Brief game summary
In a first half defined largely by special teams play by both teams (Washington good; Philadelphia bad), the Commanders held a 10-7 lead at halftime.
Starting Commanders QB Marcus Mariota was injured when his right hand was stepped on in the second half. Third-string QB Josh Johnson couldn’t move the offense, and the Eagles slowly took over the game, finishing with the win by a score of 29-18.
First Quarter
The game started perfectly for the Commanders when Mike Sainristil forced a fumble on the kickoff. Rookie
Kain Medrano made the recovery.
WASHINGTON FOOTBALL at the PHI 26-yard line to open the game.
Commanders
Chris Rodriguez is back as the starting running back. A short run by CRod followed by a pass to Terry earned the game’s initial first down.
Two more CRod runs — one inside and one around the right end — get the Commanders to 1st & goal at the 5-yard line.
Kliff stuck with Rodriguez on first down. Play action on 2nd down resulted in a throwaway by Marcus Mariota. On 3rd & goal from the 2-yard line, with McNichols in at RB, Mariota missed Trey Burks in the back of the end zone.
Jake Moody came out to kick the chip shot field goal to give Washington the 3-0 lead. Good, but not as good as it could have been with at least one more Chris Rodriguez run.
Eagles
The Eagles first drive begins at the 32-yard line.
Jacob Martin opens up the defensive effort by tackling Saquon Barkley at the line of scrimmage on first down. After a short scramble by Hurts under pressure, on 3rd & 7, Davontae Smith was stopped short of the line to gain by a great tackle by Mikey Sainristil.
Sirianni kept his offense on the field for 4th & 1 at the PHI 41-yard line. On the 4th down play, from the shotgun, they let the play clock run to zero. After the delay of game penalty, the Eagles punted. 3 & out on their first offensive drive!
Commanders
Jaylin Lane was tackled at the 15-yard line where he caught the ball — a nice tackle by Syndey Brown. The Commanders face 85 yards of green grass to expand their early lead.
CRod is still on the field; we haven’t seen Bill Croskey-Merritt yet. After a good run by CRod on 2nd down, on 3rd & 4 at the 22 yard line, working from shotgun with an empty backfield, Mariota completes pass to McLaurin, who was laying on the grass after slipping on his route — when things are good, they are very good.
McNichols took the first down handoff for 3 yards, and then a checkdown pass for another 3 yards. On 3rd & 4, again from an empty set, Mariota found Trey Burks in the middle of the field for 16 yards, but the play was negated by a holding call against Brandon Coleman, playing at left tackle. It looked on the replay to be a bad call.
On 3rd & 14, Mariota extended the play several seconds, but then missed Ben Sinnott on the right sideline.
Tress Way came out to punt — that penalty hurt a lot.
Eagles
After an 11-yard return, the Eagles set up for their second offensive drive at their own 37-yard line with about 6 minutes left in the 1st quarter, having improved their field position slightly on the exchange of punts. LB Nakobe Dean went to the locker room with an apparent injury.
Working with 5 wide receivers, Hurts finds Smith for 16 yards on first down. Hurts, under some pressure, scrambles for 14 yards on the next play. Eagles ball at the WAS 38-yard line.
The 3rd play of the drive is another big one for Philly — 15 yard completion to AJ Brown.
On the next play from the 18-yard line, Davontae Smith dropped a touchdown pass in the end zone. Washington’s defense has done nothing to slow down this drive.
AJ Brown pushed the ball inside the 3-yard line with an easy catch & run.
Barkley finishes an efficient drive with a touchdown run right up the middle — BUT NO — on review, he’s ruled short inside the 1-yard line.
Lined up for the tush push, right tackle Fred Johnson was called for a false start. 2nd & goal from the 5 1/2 yard line.
Davontae Smith doesn’t drop this pass — he makes an easy grab for a touchdown on the right side of the end zone against Sainristil.
7-3 Eagles lead.
That drive was far too easy for the Eagles.
Commanders
Washington will start its next drive at the 31-yard line with about 2 1/2 minutes left in the quarter after a return by Chris Moore. The broadcast mentioned that Jaylin Lane is questionable with an ankle injury.
Bill Croskey-Merritt enters the game and rips off a 13-yard run on 1st down with Marcus Mariota operating under center.
Two plays later, on 3rd & 9, Mariota scrambled under pressure and ended up sacked by Brandon Graham to end the opening quarter.
Tress Way will punt to open the second stanza.
Second Quarter
Eagles
Philly starts the quarter with the ball at the 10-yard line after a good punt by Way.
Hurts, working without a running back, again scrambles on 2nd down — this time for 16 yards to the 26 yard line.
A pair of Barkley runs provide a fresh set of downs at the PHI 40-yard line.
Back to 5-wide receivers, Hurts scans the field and finds AJ Brown in the middle of the field for a 24-yard catch & run against Igbinoghene, who missed on his effort to cut under Brown in an effort to get to the ball.
Mixing up the plays, Barkley smashes up the middle for 10 yards to the WAS 24-yard line and another 1st down.
Many fans would be happy to see Jordan Magee on the next play as he ran down Davontae Smith for a 1-yard loss on a sweep to the left.
On 3rd & 11, working from shotgun, Sainristil broke up a pass intended for Brown near the line to gain. Sirianni sends out Jake Elliott for a 43-yard field goal attempt.
The kick is NO GOOD!! Wide left.
Washington’s offense will get the ball at their own 33-yard line, trailing by 4 points with 9 minutes left in the first half.
Commanders
I’m expecting to see Bill Merritt back on the field here, and he is.
Mariota opens the drive with a 42-yard pass to Terry McLaurin down the left sideline on a contested catch against Adoree Jackson!! Fantastic play!
On 2nd & 7, Deebo took an inside screen for 14 yards to the PHI 11-yard line!
On the next play, Bill exploded up the middle on a well-designed run play, ending up at the 4 yard line.
After losing a yard on 2nd down, on 3rd & 4 from the 5-yard line, Bill goes straight up the middle nearly to the 1-yard line.
Initially, the officials on the field awarded a 1st down; replay assist changed it to 4th & 1.
Dan Quinn challenged the spot — I didn’t know you could challenge replay assist, but apparently you can. To me, it looks like a good challenge, but DQ didn’t win it.
On 4th & inches from the 1 1/2 yard line, Chris Rodriguez got the first down.
1st & goal from the 8-inch line!
Now if Kliff can stick to the running game, perhaps Washington can score a TD here.
Weirdly, Kliff goes back to Bill Merritt, who gets stuffed on 1st down.
Bill gets a touchdown on his second try, though! (It took the officials about 30 seconds to decide if he made it)
After the PAT, Washignton had a 10-7 lead with 3:40 on the clock. The drive covered 67 yards in 9 plays and ended with the Commanders playing power football instead of trying to pass for a TD from the 1-yard line. Progress.
Eagles
The Eagles returned the kickoff out of the end zone and ended up getting tackled at the 19-yard line. Great coverage again!
Working from shotgun, the Eagles get a 1st down at the 31-yard line with a run by Barkley and a pass to AJ Brown.
Another run by Barkley was the final play before the 2-minutes warning. After the time out, the Eagles will face 2nd & 2 at their own 39-yard line. Sirianni let the clock wind down; he is obviously hoping to end the half without giving the ball back to the Commanders offense.
The Eagles crossed midfield with about 40 seconds on the clock. At 35 seconds, it was 2nd & 3 at the WAS 38-yard line.
A wild play that involved an almost-sack, Hurts fumble & self-recovery, turning into a sack for a loss of 9 yards forced 3rd & 8 with 25 ticks on the clock and the ball outside of field goal range.
After a 4-yard gain, facing 4th & 4 at the 39 yard line, Sirianni sent Jake Elliott out for a 57-yard field goal attempt in an effort to tie the game. Elliott missed wide left, but an offsides penalty against Tyler Owens gave the Eagles a fresh set of downs at the WAS 34-yard line with 13 seconds on the clock!
Ouch.
After an incomplete pass, Elliott came back out to try a 52-yarder that goes WIDE LEFT AGAIN!!
Tyler Owens breathes a sigh of relief.
All three missed kicks (only 2 of them counted) have been wide left by almost exactly the same distance despite being kicked from 3 different spots on the field.
Washington goes to the half leading 10-7 due primarily to strong special teams play by the good guys and bad special teams play by the Eagles.
Washington will get the ball to start the second half.
Halftime Stats
Statistics via ESPN
Third Quarter
The Eagles had the better stats in the first half of the game, but thanks to a pair of missed field goals, Washington has the lead on the scoreboard and will have a chance to add to that lead with possession of the ball to open the 3rd quarter.
Commanders
Washington starts its 6th offensive drive of the game at the 32-yard line after another Chris Moore return.
Chris Rodriguez is on the field in the shotgun formation.
Trey Burks makes a beautiful fingertip catch for 24 yards in the middle of the field to get Washington into Philly territory.
After 2 incompletions (the 2nd a nice PBU by Quinyon Mitchell), on 3rd & 10, Mariota extended the play under heavy pressure. His pass was incomplete and a holding flag against McNichols was declined.
One good play followed by 3 incomplete passes. Not good.
On 4th down, Tress Way punted to the 16-yard line.
Josh Johnson started warming up after Marcus Mariota went to the blue tent after the end of the 3rd down play.
Eagles
Working under center, the Eagles open up with Saquon Barkley and then Davontae Smith for an initial first down.
A pass to Goedert followed by a shotgun pas to Jahan Dotson earned another first down at the PHI 43-yard line.
On the broadcast, Mariota was shown jogging to the locker room. Not promising.
A pass to Smith followed by a Barkley run put the ball at the WAS 41-yard line, 1st & 10.
A 1st down throw away was followed by a stuffed designed run by Hurts (tackled by Bobby Wagner) to force 3rd & 10. On the 3rd down play, a swing pass to RB Shipley was stopped short by Noah Igbinoghene. Philly hasn’t converted a 3rd down play yet in the game.
On 4th & 7, Hurts had all day to throw an interception to Quan Martin at the 5-yard line, but a flag for illegal contact by Will Harris negates the turnover and keeps the Eagles offense on the field at the WAS 33 yard line!
Martin, on 4th & 7, would have been better off to bat the ball down if the INT had not been negated.
Two plays later, on 3rd & 1, Barkley got 2 yards.
Another two plays later, after a great open field tackle by Bobby Wagner on Dotson, the Eagles faced 3rd & 8. On the 3rd down play, Hurts rolled right and threw incomplete to the end zone. A bogus defensive interference call against Igbinoghene gave the Eagles a 1st down with the ball at the 1-yard line.
A failed run and another (questionable) false start on a tush push putsthe ball back to the 6-yard line.
After a 1-yard run, on 3rd & goal from the 5-yard line, Hurst scrambled and hit Dotson in the end zone, but the TD was disallowed by a holding call on right tackle Fred Johnson, who tackled Jacob Martin.
On 3rd & goal from the 15 yard line, Hurts moved well in the pocket and found Dallas Goedert with a very nice throw in the end zone for another touchdown and the lead.
Elliott made the PAT; 14-10 lead for Philly with about 3 1/2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. The bullshit DPI flag against Igbinoghene in the end zone was the key play in the drive.
Commanders
Following the kickoff, Josh Johnson led the Commanders to the field where they started the next offensive drive at the 26-yard line.
Washington’s 3rd QB of the season will try to mount a comeback.
A toss to CRod goes nowhere; an ugly scramble and incomplete pass brings up 3rd & 10. This doesn’t look good at the moment.
On the 3rd down play, Johnson, incredibly, found Deebo Samuel in heavy traffic in the middle of the field against Cooper DeJean for a 20-yard catch & run!
Two plays later, on 3rd & 14 at the WAS 44 yard line, Johnson had all day to look around before throwing an interception to Cooper DeJean.
Eagles
It feels like the momentum has swung completely to Philly at the moment. With Mariota out of the game, this may be the beginning of the end for Washington in this game.
The Eagles offense takes over at the WAS 37-yard line with the chance to open up a double-digit lead.
Wagner opens the defensive stand with a sack of Jalen Hurts for a short loss to end the quarter.
Fourth Quarter
The 4th quarter opens up with the Eagles up by 4 points and facing 2nd & 12 at the WAS 39-yard line.
A play later, on 3rd & 2, Hurts scrambled away from the blitz and made the 3 yards he needed to get a fresh set of downs.
Kinlaw stopped Barkley on first down, nearly decapitating him. After a 6-yard completion to Jahan Dotson, on 3rd & 4 at the 20 yard line, Barkley went right up the middle for an 8-yard run, finishing strong and pushing Luvu backwards a few yards.
On the next play, Barkley ran over several Washington players and finished in the end zone.
Following the PAT, it was a 21-10 lead for Philly.
Commanders
With about 11 1/2 minutes left in the game, Washington has limited opportunities to close the deficit, and with the 3rd string QB playing, the odds of finishing strong seem pretty slim.
The offense starts the next drive at the 34-yard line after a 25-yard return by Chris Moore. Josh Johnson is still behind center in shotgun with Chris Rodriguez in the backfield.
CRod runs on 1st down and cathes a pass on 2nd down. On 3rd & 1, with JJ under center and CRod about 9 yards deep, Kliff calls a run play that is absolutely smashed by the Eagles defense for a 3-yard loss.
Tress Way punts to the PHI 20 yard line. The outcome of the game already feels inevitable, but I’m sure Sirianni will be eager to put more points on the scoreboard.
Eagles
Amazingly, the Eagles went 3 & out and punted.
Commanders
A not-quite-blocked punt went only 38 yards, giving Washington good field position at the WAS 40-yard line with 8:14 on the clock.
Can Josh Johnson manage to lead the offense to points that keep the game alive after the much-needed defensive stop gave the Commanders a breath of life? Even a field goal here can be important.
Things start badly with Rodriguez getting blasted at the line of scrimmage by Jordan Davis.
After a short completion, on 3rd & 6 at the 44 yard line, Josh Johnson throws the ball away under heavy pressure. DQ has little choice but to leave his offense on the field, but he sends Tress Way out to punt instead — a puzzling decision.
The punt goes into the end zone for a touchback.
Eagles
With less than 7 minutes to play, the Eagles, with the ball at the 20-yard line, have the chance to ice the game with a long drive or a score.
You’re not gonna believe this Saquon Barkley run, which starts with a missed tackle by Johnny Newton:
The drive is all Saquon and a running clock until Tank Bigsby comes on the field and jogs into the end zone untouched by a broken Commanders defense.
The Eagles go for 2 points, which Saquon manages easily. 29-10 with 4:26 on the clock and a full-on fight breaks out on the field and lasts for perhaps 20 or 30 seconds. You’ve gotta wish the Washington defense had used this energy to tackle the Philly running backs on the drive.
Three players drew flags and all three were ejected (Steen, Kinlaw, Quan Martin). Sainristil, who seemed to be right in the middle of it all, seemed to get away clean. There will be fines from the NFL this week.
Commanders
You’ve gotta think the goal will be to get out of the rest of the game with no more injuries and no more fights.
Commanders start at their own 25-yard line with 4:21 on the clock.
Brandon Coleman had to be looked at by trainers at one point; he was replaced at left tackle by Trent Scott.
At the 2-minute warning, following a sack of Josh Johnson, Washington faced 2nd & 16 at the 36-yard line. Sam Cosmi was shaken up on the play.
Following the time out and in scoring position, Johnson recovered his own fumble, then Trey Burks drew a defensive pass interference penalty at the 3-yard line. 1st & goal.
Chris Rodriguez makes short work of it, running off left tackle for an easy touchdown.
DQ called for the 2-pt conversion.
From shotgun, Jeremy McNichols cut back to the left side of the line for a successful play. Score moves to 29-18.
With 70 seconds on the clock, DQ calls for the onside kick.
Davontae Smith recovers the kick for the Eagles to end all hope for the Commanders.
Tanner McKee comes in a QB to hand the ball off three times; DQ plans to burn all of his time outs, but a strong 12-yard run by Tank Bigsby puts the last nail in the coffin.
Full Game Stats
Statistics via ESPN
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