Bears' Darnell Mooney on loss to Commanders: 'If I just catch the damn ball the first time, we win the game'
Mooney couldn't haul in a fourth-and-goal pass to beat the Commanders

The Chicago Bears had a chance to beat the Washington Commanders on Thursday Night Football. A pretty good one, actually.
Down 12-7 with 52 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Chicago had first-and-goal from the Washington 5-yard line. On first down, Justin Fields scrambled away from pressure and gained one yard. On second down, he threw incomplete for wide receiver Darnell Mooney. On third down, he threw incomplete for Dante Pettis.
And then on fourth down, this happened.
This close. #WASvsCHI pic.twitter.com/S5OL385R11
— NFL (@NFL) October 14, 2022
Oof. Mooney had multiple chances to come down with that pass, but instead, he didn't haul it in until he was both short of the end zone and out of bounds. And so the Bears lost, 12-7. Mooney was not happy with himself.
"If I just catch the damn ball the first time, we win the game," he said during post-game availability, per NBC Sports Chicago.
What made it worse was his attitude prior to the play, because he had been practically begging for the ball to come his way after the snap. "At that period of time, I'm literally just telling myself, 'Just please, give me this ball. Give me this ball,'" Mooney said. "I just got to close the game for us. If I want to be that player, I want to be that guy for our team, I got to make that play."
The loss dropped Chicago to 2-4 on the season, and the Bears have now lost three straight after beginning the season 2-1. They head on the road to play the Patriots and Cowboys in their next two games, which means they'll be hard-pressed to produce much more offensively than they did on Thursday night. If they can't find the end zone more often, the losses are going to pile up.
















