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Commanders’ opening-drive interception leaves Peyton Manning stunned

The Washington Commanders’ early turnover against the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday night was enough for NFL legend Peyton Manning to shriek during the game’s “ManningCast.”

Manning and every other NFL fan watching the game saw Marcus Mariota’s pass to Deebo Samuel go off his intended target’s facemask and into the hands of Chiefs defensive end Mike Danna for an opening-drive interception.

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“Oh no, you’re kidding me. Cannot happen!” Manning said as he put his head into his hands. “Another wide receiver screen. I like it. Get it out of your hand, hit Deebo. It went off his hands to his facemask, right to the defender. Gosh!

“He took his eye off of it. … Sick.”

The Commanders kept the game close in the first half. The two teams were tied at seven apiece going into halftime. But the Chiefs broke the game open in the second half while the Commanders’ offense failed to get anything together. Kansas City won the game 28-7.

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“It was a tale of two halves,” Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin said. “We kind of left some things on the field in the first half that we feel we could have executed. The defense did a great job of getting us the ball back twice. We’ve got to capitalize on that. The second half, they executed a lot better than us.”

Mariota was 21-of-30 with 213 yards, a touchdown pass to McLaurin and two interceptions. He was also sacked twice.

“We came out well,” Mariota said, “but when we’re not converting our drives against this type of team, it’s tough, because they’ll get going. I thought our defense did a good job of holding them up, making plays, creating turnovers.”

Washington fell to 3-5 on the season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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