Jan. 20, 2026, 4:46 a.m. ET
Wow, the Washington Commanders and Chicago Bears in some ways really mirror each other.
The 2024 Commanders defeated the Bears on the ‘Hail Mary’ that was caught by Noah Brown, uncontested in the end zone. The Commanders magically went on to win five games in the last seconds of the regular season. Reaching the playoffs, Washington’s Zane Gonzalez doinked a walk-off winning field goal off the left upright, defeating the Bucs 23-20, giving the Commanders six last-second wins.
How did the 2024 Bears respond to the ‘Hail Mary’ loss to the Commanders? Well the Bears completely fell apart. They disintegrated, frankly. The Bears came into the game 4-2 and after the ‘Hail Mary’ proceeded to lose ten consecutive games! The 4-2 Bears finished 5-12 winning only their season finale.
This 2025 season the two historic franchises met again. This time the Commanders were 3-2 leading late in the game when Jayden Daniels mysteriously never gained control of a deep snap, fumbled the handoff, the Bears recovered, and drove down the field, kicking a welk-off field goal, defeating Washington 25-24. For the second consecutive season the matchup ended with a game-winning play on the final snap.
This time it was the 2025 Bears who were hot, winning seven of eight games, including winning five games by a field goal or less this season. While Daniels was driving the Commanders down the field late to pull out games in 2024, this season the Bears’ QB Caleb Williams in six games drove the Bears to game-winning drives in the final quarter.
Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.
The Bears’ failures in 2024 led to the firings of head coach Matt Eberflus and interim head coach Thomas Brown. So, the 2025 Bears hired new head coach Ben Johnson. who brought in his new coaching staff. In 2025, after losing to the Bears, the Commanders endured an eight-game losing streak, losing ten of their last twelve games. Sure enough, the Commanders made major coaching changes as well, firing both of their coordinators, Joe Whitt Jr. (defense) and Kliff Kingsbury (offense).
So, the two easy questions to ask are, “Will the Commanders bounce back next season like the Bears did this season?” Secondly, “Will the Bears have a significant fall downward next season as the Commanders did this season?”