The Commanders lost at home to the Broncos on Sunday Night Football in Week 13. The Washington came into the game with a 3-8 record and backup quarterback Marcus Mariota lined up under center while Denver was looking to keep pace with the Patriots for the best record in the NFL.
Needless to say, the Broncos probably didn't need help, but that's exactly what they got on multiple questionable calls in their fourth quarter comeback.
It started on Washington's penultimate posession of the fourth quarter when Mariota was tripped and went down on a play where he got back up and scrambled for about seven yards. While Mariota was down by contact as officials determined using the expedited replay review, he was also tripped. It should have been a penalty on the Broncos and a first down for the Commanders. Instead, the review ultimately didn't get the call right... so what is the point?
Refs review the spot and see that Mariota was down by contact but it was due to obvious tripping which should've been a penalty but the refs can't throw a flag off of a replay... pic.twitter.com/qFq1WeaOO0
— Rate the Refs (@Rate_the_Refs) December 1, 2025
Washington punted the ball away two plays later, but got the ball back with three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Facing second-and-10 from their own 26 Mariota threw the ball to Terry McLaurin who was interfered with by Patrick Surtain II. No flag was thrown and the replay showing the uncalled penalty didn't even merit a mention on the broadcast.
Should have been pass interference on Surtain pic.twitter.com/nYGtC1l0vx
— Tedd Buddwell 🏀🏈 (@TedBuddy8) December 1, 2025
NBC's Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth, along with rules analyst Terry McAulay, could not hold their tongues as two questionable calls then immediately went against the Commanders. First, McLaurin was called for a false start. Replay showed there was no false start.
Then on the very next play Mariota was called for intentional grounding on a play that McAulay said was not actually intentional grounding. With these two calls a first-and-10 turned into a second-and-25 and there was a 10 second run-off.
The NBC SNF crew disagreed with consecutive penalties against the Commanders on the final drive of regulation vs the Broncos.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 1, 2025
Rules analyst Terry McAulay: "This is absolutely not (intentional) grounding, guys." 🏈🦓🎙️ #NFL #SNF pic.twitter.com/lRzZhfqEGG
"So this is absolutely not grounding, guys. He throws it over the head of No. 17 who is outside the numbers. By rule that is not intentional grounding."
The Commanders went on to kick a field goal as time expired before losing in overtime on a missed two-point conversion. There's no guarantee they would have scored a touchdown in regulation to win the game if any of those calls had gone their way, but when you consider they made it into the red zone in the final seconds, it's worth wondering how much they would have benefitted from having those extra yards, downs and seconds.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Four Bad Fourth Quarter Calls That Helped the Broncos Beat the Commanders on ‘SNF'.
