Nobody’s perfect
How sloppy play, turnovers, tough calls resulted in Philly’s first loss of season
Mark the 1972 Miami Dolphins safe. The Eagles’ gallant bid for a perfect season blew up Monday night in a mistake-filled 32-21 loss to the Washington Commanders.
After a solid Eagles start, the wheels began falling off. For the first time this season the Eagles trailed at the half, at the end of the third quarter and ultimately at the final whistle. The game ended with Casey Toohill, a seventhround pick of the Eagles in 2020, collecting a lateral at the 1-yard line and walking into the end zone for the Skins’ last six points. It was the fourth giveaway of the game by the Eagles, who entered the contest with the fewest turnovers in the league.
“Give them a lot of credit, they’re a good football team,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said of the Commanders. “But we made uncharacteristic mistakes. We didn’t play our game. You feel upset because you lost the game you made a lot of mistakes.”
The piece de resistance came shortly before the crazy fumble ending, the Eagles trailing by five points and trying to keep a play alive with laterals. Commanders quarterback Taylor Heinicke took a knee on third down with 1:38
left but Brandon Graham and Haason Reddick tackled him just hard enough to bring the flags out, Graham getting flagged for a personal foul. And there were a lot of those flags for the Eagles, who were penalized seven times for 75 yards.
“We want to learn from it, and we want to remember the feeling,” Graham said. “Washington came out ready to play.”
It was the Eagles’ third game in 29 days due to scheduling quirks, and the rust showed in every way, including turnover ratio.
For the first time this season they were minus-2 in giveaway-takeaway figures. On the plus side Chauncey Gardner-Johnson intercepted his sixth pass, and Josh Sweat forced a fumble.
The game turned, if you will, on a turnover by Quez Watson after a 51-yard reception to the 22-yard line of the Commanders (5-5). Benjamin St.-Juste stripped Watkins, and that was the end of that excursion, and the Birds’ momentum.
The Eagles (8-1) got the ball back at their 20-yard line with 3:20 to go but could do nothing with it.
“I think it’s another opportunity for us to grow,” said Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, who threw for 175 yards, two touchdowns and an interception,
After running into the tunnel trailing their opponent, the Eagles made adjustments. A.J. Brown, who hurt his right ankle, wasn’t himself so Hurts went to Dallas Goedert and DeVonta Smith. The loss of Avonte Maddox, who was placed on injured reserve, resulted in the Eagles playing a lot of zone coverage. That worked for Terry McLaurin, who caught eight passes for 128 yards.
When the Eagles went three-and-out to start the second half, the Linc became so quiet you could hear police sirens outside the stadium.
Heinicke got the Commanders rolling again in the third quarter although the Eagles kept them out of the end zone. A 14-play, 66-yard drive brought the only points of the quarter, a 32-yard field goal by Joey Slye.
Hurts and the Eagles flurried to get a touchdown, cutting the lead to 23-21. Smith caught an 11-yard scoring pass six minutes into the final frame to make it close.
With 9:09 left in the fourth quarter, Goedert was stripped by John Ridgeway, the Commanders recovering at the Philly 34-yard line. Initially the officials ruled it a scoop and score. The play was changed to down by contact after a review. Goedert was face-masked to the ground during the fumble although no call was made by referee Alex Kemp and his crew.
The Eagles held again but Slye delivered a 55-yard field goal, his fourth of the game to produce a 26-21 lead. Previously he nailed a 58-yarder at the buzzer in the first half.
The Commanders controlled the ball, the clock and the scoreboard in the first half with a bruising run game and strategic throws to Eagles nemesis McLaurin, who was his usual unstoppable self.
“We played like crap,” Sirianni said. “We didn’t do a good job. We made our own luck today. We started 8-0 together, we lost this game together and we’re going to move on together.”
The Eagles had a moment of clarity after Brian Robinson’s one-yard run gave the Commanders a 17-14 lead with 1:39 left before the intermission. That capped a 16-play, 86-yard march that consumed 7:04 of clock.
At that point in just the first half, the Commanders had the ball for 22 minutes, 43-seconds compared to 5:38 for the Eagles.
The game started well for the Eagles.
Josh Sweat turned the first series of the game into his personal showcase as he burst around the edge to strip sack Heinicke, teammate Marlon Tuipolutu recovering at the 15 of the Commanders.
Three runs later, Hurts scored his seventh rushing TD to give the Birds a 7-0 lead.
The Commanders fought back with a punishing ground game, Antonio Gibson going the final yard to cap a 13-play, 75-yard drive, knotting the contest at 7. The big play was a 26-yard reception by Eagles nemesis Terry McLaurin.
But the Eagles went ahead again on the next series thanks largely to a 30-yard interference penalty on Commanders cornerback St.-Juste, covering DeVonta Smith. The two jockeyed for position with minimum contact, the ball falling incomplete with an official close by. The official 30 yards away threw a flag for interference.
Hurts ended the possession in spectacular fashion. On first-and-goal at the 6, Hurts ran up the middle, slammed on the brakes and made a Tim Tebow jump pass to Dallas Goedert for a 14-7 lead with 1:30 left in the first quarter.