Eagles Comeback Conquers the Commanders

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Eagles Comeback Conquers the Commanders

Posted: October 29th, 2023 | Author: Tommy Lawlor 

In my gameday piece I talked about hoping the Eagles would come out and dominate Washington. The Eagles are the better team and I wanted to see them play like it. Take control early and destroy Washington’s will.

Not even close.

The Commanders led 14-3 in the early second quarter. Sam Howell started off 16 for 17. He was just shredding the Eagles secondary. The only incompletion was a deep ball where the throw was about a yard or so off.

It felt like a repeat of the Week 4 game. WAS led 17-10 at halftime, just as they did in the first game. There was more weirdness, just like the first game. The Eagles fumbled twice inside the 5-yard line and WAS nailed a 61-yard FG. Crazy things tend to happen when the Eagles and Commanders play. In recent years, the weirdness has favored WAS. The Eagles do tend to win the games, but the craziness makes things tougher than they should be.

The Eagles didn’t panic when they were down. Jalen Hurts played his best game of the year, going 29-38-319 with 4 TDs. He didn’t throw any picks, but did have a goal line fumble. The Eagles tried the push play, but Hurts bobbled the snap and lost the ball. Hurts was playing on a sore knee and it slowed him down. He finished with 4 carries for 6 yards. This was one of those games where Hurts had to win with his arm and his brain.

It helps that he had AJ Brown to throw to. AJ became the first player in NFL history to have 6 consecutive 125-yard games. He finished 8-130-2. His TD right before the half was an amazing catch.

Normally I yell something when the Eagles have a big play. I just stared at the TV on this one because I figured there was no way this was a legit catch. Then we saw the replay and damn if it wasn’t. Amazing hands and body control. Even crazier, after the game we found out AJ made the same catch in practice on Friday. Doing that twice in three days shows you just what a special player AJ is.

Hurts hit DeVonta Smith for a 38-yard TD on a blown coverage. Smith finished with 7 grabs for 99 yards. Julio Jones caught his first TD as an Eagle. Apparently the Eagles practiced that play a lot on Friday. Hurts and Jones got comfortable with it and that led to an 8-yard TD in the game.

The Eagles needed all of this offense because the defense struggled in a big way. Forget stopping WAS, they had trouble even trying to slow them down. WAS had a season high 472 yards. They scored 31 points.

Howell had been sacked 40 times coming into the game. The Eagles only got to him once, and that came late in the game. WAS focused on getting the ball out quickly and that negated the rush for the most part. Eric Bienemy called a terrific game and Howell executed it brilliantly.

It sure felt like WAS had receivers open over the middle all game long. Howell made quick reads and accurate throws. That kept the chains moving and made them hard to stop. The coaches need to study the tape carefully to figure out how they can fix this. The Eagles have a brutal five game schedule coming up. Those teams will go over those tapes and find every weakness to exploit.

Howell did make one mistake and Reed Blankenship made him pay.

That pick set up the go-ahead TD.

Haason Reddick came up with a fourth down sack with just over two minutes left. The Eagles could have put the game away. D’Andre Swift ran for a short TD to make it 38-24 with 1:50 left. He should have slid at the 1 or 2 so the Eagles could have run out the clock. Instead, he scored the TD. WAS then drove 72 yards in four plays to score a TD and make it 38-31. DeVonta recovered the onside kick to seal the game.

The Eagles were sloppy throughout the game and that almost cost them a win. They made enough key plays to overcome the mistakes and they now have the best record in the NFL at 7-1.

You can appreciate the Eagles win even more by looking around the league. The Niners lost to Cincy, 31-17. That is SF’s third straight loss. Brock Purdy threw 2 INTs and lost a fumble.

The Chiefs went to Denver to take on the awful Broncos. Naturally Denver won 24-9, handing Patrick Mahomes the fourth double-digit loss of his career. KC didn’t score a TD for the first time in three years.

The Eagles are not perfect to be sure, but they are finding ways to win. Don’t underestimate just how important that is.

http://igglesblitz.com/2023/10/comeback-conquers-commanders/