If you wanted to use just one word to describe the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders at Northwest Stadium Sunday, you might pick the word “marred.”
The Eagles lost Jalen Hurts on the fourth play of the Eagles second drive of the game to a concussion. The Birds were up 7-0 at the time.
Kenny Pickett stepped in with mixed results, but still managed to lead the offense and score 26 points over the rest of the game.
But it wasn't enough as the Eagles fell to the Commanders 36-33 on a Jayden Daniels' four-yard touchdown pass to Jamison Crowder with six seconds left of the fourth.
Pickett was 14-of-24 for 143 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He was sacked three times for a loss of 25 yards.
The Eagles as a team fumbled twice, losing one. The Eagles offense only hit on 18.8 percent of its third downs (3 of 16) while allowing Washington to convert 53.8 percent (7 of 13).
The Eagles committed ten penalties for 91 yards including losing one of their best defenders,
C.J. Gardner-Johnson to ejection with 11:31 left in the third quarter.
The Eagles did intercept Washington’s talented rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels twice (Reed Blankenship and Gardner-Johnson) but only sacked him once and allowed Daniels to rush nine times for 82 yards.
Twenty-nine of those yards game on the last play of the third quarter when, on a fourth and eleven at the Eagles 41-yard line, Daniels zigged and zagged his way to the Eagles 12-yard line.
The Commanders would score on a four-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus to make the score 27-21 Eagles.
The Commanders committed five turnovers and were charged with six penalties for 93 yards and somehow won the game.
EVEN WHEN THE BIRDS DID SOMETHING GOOD, IT WASN’T RIGHT
Marred is one word, head coach Nick Siranni chose “sloppy.”
“Just sloppy, sloppy on with penalties, sloppy with too many men on the field, sloppy with our fundamentals,” Sirianni said. “And when you play a good football team like we did today, and your sloppy regardless of how many turnovers you force, it's going to be hard to win.”
The Eagles led 21-7 after the first quarter.
Saquon Barkley scored on a two-yard run at the 11:15 mark to to make the score 7-0. With Hurts out for the game with 9:15 left in the first, Pickett led the Birds to a 14-0 lead after he hit A.J. Brown with a four-yard TD pass.
The Pickett honeymoon was over quickly when with 4:34 left in the first, Pickett, who was clearly fixated with throwing the ball to Brown first, then DeVonta Smith (23 of his 25 targets went to those two), was intercepted by linebacker Frankie Luvu at the Eagles 25-yard line.
Four plays late it was 14-7 after Daniels hit Crowder with a six-yard touchdown pass.
Barkley took matters into his own hands, when, on the second play of the next drive, the former Penn State star took the handoff and raced 68-yards for a touchdown to make the score 21-7.
The Commanders, who had committed two turnovers at this point, regained their composure to drive 96 yards on eight plays ended their long impressive drive with a 32-yard strike from Daniels to Terry McLaurin to make the score 21-14 at the half.
The Eagles would go on to score on four Jack Elliott field goals in the second half (he missed one from 56-yards as time expired at the first half), the defense seemed to fall apart in the second.
The Birds lost defensive linemen Jordan Davis and Josh Sweat for a while. Sweat returned to the field for regular scrimmage play, Davis was limited.
CJGJ GETTING TOSSED MAY HAVE COST THE EAGLES THE GAME
Behind Daniels outstanding play and an offensive line that kept their quarterback clean for the entire second half, the Commanders scored three second half TDs to the Birds four three-pointers.
The 56-yard field goal miss wasn’t the only problem for the Eagles on this blisteringly cold afternoon.
Not one kickoff by either team went for a touchback…all were returned. Washington enjoyed good field position all afternoon.
Kick returner Luke McCaffrey was outstanding all day. His first return of the game went for 47 yards.
Elliott, who made a fifty-yard field goal for the first time this season, said the weather affects the quality and distance of the kicks.
“It was 20 degrees,” Elliott said. “When its 20 degrees and you try to kick a ball or golf in cold weather, the ball doesn't go. That's what playing on December in the Northeast does.”
Elliott said the Eagles will look at what went right and what went wrong and deal with it.
“You move on,” Elliott said. “They're a good NFL team. It is what it is. Sometimes it doesn't turn out your way. You move on, fight adversity...it may be good for us.”
In the end, CJGJ not being in the game for most of the second half may have had a worse impact than the cold.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES AND MISTAKES COST THE EAGLES THE GAME
Elliott’s 40-yarder with 2:02 left in the fourth gave the Birds (12-3) a 33-28 lead.
The Eagles wanted a touchdown on that drive but didn’t get one because one of the most sure-handed receivers in the game came up short at a critical time in the game.
On third-and-five at the Commanders 22-yard line, Pickett threw an accurate pass over the middle to Smith who may have had a clear path to the end zone, the 13th win of the season, the NFC East title and a path to the No 1 playoff seed.
But Smith dropped the ball. It was reminiscent of Barkley’s late game drop against Atlanta Week 2.
“I was calling for, he put it right in my hands, I didn't make the Goddamned play,” Smith said at his locker after the game. “He played good, he played good. I think he settled in well...he made the right reads and things like that. Unfortunately, I didn't make the last play.”
ALL THE BIRDS NEEDED WAS A STOP.
Gardner-Johnson was warned by the referees when he was called for unsportsmanlike conduct the first time...that he faced ejection if he did it again.
He did it again early in the third quarter and was tossed.
After Smith’s drop, it was obvious all the Eagles needed was a stop.
Well…on the kickoff after the field goal, McCaffrey retuned the ball 29 yards from their nine. Incredibly Eagles safety Sidney Brown got called for illegal formation on the kickoff and five yards was added to McCaffrey’s solid return.
The Commanders needed just 57 yards to win the game.
When the Eagles needed on their best defensive playmakers, where was he?
He was in the locker room…not from injury, but from an immature act.
Daniels matriculated the ball down the field, hitting Crowder for the game winner. He looked wide open.
Blankenship tried to take the blame for the blown coverage.
“It was a well thrown ball,” the third year safety out of Middle Tennessee State said. “But at the end of the day...I've got to get the the pre-snap communication right. I've got to be more loud with [the commands].
"I saw it coming. I alerted it but...if I'm going to be the leader of the back end, I've got to be better at that. If you guys want to point fingers, point fingers at me on that. At the end of the day, we're going to fix that. “
MORE QUOTES AND STATS
Barkley was asked about the play of Pickett.
“I think he did a good job,” said Barkley, who finished with 150 yards on 29 carries and two TDs. “We just didn't win the football game, you know? If one play goes here or one play goes there, it'd be a different conversation. That's how it works.”
Barkley, who if you take out the one carry for 68 yards, only averaged 2.92 yards per carry on the 28 carries talked about how players take winning or losing as the next week unfolds.
“When you lose, the conversation tends to be different, but also for us, you've gotta find the beauty in it,” Barkley said. “You gotta learn from it. And that's why when you win football games, you've got to have the same mindset.
"I think we've been doing a really good job over the last 10 weeks or however many weeks or however many games we won coming in and even when we win, treating a meeting and film like we lost the football game; stay locked in."
“It's easy to watch when you win and it hurts when you lose. We gotta go out there and win the NFC East and we gotta move on and get ready for Dallas.”
Darius Slay had the same take.
“This is what football is,” Slay said at his locker after the game. “It's the beauty of the game. That's why you have continue to play 60 minutes. You could see, they wanted it at the end.”
COMMANDERS QUOTES
Former St. Joe’s Prep standout wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus had a big day with five catches for 70 yards and two touchdowns.
Like Pickett, Daniels did some good things and some not so good things. The rookie out of LSU finished 24 of 39 for 257 yards and five touchdown passes. He threw two interceptions, rushed for 82 yards on nine carries.
Zaccheaus said Daniels does not play like a guy in his first season on the NFL.
“He's not a rookie,” Zaccheaus said at his locker after the game. “People put that tag on him. He has poise in every situation. He's done this throughout the year. At the end of the day, he's a competitor and wants to win.”
Center Tyler Biadasz said he likes this team because it never gives up.
“It was a back and forth game,” Biadeasz said at his locker after the game. “These division games, that's how they roll sometimes. It's adversity. It happened on both sides..it's the counter...it's like how many rounds you have in a fight.
“You keep on countering, you keep coming back, next play mentality” continued Biadasz, who played for Dallas Cowboys from 2020–2023 after being drafted in the fourth round out of Wisconsin. “hat's what DQ (Dan Quinn) always talks about.,...that mentality...next one, next play. Whatever happens...good, bad or ugly...next play.”
Free safety Jeremy Reaves agreed.
“You're never out of a fight, right,” Reaves said. “It's the NFC East. I always say, these games come down to three, seven points. It's just that type of division.
Former Eagles tight end Zach Ertz said he took liked the spirit of this Commanders team.
“Never stop fighting,” said Ertz, who caught one pass for 12 yards. “Obviously, early in the game we turned the ball over way too much by our standards. There's a lot of stuff we fell short on. But to have the composer as a team to just continue to fight and believe in one another...it is really just a testament to this whole locker room.”
One silver lining for Eagles fans within this game. Even though their game was marred from start to finish, they still should have won the game...they still were the better team even without Hurts.
That is something to bank on going into next week.
MONDAY ADD ON
It has been revealed that Pickett may have injured his ribs during the Commanders game.
He said he is being checked on Monday.
Sirianni was asked on Monday how he will run practices this week since players coming back from a concussion like Hurts is dealing with are not usually cleared to practice until later in the week.
“There are different approaches that we take with that,” Sirianni said. “It depends on skillset of guys and the different skillsets. Sometimes it's to give the player the things that he operates well at; sometimes it's what you're going against with the defense.
“Just like you would when a wide receiver is out of the game or a defensive back is out of the game, you adjust. This is no different. You adjust. There are a lot of similarities. There are little differences, but there are differences.
“But it's just something that you adjust to, and this is the unfortunate part of the NFL. We've had a lot of experience doing this with different positions and that includes the quarterback."
Sirianni was asked about this situation being about the quarterback position, which obviously is a little different than a receiver. How much does that change?
"What I'm saying is every position requires -- what's bigger or what's smaller of an adjustment, you guys can debate that," Sirianni said. "What I'm saying is, every position that you are without a guy that's normally playing there is an adjustment to be made, and quarterback is no different.
"So, there will be an adjustment that we have to go through. I'm not going to sit here and say this is how much adjustment, but every time there is a player out there is an adjustment to be made." *
Email Al Thompson at al.thompson@footballstories.com
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