OPINION:
The Washington Commanders went to Madrid to search for something — maybe a little Sangria, a few sombreros — but most importantly, some salvation.
Instead, the Commanders (3-8) found more sorrow, and the longest plane ride home of a long and lost season in a soul-crushing 16-13 overtime loss Sunday to the almost equally woeful Miami Dolphins (4-7).
As soon as the 44-22 beatdown by the Detroit Lions at Northwest Stadium last week ended, the Commanders were looking to leave the country, hoping to find good times in Spain — and maybe a win after five straight losses.
“It’s a trip to Europe,” quarterback Marcus Mariota told reporters after the game. “It’s an opportunity for us to kind of dive in together.”
Offensive coordinator Kliff Klingsbury said during the week: “I think it is a good change of scenery for us, going through the last month that we had. I think just to come together as a team on the road, playing in a new city, an awesome environment that’ll be revved up. I think that’ll be really good for us.”
It looked good — a week full of Commanders fans enjoying the sights and sounds of Madrid, players connecting with a new NFL fan base and more than 78,000 people filling the stands at Bernabeu Stadium, home of the great Real Madrid soccer club.
But it turned out to be bad. Season-ending bad. Spanish Inquisition bad.
After the last month of 20-plus point losses, this one may have been the most painful of all — a loss that came with victory just outside their grasp.
Mariota was nearly the hero of the game when he took off on a 44-yard run with under 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter to put the ball on the Miami 15-yard line. But the Commanders failed to capitalize and gave the Dolphins the ball back deep in their territory.
The Washington defense, under the direction of coach Dan Quinn, who took over the play-calling duties from coordinator Joe Whitt Jr., showed up to play this week, even if they were facing the 25th-ranked offense in the league.
They stepped up to stop Miami, forcing a punt from Miami’s own 16-yard line. But Commanders safety Mike Sainristil, forced into punt return duties after Jaylin Lane was sidelined with a hip injury, fumbled the punt, and Miami took over at the Washington 42-yard line with four minutes.
The Dolphins moved the ball down near the goal line, with a chance to take the lead with a field goal attempt in a 13-13 contest with less than two minutes remaining. Remarkably, they went for a touchdown instead on 4th and 1, only to be stuffed by the Commanders’ defense.
Mariota and the offense moved the ball quickly to give kicker Matt Gay a chance to win with a 56-yard field goal with 10 seconds left in regulation. But he missed.
They were playing in the most soccer-crazed country in the world. They were playing in the stadium where the most popular soccer team in the world plays. Washington could have probably pulled someone out of the stands to make that kick.
On the first play from scrimmage in overtime for the Commanders, Miami cornerback Jack Jones intercepted Mariota. Two plays later, Dolphins kicker Riley Patterson kicked the 29-yard field goal for the win.
Those are the details of the autopsy.
Needless to say, the Commanders won’t be as excited about returning home in two weeks after next week’s bye.
They’ll be facing a powerful Denver Broncos defense likely traveling with an Orange Crush group of fans prepared to call Northwest Stadium their home field for the day, like Lions fans did last week.
Commanders fans may have made a better show of it Sunday in Madrid at iconic Bernabeu Stadium. They call it iconic in part because it’s been there since 1947, undergoing a $1.3 billion renovation recently — paid for by the soccer club.
The renovation includes a new retractable roof. They also call it iconic because of the drama witnessed there — multiple Real Madrid championships and other historic soccer events.
They used to call RFK Stadium iconic. It opened 14 years after the Madrid stadium and also bore witness to history and multiple championships.
It’s now a pile of rubble, soon to be replaced by a $3.8 billion stadium that President Trump wants named after him.
From television evidence, it appeared Commanders fans from around the world made their presence felt at Bernabeu — even though it was technically the home field for the Dolphins.
Several years ago, the NFL started dividing up the world, with each team claiming a piece as its own — their “Global Marketing Program.” Most teams got multiple countries to pillage. The Dolphins, for instance, have Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and the United Kingdom, in addition to Spain.
The Commanders? The United Arab Emirates.
Peter O’Reilly, NFL executive vice president of Club Business, International and League Events, said at the owners meeting in March: “We don’t know the timing, and it’s really an if in terms of whether we’ll play a game there. What I will say is that’s a market where there’s strong interest in our game on a year-round basis … it’s a market we’ll continue to explore.”
Start making your plans.
• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.
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