For the first time this season, the Eagles play a typical 1PM game.
It was also their first game in the division.
The defense responded with their most embarrassing drive of the season. Outside of some great coverage plays by Josh Jobe, it was a seven-minute drive of watching Darius Slay trail a receiver with the ball, missed tackles, Jalen Carter getting run over, penalties, etc. The defense should have been utterly embarrassed by that showing.
Apparently, they weren’t because they came out the following drive lining up outside, blatantly dropping interceptions, and leaving receivers 20-yards of room to make catches. It’s like Sean Desai went brain-dead in the last week and the team was still letting him call the defense.
On offense. however, the Eagles started with what seemed like their most complete drive of the season. Hurts had no incompletions and Swift continued to pound the rock. It was much more reminiscent of the drives from last season (though there was no deep shots).
All throughout the first half, the refs called asinine penalties against the Eagles. An offsides against the offense where they ignored the defensive tackle literally touching the ball before the snap. A “pass interference” called on a ball thrown well out of bounds. A holding on the defense that had nothing to do with any part of the play itself.
Unfortunately, the refing situation didn’t change and more bogus calls were made for the Commanders and ignored when they should have gone in the Eagles favor (though at least some of what Washington was doing got called).
The third quarter was much like we saw from this offense in the past with a dominant offensive run to put the Birds in the lead and the defense shutting down the Commanders.
Suspect play calling from Brian Johnson and abject failure to make tackles kept the game close in the fourth quarter. That’s where another bogus penalty (taunting) wound up giving Washington literally just enough yardage to tie the game up as time expired.
An excellent play by Reed Blankenship to put his arm where McLaurin couldn’t get his foot down and had to push forward out of bounds gave the Eagles the ball with excellent field position. Hope seemed to be lost when Hurts took an intentional grounding penalty to puss them out of range.
Despite that, a nine-yard gain saw Jake Elliott take the field to kick a 54-yard field goal and keep the Eagles undefeated.
With the Dolphins losing, the Eagles record can only be matched by the 49ers this week.
Offensive MVP: AJ Brown
Ignore the taunting penalty, because that was bull. Brown registered nine catches for 175 yards and two touchdowns. He also had at least two passes that should have been caught had it not been for penalties – only one of which was actually called pass interference. It was easily his best game of the season to date.
Defensive MVP: Nicholas Morrow
It was tough to decide who did the most while slipping up the least for the defense in this one. I’ll go with the linebacker Nicholas Morrow, who wasn’t even on the initial 53-man roster but recorded an impressive 11 tackles in this one. He was there frequently to clean up runs and short passes that should have been stopped by other defenders and, more impressively, wound up with THREE sacks as an off-ball backer.
Nick Morrow is the first Eagles off-ball LB with two sacks in a game since Michael Kendricks against the Bears in that 54-11 game in 2013.
— Reuben Frank (@RoobNBCS) October 1, 2023
Game Notes
- Jake Elliott was impressive once again, going 4/4. With the pressure on, he hit his long of 54 yards, making it 8/8 he’s had success with game-winning kicks.
- Despite all the praise Jalen Carter has been receiving he allowed the running back to run by him through his arms multiple times that would have prevented a score or forced a fourth down.
- If Terrell Edmunds had any ability to make a catch, he was gifted an INT that would have prevented 7 points, but dropped it. It’s hard to imagine any of the other team’s safeties doing that had they not been down two safeties.
- The refs granted the Commanders 3 extra plays to turn a field goal into a touchdown (twice, one that did become a touchdown) and forced the Eagles to punt instead of continue their second drive with some of the most bogus penalties seen this season.
- Daruis Slay was all but useless in the first half. The team might have been better off had they simply put Kelee Ringo in to see if he could find himself anywhere near a receiver prior to the ball going that way. Unfortunately when he picked his play up in the second half he was slow to get up after a tackle.
- Cannot downplay how incredible that catch by DeVonta Smith was that setup the field goal just before the half.
- Incredible blocking from Smith and Zaccheaus on that 59-yard touchdown by AJ Brown – particularly from Zaccheaus who wasn’t anywhere near the play and sprinted up for the block.
- Brian Johnson is a problem. Just when the offense seems to be clicking in the third quarter, he pull three straight plays that shouldn’t even be in any NFL playbook out of the hat to stall a drive for a field goal.
- All that talk on Jalen Carter just to watch him whiff more times than he made a tackle in this one.
Injury Notes
- Cam Jurgens left at the half with what was reportedly a foot injury. He was replaced by Sua Opeta.
- Darius Slay was shaken up in the third quarter and had to exit. He did return a few plays later.
Washington Commanders @ Philadelphia Eagles – October 1, 2023
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT |
|
Commanders |
7 | 10 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| Eagles | 7 |
3 |
11 | 10 | 3 |
