Eagles Hold On For The Win

Posted September 13th, 2026

Season openers can be weird. There was the spitting incident last year. 2023 featured a fast start and then the team getting sloppy in an ugly win. The win over Detroit in 2022 was a wild affair. The Eagles led 38-21 at the end of three quarters and and to hold on for dear life to win 38-35.

The 2026 win over Washington will join the list of weird openers. Both offenses were ugly. There was a blocked extra point and a terrible penalty on Stefon Diggs that proved to be crucial. With the game on the line the Commanders called a play to get the ball to…John Bates? Makai Lemon caught 3 passes for -5 yards. Terry McLaurin caught 2 passes for only 14 yards. Cooper DeJean struggled in coverage. Dallas Goedert continued to be a TD machine. Lots of odd things went on in the game.

The difference is that the Eagles made winning plays.

• Jalen Carter got penetration and time his jump right to block an extra point.

• Jalen Hurts hit Goedert with a dime on third and goal from the 17-yard line for the first TD of the season.

• Dontayvion Wicks ran a great route in the red zone and got wide open for a 9-yard TD.

• Goedert caught a pass over the middle, spun away from defenders and then raced 25 yards for a TD.

• DeVonta Smith made a great catch down the sideline to set up a FG. Beautiful throw from Hurts.

• Moro Ojomo came up big on the 2-point attempt at te end of the game.

• Hurts had key scrambles on two scoring drives. He ran for 14 yards to help a FG drive and then went for 22 on third and 18 to keep a TD drive alive.

• The Eagles held WAS to one play that went for more than 17 yards. The Eagles offense had 5 plays that went for 22 or more yards.

• WAS was kept from attempting a 2-point play when Stefon Diggs was called for a celebration penalty after scoring a TD.

Neither team played well. The Eagles just made more winning plays and that proved to be the difference in the game.

The Eagles have plenty of issues to work on. The OL was very up and down. Landon Dickerson really struggled. He allowed a sack, a TFL and was called for at least one penalty. Cam Jurgens drew a couple of flags. Jordan Mailata had one. They struggled to consistently block the WAS front on run plays.

That is a combination of good defense and bad blocking.

The Eagles had a few blown coverages that led to key plays. Jihaad Campbell lost his WR on third and long and that turned into a first down. There was confusion on the final WAS TD. I’m not sure who was at fault on that one. The front did a good job of getting pressure, but struggled to get hits and sacks. They were credited with 2 hits and 1 sack.

Zack Baun might have played his best game. He was spectacular.

Don’t ever take that dude for granted. He is a special player.

Nick Sirianni is now 6-0 in season openers. We might not always like the way he does certain things over the summer, but he wins in Week 1. Hurts has been the QB for all of those wins. The coaches will celebrate the win for about 20 minutes and then will focus on the issues that need to be fixed for this team to do what it wants to. There is plenty to clean up.

It is important to remember that with no preseason action for starters the first few games will feature some sloppy football. Your guys are healthy, but rusty. That’s a trade-off that modern coaches are willing to embrace.

Eagles are 1-0.

*****

Is that petty of me? Why yes it is. And it was fun as well.

https://igglesblitz.com/2026/09/eagles-hold-for/

A week one win is a win. Other teams tripped up or suffered shock losses. Some teams looked good. Others who you thought would struggle maybe looked better than expected. In 2024 weren’t the Saints on some kind of crazy pace on offense? Through the first 3 weeks and then our defense shut them down. So the early weeks are strange and wins are wins.

That said the OL was horrific and I thought in totality the defense though good ultimately let up 22 points (and could have been more if it wasn’t for a great XP block, a dumb Diggs penalty and a bad decision by Daniels at the end).

When looking at this game, I compared what the Philly media reported in training camp and preseason to what I watched yesterday.

Basically, expectations vs reality.

The offensive line is shaky......maybe it's age and injuries or maybe it's the loss of Stoutland, but the offensive line is no longer dominate......they are average and can play below average.

Barkley and Bigsby......Barkley took advantage of the opportunities, but, inexplicably, Bigsby was barely on the field. After hearing how great they both looked in preseason, I expected to see Tank spell Barkley more and get more touches.

Hurts had a decent game......made some nice throws for scores and some nice runs but was under pressure a lot.

But it's obvious the offense needs more time to develop the new system.....and can they stop those idiotic quick out throws that ALWAYS lose yards?

Overall, I think the defense was a bit disappointing but made some big plays with the blocked extra point and Ojomo's 2pt conversion stop. And Daniels has great escapability. That last Washington scoring drive shouldn't happen but they held them under 300 yards and limited Daniels for the most part.

A win is a win......especially against a division and conference opponent. But plenty of room for improvement.