Washington resembled the 2024 Commanders in Week 13 loss

There are no moral victories in the NFL, especially when you have lost seven games in a row. That's the case for the Washington Commanders after they lost a last-second 27-26 heartbreaker to the Denver Broncos in overtime. After scoring a touchdown late in overtime to make it a one-point game, the Commanders went for the win, but Denver linebacker Nik Bonitto got his hands on Marcus Mariota's pass to help the Broncos win their ninth straight.

It was frustrating. It was heartbreaking. Washington had come so close in its last two games, losing both in overtime.

But something was different on Sunday night. For the first time in a long time, the 2025 Commanders looked like the 2024 Commanders. Sure, quarterback Jayden Daniels was out, but wide receiver Terry McLaurin returned. He had a massive impact, catching seven passes for 96 yards and a touchdown, which came against All-Pro cornerback Patrick Surtain II.

Don't discount the return of safety Will Harris, too.

Washington coach Dan Quinn also felt something different about Sunday's game.

"It was our ‘Tell the truth Monday’ and start off just by saying like, for us the scars are hard, but they also, the lessons are, they're deep," Quinn said on Monday. "And one thing I liked, man, our team showed a lot of resilience and a lot of fight. Excellent, and I would say we recaptured some of that, and that was needed. I felt the energy they displayed for one another. I felt it on the field, on the sideline. It was there all night, and that was a good deal. These moments matter; these close fights matter. Afterwards, in the locker room, man, this was like two teams throwing blows back and forth to one another, and those are the fights that matter. You love being in them. And I thought although the two-point conversion didn't go our way, a lot of the other winning time moments did."

That's not often the type of praise you hear from a losing coach. That's often the talk of a coach with a bad team, whose squad just hung tough against a good one before falling short. While that's sort of true, what Quinn said was also true.

While McLaurin and Harris returned, the Commanders were still a beat-up bunch. However, they competed on every snap. They hit harder and arrived at the ball faster. They were not perfect by any stretch, but the effort was more like what we saw last season than what we saw in Washington's first 11 games this season.

Even "Hard Knocks" captured Quinn praising Sunday's effort.

"We lost, but we're not lost anymore," Quinn said. That's actually a perfect way to describe where the Commanders are currently.

This isn't a case of a Washington team that played hard but fell short, so vibes were better. This team is full of veterans and badly wants to win. Everything that went right for the Commanders last season has gone in the opposite direction this year. On Sunday, Quinn saw a glimpse of his 2024 team. We saw it, too.

What does it mean? Maybe nothing. Washington is all but eliminated from the playoffs with five games remaining. That doesn't mean they're going to roll over and quit. This is now the time Quinn and GM Adam Peters find out which players should be Commanders in 2026 and beyond. These are the tough times. It's how you bounce back.

The hope is that Washington will not face another year like 2025 for a long time. A season that started badly with Terry McLaurin's summer holdout, followed by numerous injuries to multiple starters, never seemed to get on track. Everyone knows momentum does not carry over from one season to the next, but the final games this season are critical for players like Daniels and McLaurin.

After Sunday's game, fans weren't even mad at the Commanders. They saw something different for the first time. Can it continue in future weeks? We shall see.

Washington is on the road to face the equally struggling Minnesota Vikings in Week 14.

This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Washington Commanders: A much better effort in Week 13 despite loss