Eagles Postgame Report: Birds Rout Washington Late To Clinch Division

The Eagles, looking to clinch the division, headed to Washington and quickly shot themselves in the foot with Will Shipley fumbling the opening kickoff. The defense quickly forced the Commanders off the field, but being that Shipley basically handed the ball over in the red zone, the Commanders got a very early lead as a result of the field goal.

The Eagles offense got to fourth and one, where Washington took a timeout and then the Eagles took a delay of game and punted the ball away. The good punt (49 yards) and quick punt by the defense brought the Eagles offense out with decent field position. Two 15-yard receptions with a 14-yard scramble between set up a touchdown pass to Smith that he flat out dropped. The Eagles then took a timeout because they couldn’t figure out how to call a play. A slant to AJ Brown moved the chains before Barkley punched it in up the gut for a near-TD. From the half-yard line, Fred Johnson took a false start. The Birds went back to Smith for the first touchdown of the game.

A big run was given up by the defense before they forced another punt. The Eagles travelled 65-yards, moving the ball effectively with lots of runs. A bad throw to Brown, a negative play and then a PBU forced the field goal attempt. Jake Elliott missed from 43 as he seems to put more nails in his own coffin each week.

A 40-yard pass to McLauren over Jackson moved the chains and a 14-yard gain on a short pass to Deebo seemed to shift the momentum and the defense allowed the touchdown with the Eagles suddenly losing thanks to Elliott and Shipley accounting for a six-point swing in the Commanders favor.

Shipley had another awful return decision to lose 10 yards but the drive went long as the Eagles got into field goal range. Elliott missed another one, but a penalty moved the Eagles closer and gave them another shot – which he missed again. The Eagles trailed by 3 at the half.

The Eagles defense was able to force a punt after giving up a 20-yard play, and then the Eagles had a long drive of over 10:30 of clock. It was also an ugly drive. They would have kicked a field goal if their kicker wasn’t garbage, so they kept the offense out. The offense was granted new downs twice on penalties – one of which was a weak PI call against Washington – before they turned 1st and goal at the 1 into 3rd and goal from the 15. A great throw to Dallas Goedert high-pointing the ball hit paydirt as the Eagles finally retook the lead.

Josh Johnson came in at QB and made a terrible decision that was picked off of by Cooper DeJean to setup the shortest field of the night for the Eagles. Mixing the plays they moved the ball until Barkley had an impressive 12-yard touchdown run to take a commanding lead.

The teams traded three-and-outs, then the defense forced another three-and-out. It looked like the Eagles wanted to run clock and keep the ball on the ground, but they went 80 yards in two minutes behind a 48-yard run from Barkley where he looked dead to rites behind the line and then Tank Bigsby breaking free for a 22-yard touchdown. Overall, it was only four runs to go the 80 yards before Barkley ran in the two-point conversion that ignited a brawl where it appeared Tyler Steen was fighting about 10 Washington players.

Two sacks setup 3rd and 20 where a deep throw led to easy pass interference by Kelee Ringo on another bad play by the defender. That allowed the Commanders to score a touchdown, though it didn’t matter much to the outcome being that there was only 1:10 in the game and the Commanders were down 11 after the two-point conversion.

DeVonta Smith recovered the onside kick and the backups came out. The Commanders were using their timeouts, but got embarrassed by Tank Bigsby, who spun out of the tackle attempts and shed tacklers to get a 12-yard run to move the chains and officially end Washington’s ability to get the ball back.

The Eagles have officially clinched the NFC East championship, breaking the streak of 20 year without a repeat champion. They are in position to have the second or third seed in the playoffs if they can with their upcoming games.

They head to Buffalo next Sunday and will host Washington again the following week to close out the season.

Offensive MVP: Saquon Barkley

It was a bounce back game for Barkley. Admittedly, he wasn’t great to start the game, but by the end, he put up 132 yards and averaged 6.3 per carry. He recorded a touchdown and a two-point conversion in addition to setting up Bigsby’s touchdown. This is a good sign for the Eagles, who are hoping to get a boost to the offensive line ahead of Barkley as they head into the playoffs.

Defensive MVP: Cooper DeJean

Jordan Davis was a close second, but DeJean had a bounce back game after struggling a few weeks ago. He recorded five solo tackles but, more importantly, had the game’s only turnover that really wound up giving the Eagles the ability to break the game open. He also recorded four defensed passes in this one and allowed only one pass that was obviously into his coverage to be completed. 

Game Notes

• Will Shipley seems to be making himself into a trade candidate. It’d be hard to believe, unless they sign him to a very minimum extension, they’ll not look at bringing in other potential young backs to work with Bigsby and Barkley next year – especially with that fumble in one of his only memorable moments this season due to his dwindling team control.
• The Tush Push needs to come out of the playbook. Maybe they could revisit next year, but it’s clear the injuries to Dickerson and Jurgens that have been present all year and the switch from Becton to Steen does not enable the play to work effectively as none of the interior gains and ground.
• Do these morons have a play sheet and a means of communication? This has got to be the worst team in history at getting calls in and ready and it’s the 15th game of the season with no improvement.
• Another strong Brandon Graham game from the interior defensive line.
• Jake Elliott is playing himself off of this team, as well. It would now seem highly likely there’s a kicker competition in camp.
• Terrible job of mixing people in in this one. Maybe it was the defense, but it seemed like 75% of passes targeted AJ Brown and this offense doesn’t usually do well when they lock onto just one of their guys.
• This looked like the best game we’ve seen from Barkley this year as far as breaking tackles and turning negatives into positives.
• Tank Bigsby finally has his first touchdown of his Eagles career.
• Tyler Steen got ejected after the brawl following the successful two-point conversion.
• Darius Cooper being the initial target for what caused the brawl seems like another classless move from the Washington franchise. What reason does any play have to go after the undrafted receiver from Tarleton State that’s buried in the depth chart.
• It may be just the matchup, but we did not see Campbell deployed the same way as a blitzer in relief of Nakobe Dean this week. Campbell did record seven tackles (one for loss thanks to BG blowing up a play), however.

Injury Notes

• Nakobe Dean walked off the field halfway through the first quarter. He did not return.

Philadelphia Eagles @ Washington Commanders – December 20, 2025