LANDOVER, Md. — Is there a sufficient explanation?
Maybe it’s as blatant as the scoreboard that kept blinking obnoxiously at Northwest Stadium.
WASHINGTON COMMANDERS WIN. WASHINGTON COMMANDERS WIN.
Maybe a 36-33 loss is just what happens when the Philadelphia Eagles lose their starting quarterback.
Down went Jalen Hurts, struck in the helmet by linebacker Frankie Luvu on a first-quarter scramble. Hurts got to his feet. He returned to the huddle. But the officials sent him to the sideline. In came backup Kenny Pickett. Out went Hurts to the medical tent. Pickett completed two passes to A.J. Brown. The Eagles called timeout on third-and-goal at the 4. Hurts exited the tent and threw a few warmup tosses. But Pickett stayed in. He struck Brown for a 4-yard score. The Eagles led 14-0. Hurts spent the remainder of the game in the locker room, ruled out with a concussion.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni did not have an update on his starting quarterback’s status. Nor did Sirianni accept the chaotic injury as a wholesale explanation for the loss that stopped his team’s win streak at 10 games. No, Sirianni said, he’d “be a hypocrite” if he turned on the tape on Monday and amended how he doles out his points of accountability.
Over 100 rushing yards in…
*checks notes*
THE FIRST QUARTER!@saquon | #ProBowlVote pic.twitter.com/bkzqjvTQ7i— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) December 22, 2024
The Eagles (12-3) entered the fourth quarter with a 27-14 lead, large enough to secure their second NFC East title in three years. Pickett’s patchwork play — 14-of-24 passing for 143 yards, a touchdown and an interception — was also enough to go up 33-28 after the Commanders stormed back. But dismal defense and sloppy special teams (and a Detroit Lions win) did more damage to delay a division title and all but demolish Philadelphia’s chances at the NFC’s No. 1 seed and a first-round bye.
Darius Slay: “That was just a miscommunication.”
That’s what happened when Slay, sidelined for three fourth-quarter plays, ran back onto the field after informing one defensive back coach but not the other. That’s when the starting cornerback saw backup Kelee Ringo “locked in, doing his job” in the slot and tried to hustle back to the sideline. Ringo said it was “miscommunication in the package — who was on the field, who was supposed to be off the field.”
The mistake was indefensible considering the stakes. The Eagles were defending a six-point lead with 9:18 left in the game. But Slay said he was told to substitute for backup Isaiah Rodgers, who’d replaced him earlier in the drive. Instead, Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels quickly called for the first-and-10 snap with both Slay and Ringo on the field. No one covered Olamide Zacchaeus. Ringo and safety Reed Blankenship both missed tackles as Zacchaeus scored on a 49-yard touchdown reception, seizing a 28-27 lead.
Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s unit had been reliably dominant. The Eagles hadn’t surrendered more than 23 points since their 33-16 loss to the Tampa Buccaneers in Week 4. They’d only given up 10 pass plays of 30-plus yards. They’d entered the weekend suffocating their opponents to the NFL’s fewest yards per drive (26.5). On Sunday, they folded in each category. Most damning was their repeated inability to defend a long field.
Eagles punter Braden Mann pinned the Commanders on their 13 before the 49-yard touchdown gave them the lead. Earlier, when the Eagles led 21-7 in the second quarter, Mann’s punt placed the Commanders at their own 4. Fangio immediately sent five rushers, and Daniels unfurled a 51-yard completion to Dyami Brown, who beat Slay deep down field. Daniels, later blitzed on third-and-8, launched a 32-yard touchdown to Terry McLaurin, leading the wideout, who’d gotten past rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell, with a well-placed pass just beyond McLaurin’s left shoulder.
“That happens,” Slay shrugged. “Those guys make money, too.”
Philadelphia failed to contain Daniels. Before the No. 2 pick’s touchdown to McLaurin, Daniels converted a fourth-and-4 situation with a 5-yard scramble. On a fourth-and-11 situation, on the final play of the third quarter, Daniels scrambled for 29 yards. Three plays later, Daniels found Zaccheaus yet again open for a 4-yard score. Suddenly, a two-score lead had diminished to 27-21. Daniels completed 24-of-39 passes for 258 yards, a career-high five touchdowns and two interceptions.
“I mean, they’re a good team,” linebacker Nakobe Dean said. “They made some plays. We knew they were going to make some plays. We knew it was going to be a battle. But we know we got to play better. We know we got to execute better.”
Sufficient?
How about referee Shawn Smith’s explanation for disqualifying starting Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson early in the third quarter?
The Eagles led 24-14. Gardner-Johnson, who’d already been penalized earlier for unsportsmanlike conduct, was again flagged when members of the Eagles defense and Commanders offense had a minor scuffle during a commercial break. Eagles security chief Dom DiSandro escorted the defensive back into the locker room. Gardner-Johnson, voted “most annoying” in an anonymous league-wide player poll, shot the crowd the double bird before disappearing into the tunnel.
What led to the penalty?
“He’s basically taunting the opponent on the second foul,” Smith told a pool reporter.
Was there any thought to penalizing both sides?
“Well, we only had the one foul,” Smith said.
The Eagles still had the ball. And a two-score lead. Zack Baun had just ripped a fumble loose that Nolan Smith recovered at the Washington 43. The Commanders turned the ball over five times. They lost three fumbles. The Eagles scored 13 points on those extra possessions; they punted on one drive, Jake Elliott missed a 56-yard field goal on the other. It’s only the second time the Eagles have lost in the Sirianni era despite winning the turnover margin. Sunday’s margin (+3) was tied with their Week 10 win over the Dallas Cowboys for their highest advantage of 2024.
The Eagles also failed to capitalize on penalties. Brown, who spent the majority of the game in a one-on-one battle with cornerback Marshon Lattimore, drew three pass interference calls on Lattimore during the first two drives of the second half. Lattimore committed two of the penalties on the opening drive of the third quarter. But, on third-and-3 at the Washington 4, Saquon Barkley failed to find an open receiver on a Wildcat pass, slid, and the Eagles settled for a 24-yard Elliott field goal and a 24-14 lead.
Baun’s forced fumble quickly gave the Eagles the ball back. A face mask penalty bailed them out of a third-and-16 situation, another Lattimore interference flag nixed a third-and-9, yet Pickett was still sacked on a third-and-8 at the Washington 11. Elliott’s 40-yard field goal extended the lead to 27-14. The Commanders supplied the Eagles 83 yards in penalties on those two drives, yet the Eagles mustered only 22 yards on their own.
“Sloppy,” Sirianni said in summation of the loss. “Sloppy with penalties. Sloppy with too many men on the field. Sloppy with our fundamentals. And when you play a good football team like we played today and you’re sloppy, regardless of how many turnovers you force, it’s going to be hard to win.”
Pickett’s play was spotty. His early commitment to Brown became a tendency the Commanders exploited. Pickett, on his first dropback of his second drive, tried to hit Brown on a short hitch along the right seam. But Luvu dropped back in zone coverage, and the pass struck Luvu straight in the chest. It was a disastrous turnover. The Eagles were leading 14-0. The Commanders had managed just eight yards in their first three drives. The interception handed them the ball at the Eagles 25. It took Daniels five plays to throw his first touchdown of the game.
Pickett rebounded. He later completed a 45-yard pass to Brown, who, with 97 yards on eight catches, surpassed 1,000 yards receiving in his third straight season with the Eagles. Pickett completed two fourth-down throws — one to DeVonta Smith, another to Brown — on a fourth-quarter drive in which Elliott’s 50-yard field goal gave the Eagles a 30-28 lead with 3:53 left in the game. (Elliott’s make also should not be understated. He’d missed his previous six attempts of 50-plus yards in 2024.)
“(Pickett) did a great job with handling everything,” Brown said. “He knew what to do. He was playing with confidence, throwing the ball. Hats off to him for coming (into)… a big game where they’re changing looks, throwing everything at him.”
It’s uncertain how long Hurts will remain in concussion protocol. If Pickett must play next week against the Cowboys, the Eagles will again be limited in their zone-read concepts — a major piece of their run game. Barkley, complimenting Pickett’s play, still admitted losing Hurts “definitely hurt us.” Barkley’s 68-yard touchdown gave the Eagles a 21-7 lead in the first quarter. He finished with 150 yards on 29 carries and two touchdowns. But 109 of his rushing yards were in the first quarter. Barkley said the Commanders brought more defenders near the box, tightening their approach against an offense without its dual-threat option.
Sirianni has long defended Hurts in 2024, often saying the quarterback belongs in the MVP conversation. The Eagles got a sneak preview of what their offense looks like without him. His health is the team’s primary concern as it approaches the final two games of its season. But it’s alarming that the Eagles were spotted a two-score lead and could not defend it. They’re a franchise that won its only Super Bowl with a backup quarterback. The organization’s commitment to investing in emergency options is why general manager Howie Roseman acquired Pickett in a March trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
They’ll be searching for sufficient explanations when they review the film of the game in which they supplied life to a Commanders team that might face them again in a wild-card matchup at Lincoln Financial Field.
“It’s going to go exactly how you think it’s going to go,” Dean said. “Accountability is a big part of our team. People are going to hold each other accountable, and people are going to hold themselves accountable everywhere, from the top to the bottom. Coaches and everybody, too.”
(Top photo: Timothy Nwachukwu / Getty Images)
