Eagles Postgame Report: Birds Are Pathetic In Finale Hosting Washington

The Eagles offense came out slow with the backup line looking absolutely atrocious. That got the Commanders the ball quickly where they went on a drive that took over 10 minutes, extended by a hold on Jakorian Bennett and a fourth-down conversion where the refs ignored a blatant hold against Brandon Graham directly in front of the quarterback. In a ball don’t lie moment, the Commanders then missed a 24-yard field goal.

The Eagles came out with Bigsby taking gashes and McKee throwing on target to punch in a touchdown even after a key drop to put the Eagles up seven.

The Commanders were handed the ball on the two-yard like by a “pass interference” that was called because Bennett grabbed the arm of a receiver who was holding his facemask as he tried to get the hand out of his facemask. That gifted the Commanders a touchdown off the back of awful officiating to tie the game.

Behind big plays from Bigsby, the Eagles pushed down to the six-yard line where they failed to convert on 3rd and 2 and 4th and 2 with stupid pass-first play calls that saw poor protection and limited options in the short field, leading to a turnover on downs. The Commanders took it to the two-minute warning before Jalyx Hunt, in coverage, broke on the short route for an interception to get the ball back at the 22-yard line. A 17-yard pass to Darius Cooper seemed to move them into striking range before he took a taunting penalty to move the back Eagles to the 20-yard line. McKee threw the ball right to a defender for an easy interception the Commanders returned to the 30 for a shot at points of their own.

The Commanders got the field goal to take a 10-7 lead at the half off of Cooper and McKee blowing the points.

After a three-and-out to start the half, the offense got pinned at their own 9-yard line. They gained nine yards on a run and then, instead of running for the easy first down, McKee ran to the line and heaved and incompletion that had no chance of being anything other than an interception or incompletion. Grant Calcaterra took a false start and the Birds quickly punted the ball right back.

After spending a timeout, Johnson missed the snap and Jalyx Hunt beat him to the fumble to get the ball at the Washington 28-yard line. After a reception by Covey to move the chains, the Birds handed the ball off to Tank Bigsby five times in a row for 18 yards to punch the ball in for another touchdown to take the lead.

Ringo dropped an interception, but the incompletion forced the three-and-out anyway. Bigsby, McKee, Covey, Cooper, and Granson all had a hand in moving the ball down near the red zone before the drive stalled out. Jake Elliott hit the field goal to push the lead to seven.

The defense was slop and then the Commanders were gifted another DPI in the endzone, this time on McWilliams, on an underthrown play where Deebo grabbed the defenders facemask and used illegal hands to the face. A false start was wiped away by DPI on Bennett, yet again. On their fifth straight play inside the 10-yard line, the Commanders got a touchdown on blown coverage by Jihaad Campbell and Sydney Brown to tie the game up.

Jahan Dotson dropped the first-down reception, to force a quick punt back to Washington. Ringo immediately handed them 32 yards on another pass interference penalty before the defense literally didn’t cover the back so that he could run 18 yards with no one coming anywhere near him for the first 15 yards. The Eagles defense was held in two places blatantly with no calls to clear the running lane for Josh Johnson to grant a new set of downs before Kelee Ringo was too stupid to tackle the quarterback and instead ran away from him on a QB run to score the touchdown and hand the lead back to Washington.

McKee took the Birds 34 yards before throwing an incompletion to turn the ball over and all but lose the game at the same time as the Lions won the game against the Bears to give the Eagles a shot at the two seed.

The defense, now not needing to worry about their corner or linebacker play outside of Trotter, was able to make the stops and burn their timeouts to get the ball back. With 53 seconds left and 72 yads to go, McKee threw some incompletions before stepping into a sack at third down in an embarrassing attempt at a “comeback”. On 4th and 18, he made the most non-competitive pass he could to seal the loss.

It was an absolutely embarrassing display for almost the entirety of the 60 minutes of play and this game would be worth the Eagles cutting 60% of the losers who played in this game. This wasn’t even an NFL backup quality display, it was on par with watching some community college corners attempt to stop backups on defense with the same offense that does absolutely nothing at all for half a game.

Offensive MVP: Tank Bigsby

No question Bigsby was the MVP of this game. He had 31 yards on a reception and then had 16 carries for 75 yards and a touchdown. He was very impressive.

Defensive MVP: Jalyx Hunt

Jalyx is the clear winner here. He only had two tackles, but he accounted for the team’s only two turnovers in this game. He should have given the Eagles 14 free points if the Eagles didn’t have a DIII receiver too stupid to not take personal fouls and throw the easiest shot at points the Eagles had the entire game away.

Game Notes

• Shipley dropped the pass that went to him for what would have been the initial touchdown. It was another lowlight on the season as he got more time to try and prove himself with Barkley benched.
• Not the best showing from McKee. He wasn’t bad, but there was also some extra timidness of the pressure that limited him. There’s some reason to that with the early failures by the line, but it became more unnecessary for him to not pull the trigger later in the game. It was by far his worst game and certainly won’t help his trade value this offseason as he embarrassed himself more and more as the game went on and the line in front of him improved despite his playing in the same scared manner.
• Darius Cooper was a preseason standout and has done nothing this year. He made one big play in this game and then screwed the team over by taking a stupid taunting penalty that probably took points off the board. Some showing from another guy getting his shot to crap his pants immediately.
• Bennett and Ringo both took far too many penalties in the secondary. While at least the one that gifted points to the Commanders was BS and shouldn’t have been called (or have been called OPI), the other calls were largely unable to be argued and constituted bad play from the Eagles backups.
• Jihaad Campbell’s most memorable plays in this game against backups were whiffing on the easiest sack of Josh Johnson possible and then losing a footrace to the 39-year-old QB to give up 9 yards on a later play. He should have been a highlight player in a game of backups and was instead one of the defense’s weakest links – perhaps the weakest link outside of the outside corners.
• The Eagles needed anyone competent to play in the secondary today. Instead, they threw it away to play a bunch of losers who should all be cut as soon as possible rotating at outside corner.
• Trotter might as well have been the only linebacker out there. Unlike his running mate, he didn’t miss tackles routinely or get embarassed on multiple plays by a 39-year-old QB with little to no talent outrunning and out maneuvering him. If there was one player in the back seven you could say actually came to play, it was Trotter, who recorded 12 tackles in this one.

Injury Notes

• Brandon Johnson went down in the second quarter after he whiffed on a tipped pass that could have been an easy interception. Michael Carter moved to safety and Mac McWilliams came in to play the slot in his place.
• Grant Calcaterra went down after a hip-drop tackle (uncalled) left him with a lower body injury late in the third quarter. He went immediately to the locker room.
• Britain Covey went down with a lower leg injury after a tackle by the shoelaces at the end of the third quarter. He did return a few plays later.
• Brett Toth left in the second half with a concussion.

Washington Commanders @ Philadelphia Eagles – January 4, 2026