Sunday Night Football: Broncos hold on, beat Commanders 27-26 in overtime

Evan Engram has not made many big plays for the Broncos this season. Entering Sunday night’s game against the Commanders, his longest reception of the year was just 20 yards.

But with a big 41-yard catch-and-run in overtime, Engram helped set up a go-ahead touchdown for Denver’s 27-20 victory over Washington.

After Washington tied the game at 20-20 with Jake Moody’s 32-yard field goal as time expired in regulation, the Commanders won the coin toss and elected to kick. The Broncos didn’t need many plays to go 76 yards down the field, with quarterback Bo Nix hitting a pair of 12-yard completions before finding Engram on a short pass over the middle.

Engram used a burst of speed to get 41 yards down the field, setting the Broncos up at the 11-yard line. A play later, RJ Harvey motored his way into the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown.

With the new overtime rules, the game wasn’t over. Playing for the injured Jayden Daniels, quarterback Marcus Mariota started Washington’s possession with a 20-yard strike to Terry McLaurin. While the game initially looked over with a fourth-and-6 interception by Brandon Jones, a defensive pass interference penalty extended the game after Mariota somehow evaded defenders enough to throw a pass to Jeremy McNichols.

While an offensive holding call took a deep touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin off the board, Mariota followed that with a 38-yard deep pass to Deebo Samuel that got the Commanders down to the 2-yard line.

But even after Mariota connected with Terry McLaurin for a 3-yard touchdown on fourth-and-goal, Washington couldn’t make one final winning play. With the Commanders electing to go for two instead of kicking an extra point, Mariota’s pass was batted down by a blitzing Nik Bonitto.

If Mariota had gotten it over Bonitto, there was a wide-open McNichols on the left side.

The Broncos had opened the scoring with a pair of field goals before Chris Rodriguez put Washington on the board with an 8-yard touchdown run. Courtland Sutton caught an 11-yard touchdown from Nix just before the end of the first half, before Treylon Burks had one of the catches of the year with an outstanding one-handed, 5-yard grab in the end zone to give Washington a 14-13 lead.

While RJ Harvey put the Broncos back on top with a 1-yard touchdown run with 3:59 in the third quarter, Washington tied the matchup with a 38-yard field goal off of a Bobby Wagner interception, plus a 32-yard field goal to end regulation.

Nix ended the contest 29-of-45 with 321 yards, with a touchdown and an interception.

Mariota was 28-of-50 for 294 yards with two touchdowns and a pick. He was also the leading rusher with 55 yards on 10 attempts. McLaurin had seven catches for 96 yards with a TD.

With the win, the Broncos move to 10-2 and for the moment have the AFC’s No. 1 seed, pending the result of Monday night’s matchup between the Patriots and Giants. Denver will be on the road to face 2-10 Las Vegas in Week 14.

For Washington, a long season continues as the club has lost seven in a row after a 3-2 start. The Commanders may get Daniels back from his elbow injury in Week 14 when the club plays the 4-8 Vikings on the road.