Official Game Thread - Week 13 - SNF - Broncos @ Commanders

[NoCalSkins]

Normally "moral victories" still feel terrible, but in a season that is already lost, what I am mostly looking for is whether the team is checking out, whether the guys who come back healthy after the playoffs are not a possibility go out and ball or get cute & lazy.

2026 Week 1 can't get here soon enough!

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

Normally "moral victories" still feel terrible, but in a season that is already lost, what I am mostly looking for is whether the team is checking out, whether the guys who come back healthy after the playoffs are not a possibility go out and ball or get cute & lazy.

2026 Week 1 can't get here soon enough!

Well, yes and no depending on offseason! It will be interesting to see how it goes. With new ownership, the offseason matters.

 

[36ST21]

It isn't about Nix. The NFL is never going to rectify a penalty mistake by review. They played through a joke of a season allowing challenges and failing every single one of them, then they went back to not even pretending.

I agree. I was just making a wry joke that was clearly unsuccessful as I'm having to explain it. Just got tired of hearing from the announcers how great Nix is when he's completing throws against a defense that would find it challenging to cover a homeless guy pushing a shopping cart with one bad wheel on underneath routes or over the middle.

 

[method man]

Who thinks we would have been in OT with Whitt on the defensive play calling?

The Payton vs DQ chess game was awesome. That playcall to send Jacob Martin in coverage on 3rd down was awesome.

Also thought Kliff vs VJ was great too. Sans the ending, this felt like a game from last year where we were converting consistently on 3rd & 4th down with our playmakers stepping up. Props to Kliff for emphasizing getting the ball out of Mariota’s hands quickly and calling a great game against one of the best defenses in the league.

Given how bad JJ and Brosmer are, I think we beat the Vikings next

 

[SkinsInSATX]

All I want for Christmas is a W over Dallas in our classic SB unis!! Proud of this team, the way they never gave up!! Hail!!

 

[Ashburn Dave]

Great effort by the team and I'll take a moral victory and higher draft position all day long considering what we were playing for.

I would have taken the ball first though in OT. Their defense was gassed.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

Sometimes you lose because you play poorly. Other times you lose because the other guy just makes a play. The other guy made the play at the end last night. Sure, you can go back and “what if” a bunch of other plays in the game, but that last play that had to be made, credit to the d lineman who knocked that ball down. Mariota made all the plays he could make late in the game. Denver just made one more.

 

[CuredFromBatteredFanSyndrome]

I couldn’t keep my eyes open through halftime for this one. I had a feeling they were going to keep it close though.

As I mentioned several weeks ago in the how are you going to be a fan the rest of the way, a string of moral victories to end the season will do the trick. This one was that in a nutshell. Although playing it back, would have been good for Marcus and the rest of the gang to pull this out.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

I'm also in the camp that was relieved we didn't embarrass ourselves on national TV. I thought they played well and I was proud of the effort. But in the end come April this was the best result.

I would never take the ball first in overtime. If you go second sometimes you only need a field goal, that is a huge advantage to know this.

 

[SkinsNumberOne]

I'm also in the camp that was relieved we didn't embarrass ourselves on national TV. I thought they played well and I was proud of the effort. But in the end come April this was the best result.

I would never take the ball first in overtime. If you go second sometimes you only need a field goal, that is a huge advantage to know this.

That’s the main reason it is generally considered correct.

I think when you deal with extremes though, like “best pass rush” you may consider factors like them being tired. On average you have to kick like you said, I think.

 

[Boone]

I was surprised that, given Denver's ability to rush the passer, that he had Mariota drop straight back on that last play. Seeing that Mariota had been burning the Bronco's D most of the night with his feet, seems like at least the threat of him rolling out and taking off for the end zone would've been helpful. If he rolls him, he likely has time to hit the wide open receiver and probably win this game. Hard to fault the effort overall. Lots of missed opportunities and some seriously questionable calls by the officials. Kudos in particular to McLaurin who had a hell of a game.

 

[Faithful Fan]

I'm also in the camp that was relieved we didn't embarrass ourselves on national TV. I thought they played well and I was proud of the effort. But in the end come April this was the best result.

I would never take the ball first in overtime. If you go second sometimes you only need a field goal, that is a huge advantage to know this.

You’re wrong about losing being the best result, but you’re right about not taking the ball first in overtime.

 

[Boone]

The bottom line is that, coin toss decision aside, they got the job done in overtime and were in position to pull off a huge upset. It just didn't work out.

 

[Neophyte]

This was a "good loss", if such a thing actually exists.

There was real fight and effort in the team. The game plan was sound and well executed.

The Denver defense is unreal. Most of the night, I felt like they had 14 guys on the field.

Burks might, and I mean might, be a real find.

More Jordan McGee, please.

I don't know what store the Denver GM is shopping for DEs at but I want Peters to have a look around and check out what's on the shelves.

 

[Always Commander Never Captain]

Denver defense is really aggressive. They ran the D that Whitt thought he could. Loads of man coverage, and getting free rushers in a gap.

But besides that, it seemed like our OL, including our rookie OT played really well against the Broncos.

Terry is good. He's a clear step above every other WR we have. It makes the lack of talent without Terry really jarring. We need to add WR talent.

We also need to add Edge rush talent, but WR takes priority with how Jayden feels a need to win on every snap and puts his body on the line when the WRs suck.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

You’re wrong about losing being the best result, but you’re right about not taking the ball first in overtime.

In the spring when the Commanders are picking 5th and not 12th I promise you I won't care that they didn't beat the Denver Broncos in November. But with that said I was rooting for them and can hardly be critical of you for doing the same.

 

[Ashburn Dave]

I think with the coin toss decision it's more than just following the standard let's see what they do first so we'll know what we need. You need to factor in all the current variables like how tired their defense was.

If we score the first TD, who knows how their offense would have responded.

It doesn't matter now but I hated them deferring in OT since Denver's defense was ripe for the taking.

 

[prodigy]

In the spring when the Commanders are picking 5th and not 12th I promise you I won't care that they didn't beat the Denver Broncos in November. But with that said I was rooting for them and can hardly be critical of you for doing the same.

hence this was the "perfect loss"

 

[Faithful Fan]

In the spring when the Commanders are picking 5th and not 12th I promise you I won't care that they didn't beat the Denver Broncos in November. But with that said I was rooting for them and can hardly be critical of you for doing the same.

It isn’t obvious to me that the 5th pick is so much better than the 12th. We all remember drafting bums like Chase Young in the top 5. And these are the 12th overall picks in the last three drafts: Micah Parsons, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Bo Nix. Is that group really worse than their 5th overall counterparts Devon Witherspoon, Joe Alt, and Mason Graham?

What is obvious to me is that winning is better than losing. Not only is that the whole object of the game, otherwise why draft good players? But also it is good for the team to learn how to win and develop winning habits.

 

[Darrell Green Fan]

It isn’t obvious to me that the 5th pick is so much better than the 12th. We all remember drafting bums like Chase Young in the top 5. And these are the 12th overall picks in the last three drafts: Micah Parsons, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Bo Nix.

What is obvious to me is that winning is better than losing. Not only is that the whole object of the game, otherwise why draft good players? But also it is good for the team to learn how to win and develop winning habits.

I'm not dying on this hill, as I said I will never be critical of supporting winning. But yeah there is a reason teams trade big draft capital to move up in the draft, the 5th pick is clearly more valuable than the 12th pick. If for no other reason than it can used in a trade back to 12 while getting other picks. You are cherry picking examples, I can do the same the other way. The higher the pick the better chance you will have a better player. History has shown this to be the case.

This team learned how to win last season, these are not the Washington Wizards. I don't believe meaningless wins late in a losing season has much of a carry over effect. It's best long term to have a higher pick than to go from 4-13 to 5-12 with a meaningless win.