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Washington Post (paywall)
Commanders run rampant vs. Giants, snap eight-game skid
Rookie Jacory Croskey-Merritt comes off the bench to run for 96 yards and a touchdown in Washington’s first win since Week 5.
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Croskey-Merritt’s first start came against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 5, Washington’s last victory before the long skid. He had a breakout performance with 111 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. Across his next four starts, however, he rushed for just 157 total yards and failed to score a touchdown.
In Week 10, the Commanders turned to Chris Rodriguez Jr. And even with Rodriguez sidelined with a groin injury Sunday, third-down back Jeremy McNichols got the starting nod. Despite coming off the bench, Croskey-Merritt led the Commanders with 18 carries for 96 yards and one touchdown.
While Washington (4-10) won’t achieve the team success it wanted this season, Croskey-Merritt’s showing against New York (2-12) was a reminder that these final three games still hold value. General Manager Adam Peters and Coach Dan Quinn will use them to help determine who will have significant roles in the future.
This was the only game in the NFL this week without playoff implications. The low stakes were reflected by the crowd; MetLife Stadium was half empty at kickoff. The contest’s most relevant impact may be on the 2026 draft order, but it wasn’t the only one.
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Even with the Commanders’ passing offense out of sorts for most of the season, offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury had been reluctant to lean into a run-first offense. Coming into this week, Washington had called designed runs on 40.8 percent of its plays (16th in the league). With starting quarterback Jayden Daniels (elbow) missing his seventh game this season because of injury, Kingsbury changed his approach.
Kingsbury called a designed run on 55.2 percent of the Commanders’ offensive snaps, which is their second-highest rate this season. Overall, Washington ran the ball 37 times for 145 yards. Quarterback Marcus Mariota attempted just 19 passes.
The Athletic (paywall)
In a messy Commanders win, a 10-year journeyman turned into the most unlikely hero
Antonio Hamilton Sr. had a feeling this might happen. Or maybe he hoped he could manifest it. His wife, Tiara, graduated cum laude from his alma mater, South Carolina State, on Thursday with a degree in family and consumer sciences, an accomplishment she started years prior and set out to finish amid multiple moves and the arrival of children.
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Hamilton, 32, was tabbed to start his first NFL game in two years because of a rib injury to cornerback Jonathan Jones. A 10-year undrafted veteran whose career has been mostly prove-it opportunities on one-year deals, Hamilton proved plenty with two plays in coverage that all but saved Washington’s 29-21 win over the New York Giants on Sunday.
[W]hen cornerback Jones went down with a rib injury (his second injury this season) after the team earlier lost Marshon Lattimore (ACL) and rookie Trey Amos (fractured fibula) to season-ending injuries, Hamilton took on a larger role.
He played 56 defense snaps Sunday after playing only 31 in the first 14 weeks of the season.
With 20 seconds left in the third quarter and Washington leading 22-14, Hamilton punched the ball out of receiver Darius Slayton’s grasp in the end zone on a deep pass from quarterback Jaxson Dart. The Giants failed to convert on the ensuing third down and missed a 51-yard field goal attempt to preserve Washington’s 8-point lead.
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Then in the fourth quarter, after Washington squandered its healthy lead with two fumbles in a four-minute stretch, Hamilton again deflected a pass intended for Slayton, on a third-and-long with less than two minutes remaining.
The Athletic (paywall)
Commanders-Giants takeaways: Washington ends eight-game skid behind special teams
The teams combined for 17 penalties for 129 yards, but there were also flashes of promise.
The defining theme of the day was the play of each team’s special teams units. Commanders rookie Jaylin Lane took a Cameron Johnston punt 63 yards to the end zone, putting Washington up 19-7. Fittingly, Commanders kicker Jake Moody missed the ensuing extra point. The Giants (2-12), who have struggled in the kicking game all season and recently signed Younghoe Koo, missed two field goals — from 51 and 52 yards.
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The Commanders needed this. Dan Quinn and his staff needed this. After a disastrous shutout (31-0) loss to the Minnesota Vikings in Week 14, Washington ended its eight-game losing streak for its first win in more than two months. Up until the final six minutes, it was a mostly complete game by the Commanders.
By my goodness, could they make it any more painful? Just when it seemed the game was sealed, the Commanders fumbled twice — Marcus Mariota on a third-and-12, then Jeremy McNichols on a first-and-10. The Commanders had a healthy 15-point lead prior to the turnovers, but the Giants quickly cut it down to eight. Washington’s defense came through after the second turnover and forced a turnover on downs.
Heavy.com
Commanders Rookie Makes History in Win Over Giants
Somehow, [Jaylin] Lane was also 2 inches taller and 20 pounds heavier than he’d been listed throughout his college career when he checked in at 5-foot-10 and 191 pounds at the combine and ran the 40-yard dash in a blazing, 4.34 seconds.
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In 5 seasons at Middle Tennessee State and Virginia Tech, Lane had 4,381 all purpose yards and 23 total touchdowns and scored in a multitude of ways — receiving, rushing and returns.
For the second time this season, Lane returned a punt for a touchdown [against the Giants], this time with a thrilling, 63-yard score with 1:05 remaining in the second quarter on the way to a 29-22 Washington win. Lane finished with 91 yards on 3 punt returns.
The touchdown also brought Lane a piece of franchise history with it.
“WR Jaylin Lane has tied a franchise record with two punt return touchdowns in a single season,” Commanders Public Relations wrote on X. “Lane is the fifth Washington player to achieve the feat and first since RB Brian Mitchell in 1994.”
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For Lane, having both of his punt return touchdowns in wins seems to underline the fact he’s a player the Commander need to keep around. His first NFL touchdown came on a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown in a Week 3 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
Commanders.com
Instant analysis | Commanders snap losing streak with 29-21 win over Giants
Head coach Dan Quinn isn’t focused on the Commanders’ draft order; his mind was on the future as he stressed the importance of having a strong finish to an injury-marred season. Yes, younger players would get more snaps at certain positions, but he wanted to see the team compete and show they still believed in the culture he and the organization started to build last year.
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Washington’s 29-21 win wasn’t perfect — they gave the Giants multiple lifelines in the closing minutes — but it was a victory, and after two months of frustrating defeats, the Commanders will take it.
The offense put up 145 yards on the ground, led by Jacory Croskey-Merritt’s 96 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries. Washington didn’t trail for the entire matchup and held a double-digit lead for the first time since Week 5. Terry McLaurin led the team with 69 yards on three receptions, including a 51-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
The defense, which allowed Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy to have a career performance with three touchdowns last week, had a much better performance against Jaxson Dart and the Giants’ offense. Although the Giants put up 384 yards, the Commanders forced four punts and two turnovers on downs, one of which was at their own 4-yard line. They forced an interception from Dart, who also experienced more pressure from the Commanders’ front. Von Miller sacked him for an eight-yard loss, moving the outside linebacker up to 12th all-time.
The special teams unit also got in on the action with Jaylin Lane scoring on a 63-yard punt return — his second of the season. The 29 points scored by the team are its most since Week 3 when it scored 41 against the Las Vegas Raiders.
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Despite all that, the Commanders provided the Giants with opportunities to climb back into the game. New York nearly did it, too, thanks to four fumbles from the Commanders, two of which came in the final six minutes.
The best the defense looked all afternoon came in the closing minutes of the first half. The defense forced a three-and-out, which led to Lane breaking loose for his punt return touchdown. Then, after the Giants got to the Commanders’ 35-yard line, Mike Sainristil jumped in the way of a pass intended for Jalin Hyatt and returned it to the Giants’ 24-yard line, putting the Commanders in range for a 42-yard field goal to make the score 22-7 at halftime.
Big Blue View
The Giants’ tackling is unimaginably bad
I don’t think I saw as many of the gigantic holes for Jacory Croskey-Merritt to run through as I did, e.g., for Jahmyr Gibbs in the Detroit game. It didn’t matter, because even when Giants’ defenders are there, they either let ball carriers bounce/slide off them, or else they take awful angles to the ball and never lay a hand on the ball carrier. This happens at all three levels of the defense. Today such missed tackles directly cost them the game. Here are three examples:
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1.) I said “as many,” not none. Here’s the all-too-familiar parting of the Red Sea that occurs too often on running plays into the middle of the Giants’ defensive line. This one was a 16-yard TD for Croskey-Merritt:
2.) Jaylin Lane’s 63-yard punt return for a TD that came after the Giants had a chance to take the lead at halftime. I count three players who had the chance to tackle Lane and outright whiffed on him, only one of them who had any excuse of being engaged by a blocker:
3.) Not to be outdone, the secondary also had their “moments” missing tackles. Here’s Terry McLaurin’s late 51-yard TD that seemed to ice the game for Washington, courtesy of Paulson Adebo and Dane Belton:
NFL.com
NFL Week 15 takeaways: What We Learned from Sunday’s 14 games
Two Washington offensive weapons make statement. Both Jacory Croskey-Merritt and Terry McLaurin have endured trying campaigns. They brightened their experience as much as one can in a 4-10 season on Sunday.
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A preseason darling who seemed to make Brian Robinson expendable, Croskey-Merritt faded behind Chris Rodriguez Jr. in the backfield pecking order as time has gone on. He hadn’t eclipsed 40 rushing yards since Week 6 and hadn’t found the end zone since Week 5, but with Rodriguez out due to an ailing groin, Croskey-Merritt once again received a chance to be the guy. The seventh-round rookie made the most of it, and by a couple minutes into the second frame already had 44 yards and a score. He finished the contest with 96 yards and the TD on 18 totes, good for 5.3 yards per carry. He ran hard and effectively throughout, consistently keeping the Commanders ahead of the chains, and it’ll be interesting to see if he’s earned back a larger portion of the rotation in the team’s remaining games.
As for McLaurin, he had been either ineffective or injured for most of 2025 after a contentious contract dispute wiped out his training camp. He looked himself against New York, breaking free for a 51-yard TD catch in the fourth quarter to keep the Commanders out in front. In the past three games since returning to the field, McLaurin has 206 receiving yards and two scores, providing a glimmer of hope that he’ll live up to his extension yet.
Next Gen Stats Insight for Commanders-Giants (via NFL Pro): Despite completing less than half of his passes against man coverage (7 of 16), Jaxson Dart threw for 100 yards and both of his touchdowns when the defense was in man-to-man. Dart also gained 63 rushing yards on nine carries, his second-highest rushing total this season.
NFL Research: Jaylin Lane is the first rookie in Commanders history to return multiple punts for a touchdown in a season and the first Washington player with two-plus punt-return TDs since Brian Mitchell in 1994.
Heavy.com
John Bates: Logs one catch in Week 15 win
Bates caught his lone target for 19 yards during the Commanders’ 29-21 win over the Giants on Sunday. Bates hauled in a 19-yard pass from Marcus Mariota early in the second quarter, but the fifth-year tight end wasn’t targeted again for the rest of the game. Bates was named the starter for Sunday’s NFC East clash one week after Zach Ertz sustained a season-ending torn ACL, though the former will likely operate in a timeshare with Ben Sinnott for the rest of 2025. Next up for Bates and the Commanders is a Week 16 home tilt against the Eagles on Saturday.
Riggo’s Rag
Commanders hit the jackpot with Laremy Tunsil
[Broadcast analyst Jonathan] Vilma noted during the [Giants game] that Washington’s coaching staff had been highly complimentary of Tunsil leading into the game. After getting a closer look himself, the 2004 first-round pick out of Miami agreed.
“The coaching staff said how well he [Laremy Tunsil] has been playing this season. I went back and took a closer look for myself, and my word. He has been outstanding all year long.”Jonathan Vilma
The Commanders had to pay a premium to get Tunsil into the building via trade from the Houston Texans. Some wondered if it was worth the risk, but the Ole Miss product has answered every skeptic and more.
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One only has to look at the way he easily coped with the Giants’ edge rushing tandem of Brian Burns and first-round rookie Abdul Carter as evidence of his importance to Washington’s long-term plans. Fans know it, and those in power should too. That’s why extending Tunsil ahead of time this offseason should be high on general manager Adam Peters’ lengthy to-do list.
Tunsil wants to be paid, preferably in Washington. The Commanders don’t need to overcomplicate this one. Work something out that keeps the five-time Pro Bowler as the team’s blindside presence until retirement. He’s completely changed the landscape and is worth every cent he’s getting this spring.
Commanders Wire
6 takeaways from Commanders’ Week 15 win over Giants
This team has a fumbling problem
The Commanders fumbled four times on Sunday. Fortunately, rookie right tackle Josh Conerly Jr. was on the scene to recover two of those fumbles. Three different players fumbled, with quarterback Marcus Mariota fumbling twice. Mariota’s second fumble came almost at the midway point of the fourth quarter, with Washington driving to put the game away. The Giants recovered, eventually scoring a touchdown and making it a one-score game. Running back Jeremy McNichols fumbled on the Commanders’ next possession — New York recovered. Fortunately, Washington’s defense stopped Jaxson Dart and the Giants to preserve the win.
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Washington has fumbled 20 times this season. Jayden Daniels rarely ever fumbles, but his fumble against Chicago cost the Commanders a game. Mariota has fumbled six times this season, losing three. That’s in only seven starts. In total, Mariota has appeared in 10 games. McNichols, Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Daniels, Mariota, rookie wide receiver Jaylin Lane, Deebo Samuel and Zach Ertz have all fumbled this season. This is an area the Commanders need to clean up. For a mistake-ridden team, this is something you can fix.
Big Blue View
2026 NFL Draft Order: NY Giants still hold No. 1 overall pick
The New York Giants suffered a frustrating 29-21 loss to the Washington Commanders on Sunday as they returned from their bye week. As a result, the Giants continue to hold the No.1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
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The loss…highlighted the shortcomings of the Giants’ roster, as the receivers consistently failed to get open, once again forcing Jaxson Dart to hold the ball or take a big hit when scrambling, and struggled to hang onto the ball when they did find separation. This was also (probably) Jermaine Eluemunor’s worst game of the season, as he struggled against veteran pass rusher Von Miller, and the Giants struggled to consistently move the ball in short-yardage situations on the ground.
The Giants’ eighth-consecutive loss comes one day after Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy.
That brings us to the upside of the loss for the Giants: there are a number of quarterback-needy teams in the Top 10 of the draft, and it’s possible that Mendoza will be the only highly-regarded quarterback to come out this year. That could make the first overall pick highly valuable if teams like the New York Jets, Las Vegas Raiders, Cleveland Browns, and New Orleans Saints are all vying for the top quarterback prospect.
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The Giants’ road to the first overall pick is a tight one. They share a 2-12 record with the Tennessee Titans and Las Vegas Raiders (who they play in two weeks). The Jets, Browns, and Arizona Cardinals are also each a game out of the first pick at 3-11, though the Saints managed to beat the Carolina Panthers and improve to 4-10 on the season.
New York still has games against the Minnesota Vikings, the afore-mentioned Raiders, and the Dallas Cowboys to end the season. They remain a team that can compete with any in the NFL, as well as lose to any in the NFL, so no outcome between 1st and 10th overall is out of the question.
Riggo’s Rag
Commanders proved that head coach Dan Quinn has not lost the locker room
Pressure has been steadily building around Quinn. Nobody truly believed his job was in jeopardy after guiding Washington to the NFC Championship game in Year 1 of his tenure, but it wasn’t hard to see why his seat would get warmer if something couldn’t be salvaged from the campaign.
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Quinn demanded a response from his players after they suffered an embarrassing shutout loss to the Minnesota Vikings. If his message still did not resonate with the players, his pleas would have fallen on deaf ears. Fortunately for the Commanders, that wasn’t the case, and a fourth victory gave fans some solace amid the almost constant doom and gloom.
It doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. Still, it does prove that belief in Quinn hasn’t wavered. That’s the most significant positive above all else that the Commanders can take into the offseason.
Whether this trend continues with two games against the Philadelphia Eagles and a Christmas Day showdown with the Dallas Cowboys is [uncertain]. They [may] pose much tougher tests, but during a campaign where little has gone right for the Commanders, fans can take heart from the fact that [the Commanders players] are not giving up.
[E]veryone in the building is still pushing forward for Quinn, while most struggling franchises around the league have already thrown in the towel.
Podcasts & videos
AVALANCHE: Commanders HALT losing streak with 90-second explosion vs Giants
Photos
Commanders.com
PHOTOS | Commanders vs. Giants, Week 15
Check out the top photos of the Washington Commanders during their Week 15 matchup against the New York Giants.
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Bleeding Green Nation
Eagles vs. Raiders: The good, the bad, and the ugly
This was equivalent to a mercy killing of a team that was dead months ago, with the Eagles pounding the pathetic Raiders for 387 yards of offense, while holding Las Vegas to an inept 75 yards, where at times Raiders’ head coach Pete Carroll may have been looking in the opposite direction of where the ball actually was.
It was the Raiders’ NFL-high eighth-straight loss. The Raiders did not have a play over 10 yards. They entered the game averaging 15 points a game, the lowest in the NFL and the lowest in the NFL since the 2009 1-15 St. Louis Rams. The 75 yards the Eagles gave up on defense is the fewest since allowing 49 yards to the Chicago Cardinals at Connie Mack Stadium in a 27-3 Eagles’ victory on Dec. 4, 1955.
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Beating the Raiders was a get-right-for-the-moment game, but not a measuring-stick game. That should come in a few weeks against the Buffalo Bills, who are playing for the best record in the AFC and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
The 31-0 victory is the Eagles’ largest victory this season. By the fourth quarter, McKee was in the game to the cheers of the Linc crowd.
The defense sacked Raiders’ quarterback Kenny Pickett four times for minus-35 yards, with two coming from old man Brandon Graham, who became the oldest Eagle to ever have a sack.
The victory ended the Eagles’ three-game losing streak, it brought them to 9-5 and a step closer to clinching the NFC East for the second-straight year. It temporarily erased the Eagles’ lowest five-game scoring skid in a decade.
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That is all it did.
This team’s identity crisis persists. Real issues surface in real games against real teams. The Las Vegas Raiders are not close to an NFL team right now.
Blogging the Boys
Cowboys vs. Vikings recap: Dallas loses 34-26, season just about over
The Week 14 loss in Detroit took some wind out of their playoff sails, but a win at home against the Minnesota Vikings could keep hope alive. It could make things interest. It was part of what they controlled.
What’s more is that so many believed that they would. Oddsmakers favored them by over a field goal and just a few hours before kickoff the Vikings were formally eliminated from playoff contention themselves. It was as ideal of a situation as you could conjure up.
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It would appear that there is a more ideal one as the Cowboys dropped the ball and just about ended their season. They are still technically alive, we will talk about that soon enough, but this was when they knew they had to be perfect and they were nowhere close to it.
Obviously this is not shocking to anyone who has been following this team all season long. They have fallen short in these types of moments over and over again.
Those “types” of moments are just about gone until 2026 following the loss to Minnesota. Any real energy belongs to the 2026 season at this point.
Below you will find our recap of how Sunday night unfolded. It was rough.
Pro Football Talk
Jerry Jones: I didn’t expect to be behind the eight ball the way we are
“We certainly didn’t think we’d be here in this kind of shape with three games to go and be behind the eight ball the way we are,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said afterward. “It’s very disappointing. I’m really, obviously, very disappointed for our fans. I’m disappointed for these players. I didn’t expect that. I thought we could come out here and on both sides of the ball make a better accounting of ourselves. Minnesota did the best job out there today on both sides of the ball.”
The Cowboys aren’t eliminated from the playoffs, but their odds are longer than long to make the postseason. Realistically, they are done, something quarterback Dak Prescott acknowledged postgame.
The Cowboys know where they stand after a second consecutive loss: They will miss the playoffs for a second consecutive season.
“I don’t know how to describe a miracle,” Jones said. “I know it would take a very tight circumstance to get us in. We expected that. We thought we’d have to win out to have a little room, but not a lot. Now, of course, I know how to count.”
Big Blue View
4 things we learned from the NY Giants’ 29-21 loss to the Commanders
You could cut the tension with a snow shovel at MetLife for this meeting of two disappointing teams who’d love nothing more right now than a haul of high 2026/2027 picks.
What did we learn from the Giants’ 29-21 loss to the Commanders? Well, we learned that the No. 1 pick is still in play. But what else?
Daboll + Dart > Kafka + Dart
I thought that Mike Kafka got off to a good start as Giants head coach even though he lost his first two games. The firing of Brian Daboll was triggered by Dart’s concussion in Chicago, which precipitated another fourth-quarter collapse by the Giants. Kafka thus got to call his first two games with Jameis Winston at quarterback, and the Giants’ offense played well in both of them, especially in Detroit, almost defeating two possible playoff teams.
Dart then returned for the New England game, and though he didn’t play poorly, he didn’t play well, either. It was understandable against the Patriots, who have one of the NFL’s better defenses this season. The Commanders, though, have one of the worst defenses, particularly in pass coverage. Today, Dart did tone down the ball carrying heroics except for a designed run at the 1-yard line that did nothing but generate another visit to the blue tent. Maybe this is Dart’s kryptonite. For whatever reason, the Giants’ passing offense has looked inept for extended stretches in the past two games.
Part of this is Dart’s own fault. In particular today, he was overthrowing receivers on intermediate and deep routes, except for a beautiful deep pass to the end zone that Darius Slayton couldn’t hold onto. Still, though, the offense [has seemed] more conservative since Dart returned. Obviously it doesn’t help that Dart doesn’t have a WR1 to throw to and that Cam Skattebo has been out since the second Philadelphia game, but I thought Dart still looked better vs. the 49ers and Bears than he has since. The Giants’ final “drive,” after the Abdul Carter fumble recovery, was the icing on the cake. The Giants had the ball at the Commanders’ 49 with a chance to tie, and they could only move the ball to the 36 against a bad defense.
You know what else doesn’t help? Calling running plays on second-and-10 when you have an offensive line that is mediocre at run blocking. Kafka called four…yes, four…runs on second-and-10 in the first half of this game, and none of them succeeded. Once in a while? Sure. If even I can spot this tendency, though, I imagine that opposing teams can as well. Another example: After being penalized on second-and-10 for not getting the play in on time, Kafka called a draw on third-and-20 that got 2 yards. What are we doing here?
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ESPN
Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes suffers torn ACL in loss to Chargers
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffered a season-ending torn ACL in his left knee in the closing minutes of Sunday’s 16-13 loss to the Chargers, a result that ended Kansas City’s playoff hopes.
Mahomes underwent an MRI after the game that confirmed the injury. He and the Chiefs are now exploring surgical options, according to the team.
ESPN
Source: Packers’ Micah Parsons believed to have torn ACL
The initial belief is that Green Bay Packers star pass rusher Micah Parsons suffered a torn ACL in his left knee Sunday, a source confirmed to ESPN.
Parsons suffered the injury while trying to rush Broncos quarterback Bo Nix and immediately grabbed his left knee. He walked to the locker room with a significant limp. He was ruled out in the fourth quarter.
