It took until the second half, but the Eagles put on a display of its rushing attack – led by the other worldly Saquon Barkley - that should put the entire league on notice.
When the Birds offense clicks the way it did in the second half and the defense dominates the way it did against a good Washington Commanders team Thursday night during the Eagle 26-18 win at the Linc, it is hard to find a team that can match this roster.
Going into the fourth quarter, the offense could only must six points and trailed 10-6.
Worse, All Pro kicker Jake Elliott has missed two field goals that were well within his range.
The defense though, was solid all game. Vic Fangio's troops held the Commanders offense, that was averaging close to 30 points a game fueled by Washington's rookie sensation Jayden Daniels, to just ten points.
At the 12:04 mark of the fourth quarter, Jalen Hurts finished an eleven-play 76-yard drive with a one-yard sneak into the end zone. Elliott started the boo birds to howl again when he missed the extra point.
The field position the Eagles were able to start this drive - at their own 24-yard line - was aided by Nolan Smith's sack of Daniels that lost eight yards. If he does not get the sack, the punt would likely have had the Birds drive start inside their 10-yard line.
Smith has four sacks on the season.
Then came the play of the game by linebacker Zack Baun.
Daniels, with 11:55 left in the fourth, led the Commander to the Eagles 23-yard line.
The Birds tightened up, forcing a fourth and two. Sound familiar?
Washington's first year head coach Dan Quinn elected to go for it rather than a chip shot field and take a one-point lead.
On the snap, Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter blew up the play, Daniels seemed out of sync. The rookie signal-caller immediately and made a run tohis right for the first down marker.
Baun got to him first, knocking him out of bounds just short, thus handing the ball off to the offense.
“He bobbled the snap,” Baun said after the game. “He's a confident guy, made a run for it I've got to get him on the ground or out of bounds.”
Baun swears he had no idea where the markers were when he hit Daniels.
“I didn't know he had the first down or not, honestly,” Baun said. “I didn't know until I got up and looked at the sticks, that's usually how it goes.”
Baun said defenders on this unit seem to know when they are needed to make an impact.
“When it's your turn to make a play, you've got to make a play...so that's what I did. It was my turn,” aid Baun, who finished with a game-high 14 total tackles (eight solo) and defended pass. “It goes back and fourth, you've just got to be excited for guys making plays all over the field.”
Baun was asked to talked about the importance of complimentary football.
“That's what it's all about,” Baun said. “Our biggest thing on defense is...if the offense scores, we've got to get a stop on defense and we know how crucial that is to changing the game.”
AFTER THE STOP, BARKLEY TOOK OVER
The stop certainly changed the game.
The Eagles took over at their own 26-yard line with 7:55 left in the fourth quarter.
Hurts hit tight end Dallas Goedert with a 39-yard pass to the right side of the field. The seven-year veteran fumbled after a hit by safeties Quan Martin and Jeremy Chinn.
A heads up play by fellow tight end Grant Calcaterra, who was following the play, recovered the fumble at the Commanders 30-yard line.
Three plays later, Barkley took the hand off from Hurts and raced 23 yards for a score. A seemingly relaxed Elliott hit the extra point and the score was 19-10 Eagles.
On the Commanders first play from scrimmage on the ensuing drive, Daniels threw a pass intended for Dyami Brown but was intercepted by Reed Blankenship at the Washington 46.
Barkley got seven yards on the first play of the drive...then exploded up field for a 39-yard TD to make the score 26-10.
Daniels got the ball with just 4:38 left in the fourth needing two touchdowns and two two-point conversions just to tie the game.
He got one TD and two-point conversion, but unfortunately used up all but 28 seconds to get it.
The onside attempt failed and that was that.
QUOTES AND MORE STATS
Barkley finished with 146 yards on 26 carries, two touchdowns. He also caught two passes for 52 yards. Kenny Gainwell rushed four times for an eye-popping 43 yards. Hurts ran for 39 yards on 10 carries and a touchdown.
Barkley talked about his big day by passing the compliments to his teammates.
“It all started with Kenny,' Barkley said. “Kenny got in there and go things going. He opened up things up for me a little bit.
“The O-line, we trust them, kept leaning on them and trusting them...then we started popping some runs.”
Barkley was asked to talk abut the offensive line in particular.
“They're always amazing,” he said. “They're always amazing. It's only going to get tougher. We're putting up a lot of rushing yards, gaining a lot of respect.
“That's going to be the mindset of teams coming in games making sure we don't do that. When we get the game going we're a tough team to beat.
“The beauty of that is we have a lot of great talent on the team. We have to find ways to get them involved.”
Landon Dickerson, who left the game for a series after “my knee got hit” talked about Barkley. He did not spare any comments.
First things first...how did he get treated so fast to come back in the game.
“I did a couple squats and get over it,” Dickerson said.
Dickerson says on the big Barkley runs, he does not see much aas he is blocking to open a who for all the running backs. But eventually he sees what everyone else in the stadium and on TV gets to see.
“They have a better view than I do,” Dickerson said. “He just does freak things. Freak athlete, amazing running back, amazing dude, athletic, great vision, a great asset to have on our team.
“He makes us look great,” Dickerson continued. “The things he's able to do even when things aren't perfect...phenomenal. I've really ever seen anything like it.”
It is almost getting taken for granted that this defense is dominant. Nakobe Dean, who finished with ten overall tackles (eight solo) and a defended pass, said the team worries more about what they are doing, nit the other team.
“We just had to execute our job,” Dean said at his locker after the game. “We focused more on what we had to do, rather that one person stopping our offense as a whole.”How much is Dean looking forward to the mini-bye week?
“It's big,” Dean said. “I feel like this is when your body gets that second wind of the season. It's good to get that mini-bye, relax a little bit...I think the coach is giving us the weekend off o we get to relax a little bit, get our bodies right and come in Monday ready to go.”
And having a comfortable lead in the NFC East?
“Of course we want the division to run through Philadelphia,” Dean said. “But we have to keep going, trying to get better. We've got a lot of more games left...seven more games...so we'll just take them one game at a time and the next game is the most important.”
C.J. Gardner-Johnson was asked about holding Daniels to a pedestrian 22 of 32, 191 yards and an 81.6 quarterback rating.
“Respect his game, but make him play quarterback,” Gardner-Johnson said at his locker after the game. “And understand that when he becomes and athlete, he becomes very dangerous. Tonight I think we did a great job of making him play quarterback.”
DANIELS AND QUINN
Quinn didn't wait to be asked about his decision to go for it on fourth and two early in the fourth quarter. He started his press conference addressing his decision.
“Let's start off with the biggest play,” Quinn said. “Obviously to go for it, 4th-and-2 at the 26 – bold call. But, I would also say we were prepared for that moment.
“Didn't love the execution, but we've been an excellent fourth down team. So going into it, we knew we would have to take our shots against a tough division team on the road.
“We thought that was an appropriate one. Certainly didn’t like the execution or the result, but we were prepared for that. And being bold in those moments, knowing we'd have some fourth downs.
“But that's one we could fix. The third down on both sides was tough, especially offensively tonight. And, like I said, a game like this puts you through the resilience.
“And I’d love to say that the season is going to go all along smoothly, but you know, the adversity comes and hits. And, like I said, a tough division game on the road.”
Quinn was asked if Philadelphia’s momentum factored in to the 4th-and-2 decision.
“It did,: he said. “Yeah, all of it did. But we also felt strongly – I guess I felt even more strongly there just because of that [momentum].”
Daniels was asked for his thoughts of the decision to go for it on fourth down:
“I trust the coaching staff and the decision they made. I'm always a part of, ‘Hey, let's go for it.’ I trust my teammates. I trust the unit. So, I always trust the coaches. I never question them.”
Daniels was asked about what happened during the snap on the fourth-down play:
“Yeah, I mean, I’ve got to be louder with the cadence. So, I take fault on that. Tyler (Biadasz) probably didn't hear me, so it was delayed with the snap. It gets loud down there. We're under center, especially in that type of situation at that part of the game. So, I just have to be louder.” *
Email Al Thompson at al.thompson@footballstories.com
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