LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Washington Commanders part-owner Magic Johnson criticized coach Ron Rivera’s team for playing with “no intensity or fire” in a 40-20 loss Thursday night to the Chicago Bears, a club that hadn’t won a game in nearly a full year.
The latest poor showing for the Commanders, in front of a national primetime audience, to boot, also was too much for some of the home fans to take, apparently, and so it came, appropriately, with a soundtrack of boos. In the fourth quarter, a chant of the team’s old nickname — “Let’s go, Redskins!” — broke out.
Their defense — supposedly a strength under Rivera, a former Chicago linebacker, and coordinator Jack Del Rio — was unable to do a thing to slow, let alone stop, Justin Fields and DJ Moore, and the Commanders (2-3) fell into a 24-point halftime hole along the way to dropping their third game in a row.
