LAST-SECOND REVERSAL: BEARS FLIP ’24 SCRIPT, EDGE COMMANDERS
Jake Moody kicked a 38-yard field goal as time expired and the visiting Chicago Bears upset the Washington Commanders 25-24 on Monday night.
Moody, elevated from the practice squad Monday after Chicago ruled out Cairo Santos (quad injury), hit four of his five field-goal attempts in his first game on the Bears’ active roster.
After the teams traded punts with Washington leading 24-22 in the fourth quarter, the Bears’ Nahshon Wright recovered a Jayden Daniels fumble at the Chicago 44 with 3:07 remaining. D’Andre Swift had a 10-yard run to give the Bears a first down, and he later ran for 15 yards to the Washington 18.
Two plays later, Moody ended it, giving Chicago (3-2) its third consecutive win.
It was a measure of revenge for the Bears, who lost last season’s matchup 18-15 on a last-play Hail Mary pass from Daniels to Noah Brown.
Swift finished with 108 yards on 14 carries. Chicago quarterback Caleb Williams completed 17 of 29 passed for 252 yards and one touchdown.
Daniels threw for 211 yards on 19-of-26 passing. He had three touchdowns and one interception for Washington (3-3).
The Commanders played without injured receivers Terry McLaurin (quad) and Brown (groin/knee).
Washington, which fell behind 13-0, took a 17-16 lead when Daniels found Luke McCaffrey all alone for a 33-yard touchdown with 2:56 left in the third quarter. The score came two plays after Daniels hit Jeremy McNichols for 13 yards on fourth-and-2.
Moody’s 48-yard field-goal attempt on the first play of the fourth quarter was blocked. Daniels subsequently hit Jaylin Lane for 37 yards to the Chicago 7 and then found Zach Ertz in the back of the end zone from 6 yards out, and Washington led 24-16 with 11:27 remaining.
Sixty-one seconds later, the Bears were within 24-22. Williams hit Swift with a short pass, and Swift eluded a tackler along the sideline and raced 55 yards for a score. A pass attempt for a two-point conversion was incomplete.
Moody capped Chicago’s opening drive with a 47-yard field goal to make it 3-0.
Chicago then scored 10 points off Washington turnovers to go up 13-0 early in the second quarter.
Washington answered when Daniels found Chris Moore for a 22-yard touchdown with 9:28 left until halftime.
Matt Gay’s 53-yard field goal early in the third quarter made it 13-10.
After an illegal-formation penalty wiped out a touchdown pass, Williams was sacked before Moody booted a 41-yard field goal to make it 16-10 in the middle of the third quarter.
BIJAN ROBINSON ERUPTS FOR CAREER NIGHT AS FALCONS BEAT BILLS
ATLANTA — Bijan Robinson tied a career high with 170 rushing yards and ran for an 81-yard touchdown on Monday, helping the Atlanta Falcons post a 24-14 victory over the visiting Buffalo Bills.
Michael Penix Jr. completed 20 of 32 passes for 250 yards and a touchdown to Drake London, who hauled in 10 passes for 158 yards as the Falcons (3-2) won their second straight game.
Josh Allen threw for 180 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions for the Bills (4-2), who dropped their second straight. James Cook ran for 87 yards for Buffalo, which was outgained 443-291.
Trailing 21-7, Buffalo cut its deficit in half to open the third quarter, as Allen capped a nine-play, 73-yard drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Ray Davis.
After a punt, the Falcons forced Buffalo’s turnover on downs at the Atlanta 47-yard line with a minute remaining in the third.
Atlanta then squandered a golden chance to take a two-score lead, as John Parker Romo had his 37-yard field goal blocked by Greg Rousseau and recovered by Buffalo at the Bills’ 39-yard line.
Buffalo couldn’t capitalize, as it was forced to punt on its next two series before Atlanta sealed the game with a five-minute drive, finished off with Romo’s 33-yard field goal at the 1:43 mark of the fourth. DeAngelo Malone picked off Allen to punctuate the Falcons’ first win over Buffalo since 2013.
Tyler Allgeier bullied his way for a 21-yard rushing touchdown to stamp the game’s opening drive.
Allen answered with a 45-yard pass to Joshua Palmer on Buffalo’s first play, before finding Dawson Knox on a game-tying 19-yard touchdown pass.
After each team punted, the Falcons retook the lead as Penix fired a 9-yard touchdown to London on third-and-goal to give Atlanta a 14-7 lead entering the second quarter.
Following Buffalo’s second straight punt, Robinson broke off the longest rush by any player in the NFL this season. His 81-yard score extended the Falcons’ advantage to 14 with 11:09 left in the second quarter.
The Bills punted on four of their first five possessions, with their sixth ending in Allen’s interception to Dee Alford at Buffalo’s 49-yard line with 10 seconds left in the first half.
Two plays later, Penix found London for 40 yards, but the Atlanta wide receiver was pushed out at the 1-yard line as time expired, leaving the Falcons’ lead at 21-7.
TITANS FIRE COACH BRIAN CALLAHAN AFTER 4-19 RECORD AND 1-5 START TO SECOND SEASON
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Titans fired Brian Callahan on Monday after a 1-5 start to his second season, making him the first NFL head coach ousted this season.
Chad Brinker, the Titans’ president of football operations, said team officials had extended conversations with controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk and general manager Mike Borgonzi before meeting with Callahan on Monday morning to tell him that Tennessee was making a change.
“While we are committed to a patient and strategic plan to build a sustainable, winning football program, we have not demonstrated sufficient growth,” Brinker said in a statement. “Our players, fans, and community deserve a football team that achieves a standard we are not currently meeting, and we are committed to making the hard decisions necessary to reach and maintain that standard.”
The Titans did not immediately say who would be interim coach. They host former Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel and his New England Patriots (4-2) on Sunday.
Callahan went 4-19, which featured a 10-game skid.
He becomes just the second coach fired during the season by this franchise since relocating to Tennessee in 1997, joining Ken Whisenhunt. Whisenhunt had a 3-20 record when fired in November 2015, with a stint that also included a 10-game skid to end the 2014 season.
The Titans had said they wanted to see improvement this season with Callahan going into his second season as a first-time head coach and with a rookie quarterback in Cam Ward. Yet Callahan had to hand off play-calling duties after dropping to 0-3 and the offense struggling.
Even the change in play-caller didn’t help.
The Titans have scored only 83 points and are averaging 3.94 yards per play. Only the 2019 Jets, the 2018 Bills in Josh Allen’s rookie year, the 2009 Browns, the 2009 Raiders in JaMarcus Russell’s last season and the 2007 49ers have scored fewer than 84 points and 4 yards per play through six games in the past 20 seasons.
Of the 241 NFL coaches who have coached at least 20 games or more since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, Callahan ranks 237th with a .174 winning percentage. The only coaches with worse winning percentages were Jim Ringo (.130), Marty Mornhinweg (.156), Chris Palmer (.156) and Rod Dowhower (.172).
The Titans knew that this would be a rebuilding year, and Brinker said at the start of training camp that improvement was the one sign they were looking for. They have played at least seven rookies in each game this season, led by Ward, the No. 1 draft pick.
Callahan was hired in January 2024 for his work with quarterbacks including Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, also a No. 1 pick, in 2020.
But Ward is the most-sacked quarterback in the NFL, with 25 already, including a pair of games with six sacks each, following a 20-10 loss to the Raiders.
This marks the fourth time in five years that a team that picked a quarterback with the No. 1 selection fired the coach during the season.
Callahan joins Matt Eberflus (Chicago, 2024), Frank Reich (Carolina, 2023) and Urban Meyer (Jaguars, 2021) in that group. Hue Jackson also was fired by Cleveland in 2018 and former Titans coach Jeff Fisher by the Rams in 2016 in the same situation.
