What is the story about?
The Washington Commanders traveled to Philadelphia for a late afternoon start to open the 2026 season. It was a mixed bag, as Washington’s defense was better than expected while the offense left a lot to be desired.
Ultimately, Washington fell 24-22 in what was a very competitive game. There are a lot of good things fans can take away from this game, however, there are no moral victories and a loss is a loss — especially within the division.
Quinn and company will have a week to clean some things up
before traveling to Dallas to take on a Cowboys squad who lost to the Giants Sunday evening.
Below are my Studs and Duds of the game, followed by some notes.
Studs:
- WR Antonio Williams: The rookie led all Washington pass catchers with 64 receiving yards and tied Stefon Diggs with a team-leading four receptions and a touchdown. It was a hell of a debut for Williams.
- LB Sonny Styles: Styles had a really nice debut. He seemed to get into the flow of the game later on and just let his athleticism take over. He had a blitz where he absolutely destroyed Saquon Barkley on the way to his first NFL sack. He had four tackles (two of which were for a loss), three being solo, a sack and two pressures.
- S Nick Cross: Cross led all Washington defenders with eight total tackles, five of them solo, with two going for a loss. He was all around the football and was as advertised!
- EDGE Odafe Oweh: Oweh played good, disciplined football all afternoon. He got his first sack on the season and also had two tackles for a loss, multiple pressures and a quarterback hit.
- DB Tyler Owens – It’s not often I give out special teams studs, but Owens earned it! This special teams play on punt coverage was amazing from the get-go! Get this man more snaps with Washington’s defense!!!
Duds:
- C Nick Allegretti – Washington’s new center did not fare very well against a stout Eagles’ front. He allowed multiple pressures on the afternoon and whiffed on the 2-point conversion what could have tied the game late in the fourth quarter. But don’t worry folks, Peters and Quinn believe in him…
- CB Mike Sainristil: Overall, the defense played well, but Sainristil was not one of the guys who can stake that claim. In fact, he was the worst player on our defense giving up chunk plays, allowing an easy touchdown and missing tackles by taking poor angles to the ball. It was a DISASTROUS start to the 2026 season on what was supposed to be a defense that played to his strengths.
- OC David Blough: This may seem a bit harsh to give a first-time play caller Dud status for his first NFL game, but I don’t think Blough called a very good game for the majority of three-and-a-half quarters. All the talk during the offseason was about getting McLaurin 10-plus touches per game and that certainly didn’t happen. There were too many times when Washington had just two guys in the route tree and the Eagles EASILY identified and shut those players down. Jayden looked uncomfortable with the early play calling and never got into a rhythm. Better days for this offense will be on the way, but this was an offensive game to forget.
Game Notes:
- QB Jayden Daniels never looked comfortable. Maybe that was Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio getting him rattled. Maybe that was having a new center he barely worked with throughout the summer and maybe that was a new coordinator who didn’t do him any favors in play calling. Whatever the case, he looked flustered and a bit indecisive. He did have some big throws and runs later in the game, and I think things between him and Blough will eventually click.
- WR Stefon Diggs had a very up-and-down game. He had two big drops before finally finding his groove on offense. His “humping” of the goalpost after his touchdown was immature and cost the team a shot at a 2-point conversion – which turned out to be costly. I contemplated giving him Dud status for the game, but decided to be kind.
- CB Amik Robertson played very well, so much that I thought about including him as a Stud. He was second on the team with six total tackles and showed well in coverage.
- I thought RT Josh Conerly played a pretty good game. He held his own and I saw a few really good anchors. I will be watching All-22 to get a better look of his individual performance, but from what I saw during the broadcast, he more than held his own.
- The “great” PFF rated LT Brandon Coleman’s play as pretty poor, but I did not see the same. Overall, I though he held his own. He did allow a sack and got called for a false start (which I did not agree with), but he blocked pretty well in the run game and pushed his defender outside the pocket more often than not in pass protection. It wasn’t a perfect game, but it was nowhere near as bad as “some” made it out to be.
- RB Bill Croskey-Merritt looked explosive and decisive on his inside running. He creased the Eagles defense on multiple occasions for some chunk plays. He did, however, have another fumble (which is becoming a concern) that was luckily recovered by Conerly.
- LB Frankie Luvu was on his way to having a real nice game before a soft-tissue injury forced him to the sidelines. Before that, he had his first sack of the season, four combined tackles and three pressures.
- I really liked how DC Daronte Jones used DL Charles Omenihu. He was lined up all over the defense and I though he caused some disruption.
- LB Leo Chennal didn’t have his best game. He only recorded one solo tackle and missed Barkley in the hole that ended up resulting in a big gain.
- S Quan Martin needs more reps at safety over Jeremy Reaves.
- K Drew Stevens had an up-and-down debut. He nailed a 55-yard field goal in the first quarter, then missed from 54-yards in the third quarter. He also had an extra point that was blocked, although that wasn’t his fault.
