still not cleared for contact – ‘he’s still going through that process.’ ” NBC Sports Washington D.C.’s JP Finlay wrote on his official X account on Monday, December 1. “Probably no official word til Friday.”
Pro Football Focus heaps praise on Josh Conerly
Pick No. 29: Washington Commanders: T Josh Conerly Jr.
Overall Rookie Grade: 58.0 (Rank: 6/7)Principal Opponent: Jonathon CooperWeek 13 Snaps: 90Week 13 Grade: 76.9
For the second consecutive game, Conerly recorded the highest single-game PFF overall grade of his season. This time, it came at the expense of Denver’s elite defensive line. Across a whopping 59 reps in pass protection, Conerly didn’t allow any pressure while losing just three reps. Considering the opponent, he couldn’t have done much better. He added to that performance with a solid 73.4 PFF run-blocking grade, which marked his third straight game with a figure at least that high.
NFL Week 13: Rookie Team of the Week
We’ll be taking a look at who helped their teams the most in Week 13. A reminder that to qualify for this list, a player must have played at least 10 snaps.
Conerly struggled to open his career but seems to be figuring things out, as he’s played three straight games with a PFF grade over 74.0 — with Sunday night’s overtime loss being his best performance. This streak of success has also included three straight run-blocking grades over 73.0, and he didn’t allow a pressure on 59 pass-blocking snaps against a Broncos defensive line that has otherwise wreaked havoc on offensive lines all season.
The Commanders lost, but showed that they’re better than what we’ve seen all season
McLaurin missed eight games this season, and injuries have been a major factor in why the Commanders have a losing record. You have to imagine what this team would look like if he had been healthy for the whole season. We also saw Treylon Burks make a highlight reel one-handed catch for a touchdown, and he looks to be a weapon for this season and next.
Tight end Zach Ertz missed some big plays at times, but he also made some as well, and finished as the leading receiver with 10 catches for 106 yards. This offense could’ve been dangerous if McLaurin and Jayden Daniels stayed healthy all season, after doing this against the best defense in the NFL.
Will Dan Quinn look for a new defensive coordinator in 2026?
Quinn didn’t fire good friend Joe Whitt Jr., but reassigned him. Whitt remains with the team in a different role.
In two weeks as Washington’s defensive coordinator, there’s been a noticeable improvement on defense. Sure, the defense still has its issues, many of which are due to injuries, and those can’t be fixed during the season. But Quinn has made some defensive changes, such as playing less man coverage and more zone coverage. It’s almost a bend-don’t-break philosophy that is probably the Commanders’ best option for the remainder of this season.
Quinn has respect across the league. And he has job security. So, hiring a quality defensive coordinator wouldn’t be too difficult. But then Quinn would face a dilemma: hire someone who runs his style of defense — which could limit the candidate pool — or hire someone with different ideas?
What happens the rest of this season will likely help dictate which direction Quinn and the Commanders decide to go in the offseason.
Bobby Wagner : Picks off pass in overtime loss
Wagner finished Sunday’s overtime loss to Denver with eight tackles (three solo) and an interception. Wagner paced Washington in stops in the loss, and he’s now recorded at least seven tackles in all 12 of the team’s contests this season. The veteran linebacker also notched his second pickoff of the campaign when he intercepted Bo Nix on the third play of the fourth quarter. Wagner has shown no signs of slowing down in his 14th NFL season, recording 115 tackles (including 2.0 sacks) and three defensed passes (including the pair of picks).
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Why Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital, won’t host 2026 World Cup matches
Two dozen officials from FIFA and U.S. Soccer made the trip that day from meetings in D.C. to the stadium then known as FedEx Field in Landover, Md. And it was on that tour, amid a wave of visits to potential host cities for the 2026 World Cup, that Washington’s candidacy tumbled.
On the bus, officials grew wary of the stadium’s inconvenient location. “How are we not there yet?” one asked — perhaps with an expletive mixed in — according to another person present.
And then, after they examined the stadium’s suites, its technological capabilities and other amenities, they privately questioned whether it was fit for the World Cup.
In the tournament’s 96-year history, host countries have almost always staged games in their capitals. The only two previous hosts that didn’t, West Germany in 1974 (Bonn) and Japan in 2002 (Tokyo), had matches less than an hour away via car. Washington, D.C., therefore, seemed like an obvious choice for the 2026 World Cup when the U.S., Canada and Mexico bid for hosting rights back in 2018. It was one of five suggested semifinal sites. Years later, it was one of 17 finalists to host the 78 stateside matches. And earlier this year, it was selected to stage Friday’s World Cup draw.
But it was not among the 11 metro areas chosen in 2022 by FIFA to host matches. The primary reason, people close to the selection process explained to The Athletic, is that FedEx Field, now called Northwest Stadium, the rundown home of the NFL’s Washington Commanders, was among the least attractive of the 17 proposed stadiums — and its then-owner was unwilling to upgrade it.
FIFA’s unfavorable reviews led D.C. and Baltimore, 40 miles northeast, to combine their bids and pitch an awkward arrangement: D.C. would headline the bid and host fan events, while Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium would host games. On the eve of FIFA’s selection show in June of 2022, the joint bid, despite inherent flaws, was still considered a strong contender.
But it seemingly lost out to a Boston bid backed by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a longtime soccer supporter who was quietly influential in bringing the 2026 World Cup to North America, and who’d built a personal relationship with FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
Infantino and FIFA never fully explained the decision. When asked in 2022 why D.C. hadn’t been selected, then-World Cup chief Colin Smith said that the process had been “incredibly competitive.”
“This was a very, very difficult choice,” Smith added. Then he acknowledged: “It’s hard to imagine — in fact, you can’t imagine a World Cup coming to the U.S. and the capital city not taking a major role.” He floated the possibility of “a fan fest on the National Mall,” and Infantino interjected moments later to say there would be one.
But three-and-a-half years later, no such plans have been announced
Police said that eggs were thrown at Patullo’s house in Moorestown early Saturday morning.
Police confirmed that Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo’s house was vandalized early Saturday morning, two days before a viral video surfaced Monday depicting objects being thrown in the direction of a home.
According to the Moorestown Police Department, Patullo’s home was vandalized with multiple eggs at about 2:50 a.m. Saturday, hours after the Eagles lost, 24-15, to the Chicago Bears on Black Friday.
Patullo, the first-year Eagles offensive coordinator, has shouldered the brunt of the blame for the Eagles’ struggles on offense. A website calling for his firing surfaced. Fans chanted for him to be fired during the game Friday.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni reiterated Monday what he said Friday after the game: Patullo will remain the play-caller as the Eagles prepare for their Week 14 game at the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday.
Eagles-Bears Film Review: Genuinely don’t understand how Kevin Patullo is still running this offense
All-22 analysis from Philadelphia’s Week 13 loss.
This game against the Chicago Bears was one of the most frustrating Philadelphia Eagles offensive performances of the season, which is really saying something after the past month! This was a tough one, and a long one. Why do I keep doing this to myself? Anyway, let’s do this… sigh.
Going back to more RPOs wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world. Right now, the Eagles desperately need something to avoid running into stacked boxes on early downs. And as basic as RPOs are, they at least help keep the offense on schedule with quick access throws. This season has lacked those cheap yards that once defined this system. Against the Broncos, RPOs helped stabilize drives and gave Hurts clean, straightforward answers. Since then? We haven’t seen them. The Eagles have instead become a team that calls zone runs into bad looks, gets nothing, and immediately falls behind the chains. At this point, if the staff isn’t going to fix the run game structurally, then adding more RPOs might help this offense.
[W]hat do good offenses do? They establish something, then fake it, then counter off it. The current Eagles offense barely counters anything. They call plays in isolation rather than in connected sequences. It makes the absence of this kind of layered design week-to-week even more painful.
Then we get to the run game, which is now an outright disaster. Not only is it lacking diversity, it’s essentially just inside zone or outside zone with no creativity, but the execution is abysmal.
This is amateur-hour stuff. The Eagles have a serious issue at tight end, which I’ve said all year. Goedert has been awful as a blocker this year. This play is exactly why the offense is unwatchable at times. They cannot move the ball on the ground against one of the worst run defenses in football. And because their run game is so predictable, so static, and so poorly designed, teams are teeing off on it. This run game isn’t fixable without a big structural change. And until the run game functions again, everything else on offense will remain harder than it needs to be.
[T]he QB run game needs to be part of the offense. Not the reckless shot-taking version where he charges into defensive tackles, but smart, controlled, strategic usage. Hurts doesn’t need to get hit. He just needs to be a threat. Right now, the Eagles are taking away one of their only pressure points because they’re afraid of injuries, and it’s costing them. I have consistently said this all season long, and I will not change my mind.
In 2025 so far, Hurts has completed 64.8% of his passes for 576 yards with no turnovers, while in 2024, he delivered 805 yards, five touchdowns, and a 106.6 rating on 65.3% accuracy. Go back to 2022, his peak efficiency stretch, and the numbers are even stronger: 1,062 yards, eight touchdowns, one interception, and a 119.7 rating on 65.6% accuracy. When asked to operate in the intermediate range, Hurts has repeatedly shown he can generate explosive gains without sacrificing control of the football.
Yet the Eagles’ usage trends tell a very different story. Hurts’ intermediate attempt rate has declined from 25.7% in 2020 to 15.8% by 2025, even though his efficiency in those very stretches remains high. The Eagles lean into intermediate concepts only when trailing, treating this part of the field as a last resort rather than a core offensive philosophy.
[T]he staff should define the rule (whatever it is, always break out, always break in, run a hitch, etc), just something to eliminate guessing. As I’ve said all year, the finer details matter. Instead, Hurts is forced to anticipate. This is what a poorly structured offense looks like. Quarterback confusion, route indecision and the scheme not helping.
[Jahan] Dotson has given the Eagles basically nothing this year. He runs lazy routes, has zero YAC threat, blocks badly, and has no usefulness as a gadget player. His route on this play is just awful. The Eagles need something different here next year.
The overall picture is grim. Since the bye, this offense is averaging fewer than 17 points per game, and none of it feels fluky. The passing game lacks rhythm and identity. The run game is completely non-functional, producing nothing even against bad defenses. Hurts isn’t playing well. Structurally, the offense is bad, the design is basic, and the only time they look remotely coherent is when they’re trailing and forced into desperation mode.
I try not to call for jobs, but I genuinely don’t understand how Kevin Patullo is still running this offense. Nothing is improving. Nothing is building toward anything. It’s not one person’s fault, but at some point, change is necessary. I’m disappointed we have not made a change.
The Cowboys suddenly feel like they can beat anyone
Looking at a winning record for the first time all season, Dallas has hope. At 6-5-1, they’re currently ninth in the NFC, just one spot behind the 7-5 Lions. Coincidentally, the Cowboys travel to Detroit to face the Lions next week. A win there would offer another exponential boost, increasing their playoff odds to a whopping 41% right before a two-game home stand.
Who could’ve imagined such a scenario just a few weeks ago? The list who could is very small, but count Brian Schottenheimer among them. He’s remained steadfast in his belief in this team all season long, and he’s being rewarded for it now.
After a rough start, fans were adamant that Schottenheimer needed to fire Matt Eberflus right away, insisting there was nothing he could do to justify staying around long term. Well, after averaging 0.172 EPA/play allowed over the first half of the year, good for 31st in the league, Eberflus has his unit allowing 0.000 EPA/play in their three games since the bye. That’s tied for 17th right now, though Monday Night Football is still pending in that data set.
Either way, the defense has made a considerable improvement. Adding good players will do that. But Eberflus has tweaked his scheme to incorporate his players’ strengths, too, most notably using more five-man fronts to get Quinnen Williams on the field with Osa Odighizuwa and Kenny Clark. And against both the Eagles and Chiefs, they’ve pitched a shutout for four full quarters.
What did we learn from the Giants’ 33-15 loss to the Patriots?
I had an opening to this post all lined up before the game: About Brian Daboll, for all his shortcomings, knowing how to evaluate quarterbacks, and how tonight’s game would match the quarterback he wanted last year and couldn’t get against the quarterback he wanted this year and was able to get. About whether Jaxson Dart would tone it down a bit coming off his concussion and seek to avoid unnecessary contact. About how new defensive coordinator Charlie Bullen might be able to rally the defense with a more aggressive approach and make a game of it against the 10-2 New England Patriots, especially with the New York Giants’ best cornerback, Paulson Adebo, returning to the lineup.
None of it mattered, though, as the Giants laid one of their familiar eggs that they manage to every season. In 2023, it was the 40-0 opener vs. Dallas. Last year, it was their post-bye 30-7 shellacking by Tampa Bay after returning from the bye and releasing Daniel Jones. This year, it was tonight’s desultory showing in Foxboro, a 33-15 embarrassment of a game that was for all intents and purposes over by the end of the first quarter.
What did we learn from this sorry showing?
Mike Kafka had better get his resume ready
Kafka was 0-2 as interim head coach in his first two tries, but the Giants led both games and played spirited ball against better opponents. The defense let them down in the fourth quarter of both games, but that was at least partly attributable to the vanilla defensive scheme of defensive coordinator Shane Bowen. With Bowen jettisoned last Monday, there was hope that interim DC Charlie Bullen might get the Giants’ pass rush going, confuse Maye with disguised defenses, and give the Giants a chance to preserve a fourth quarter lead for a change.
What we got, though, was an embarrassment on both sides of the ball.
Maybe Abdul Carter should be benched at the start of every game
If Kafka wanted to make his case for head coach as a motivator and respected leader, tonight did not help. We learned tonight that there was yet another Abdul Carter incident this week of him apparently missing a meeting or some other team event, although Kafka refused to actually say that. Once again, Kafka benched Carter to start the game. Kafka apparently got the memo that sitting for the first series was not enough to get his message across. This time Carter cooled his heels for the entire first quarter.
Our long special teams nightmare isn’t finally over
The Giants are not Pro Football Focus’ lowest ranked special teams group. In fact they’re middle of the pack. It’s hard for me to imagine what truly bad special teams play is, if this is middle of the pack.
Nincompoop of the Week – Vikings at Seahawks
The Minnesota Vikings went into Seattle to face the Seahawks, and it couldn’t have gone much worse. I won’t say it can’t get worse—because we all know it always can—but that was ugly. It was the first time the Vikings had been shut out since November 11, 2007. Max Brosmer got his chance to start, and he wasn’t ready. Poor blocking and dropped passes didn’t help him either. A 26-0 loss is a hard pill to swallow and highlights just how bad this team is right now.
KOC is on this list every week these days. He just can’t help himself on 4th or 3rd and short—he overthinks it every damn time. This time, he called a ridiculous play-action pass as the play clock was running low. The rushed play was blown up by the Seahawks. Brosmer made a bad play call even worse with a terrible decision. That effectively ended any chance the Vikings had at being competitive with the score at 10-0.
The defense is still playing strong, but the offense? It’s a disaster. More frustrating than the poor QB play is the overall offensive meltdown. Wide receivers routinely drop easy catches, the offensive line can’t block anyone, and the play-calling is an abysmal mess.
The NFL is seeing a pattern of officials botching the overtime coin toss
Prior to the overtime period beginning Sunday night, referee Land Clark led the captains for both teams in a coin toss at midfield. As the Broncos were the visiting team, Clark asked Broncos quarterback Bo Nix for his choice of heads or tails. The Commanders won the coin toss, so Clark turned to Commanders punter Tress Way to hear his choice.
“We’re going to kick that way,” Way told Clark.
Clark gave a quick nod before turning to Way again and asking, “Kick that way?”
“Kick that way,” Way reaffirmed.
Clark turned to Way again and reiterated in a half-question, half-statement tone, “you’re going to kick.”
Way then again confirmed the decision to kick. Clark turned to Nix and told him the Broncos would receive, going in the direction that Way selected.
“Washington’s choice,” Clark announced to the stadium as players from both teams dispersed. “They will kick this way.”
The issue is, it should not have been Washington’s choice for the option to kick or receive and choose the direction. The proper procedure would have been for Way to pick whether the Commanders wanted to kick the ball first or receive it. Then, Nix would have gotten the choice of the direction.
Instead, Way, intentionally or not, made both choices in a succinct sentence. Clark seemed to have some confusion, but perhaps given the relatively quick nature of the coin toss, he ultimately went with what Way said. Nix, nor any of the Broncos captains, for their part, didn’t jump in and ask for the correction, either.
On Sunday, things ended up being fine for the Broncos. They won the game after scoring a touchdown on their opening drive and then stopping the Commanders on a two-point conversion. But this mistake is becoming a pattern, as the referees allowed the same miscue last week when Russell Wilson (yes, he went out for the overtime coin toss) chose the ball and direction for the New York Giants in their game against the Detroit Lions. The Lions started with the ball and drove down for a touchdown, which the Giants couldn’t match as they turned the ball over on downs and Detroit won.
It also happened on Nov. 16 when the Carolina Panthers went to overtime against the Atlanta Falcons.
The week before, on Nov. 9 in Berlin, officials at the Indianapolis Colts game against the Falcons had to do the overtime coin toss over again after referee Clete Blakeman initially allowed the Colts — the designated home team for the game in Germany — to call the toss.
In late-season games with more extreme weather, the wind and field conditions could be even more important than who takes possession first and the NFL could have a problem on its hands if its officials continue to mess up the coin toss.
NFL RedZone Channel is now riddled with commercials, making a mockery of the league’s previous claims that the addition of commercials on RedZone would be limited in scope.
In Week One, the spin from the NFL was that commercials would barely be noticeable — only four short commercials during the whole seven-hour RedZone broadcast. According to Sports Business Journal, by Week 13 the NFL was running 16 ads during RedZone. Half of those feature the audio of a commercial that’s being shown in one box while football can be seen in another box. The other half take over much of the screen with banner ads while football can be seen on a smaller portion of the screen.
In many ways, the commercials on RedZone are worse than the commercials for any other broadcast. During a normal game, the commercials come at a predictable time, when the game is in a timeout and the announcers inform viewers that they’re going to a break. Viewers are prepared for those commercials. On RedZone, the commercials just interrupt the broadcast with no warning, suddenly appearing on the screen that a moment earlier had been showing football. You know, football — the “commercial free” thing the NFL once assured us we were going to watch when we paid for RedZone.