Bears beat Commanders on last-second field goal

LANDOVER, Md. — On the site of the ‘‘Fail Mary,’’ it was the Commanders’ turn to make a colossal mistake Monday night.

Call it the ‘‘Hands-off Handoff.’’

One year after the Bears lost on the final play, they won at the gun when kicker Jake Moody, who had been on the Bears’ active roster for less than eight hours when the ball was snapped, made a 38-yard field goal as time expired to beat the Commanders 25-24 at Northwest Stadium.

‘‘I’m just glad I was able to come through for the team,’’ Moody said. “It feels amazing. It’s huge.’’

The Commanders led 24-22 with 3:10 left and faced third-and-one from the Bears’ 40-yard line, needing a first down or two to bury a sloppy Bears team.

Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, who was drafted one spot after Bears quarterback Caleb Williams and who heaved the ‘‘Fail Mary’’ last season, took a pistol snap and turned left to hand off to rookie running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt.

Daniels fumbled.

Cornerback Nahshon Wright fell on the ball at the 44, giving the Bears new life after a game in which their own mistakes kept snuffing out early signs of momentum.

‘‘The play is never over,’’ Wright said.

The Bears’ sideline couldn’t believe the team’s fortune.

‘‘They had a gift for us,’’ wide receiver Rome Odunze said. ‘‘We opened up the present and got it back and drove down and got the field goal.’’

The Bears handed off to running back D’Andre Swift for two yards and then again for three before, on the first play after the two-minute warning, Williams threw a six-yard pass to rookie tight end Colston Loveland for a first down.

Swift ran for 10 yards on the next play to get the ball to the Commanders’ 31. Williams then ran for a loss of one, forcing the Commanders to use their final timeout. A toss right to Swift broke open for 15 yards, putting the ball at the 18.

Williams took a knee at the 20 to wind the clock to the three-second mark, ensuring the Commanders wouldn’t have a ‘‘Hail Mary’’ attempt to beat them.

Up stepped Moody, who had struggled so mightily in his first three seasons with the 49ers that they cut him after Week 1 after he missed a 27-yard field goal and had a 36-yarder blocked. The Bears signed him to their practice squad a week later, betting on a change of scenery to match his impressive leg, but claimed he was merely insurance for Cairo Santos.

Moody was called up from the practice squad at 3 p.m. Monday to replace Santos, whose balky quadriceps wasn’t fully healed 15 days after he first hurt it. Moody made three of his four field goals before the final boot, with the only miss coming on a block on the first play of the fourth quarter.

The Bears flubbed their first chance at redemption. With 7:57 left and the Bears trailing by two, Williams jogged onto field at his own 9-yard line.

After wide receiver DJ Moore was penalized for lining up offside, running back Kyle Monangai was stuffed for a loss of two on first down. On second-and-16, wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus, a former Commander, dropped a pass on a crossing route. On third-and-16, he gained 14. On fourth down, the Bears punted.

Had Daniels and his running back not fumbled the exchange, that would have been the Bears’ best fight.

Playing just 10 miles from Gonzaga College Prep, where he went to high school, Williams went 17-for-29 for 252 yards and one touchdown, a 55-yard catch-and-run by Swift in the fourth quarter. He had a 98.6 passer rating. Daniels went 19-for-26 for 211 yards, three touchdown passes and a 119.2 passer rating.

The Bears started the game with a field goal by Moody, who kicked another after safety Jaquan Brisker intercepted Daniels at the Bears’ 2 and returned it 32 yards. Brisker later was among the group of Bears to pounce on a fumble by Croskey-Merritt, which led to the Bears’ first touchdown.

A year ago, the Bears tried to score a one-yard touchdown by handing the ball off to backup center Doug Kramer, who was lined up at fullback. He fumbled the ball away. On Monday, head coach Ben Johnson called a quarterback sweep right, and Williams inched past the front right pylon to give the Bears a 13-0 lead.

Mistakes doomed the Bears in big moments for much of the rest of the way. Making his first start at left tackle, Theo Benedet lined up too far behind the line of scrimmage, which negated a third-down touchdown pass in the third quarter. On a third-down snap later in the third, Williams bobbled a bad snap, setting up another field-goal try by Moody, only for it to get blocked.

With about nine minutes left and the Bears trailing by two, Daniels threw incomplete on third down, but Brisker was flagged for roughing the passer, giving the Commanders a first down.

The Bears saved their best effort for their last chance,’ however.

‘‘Two [games] in a row on the road having these types of wins is really good for the culture of the team and learning how to finish games,’’ tight end Cole Kmet said. ‘‘That’s something that since I’ve been here we’ve struggled with. Hopefully we can ride these coattails for a little while.’’