Eagles future headlines: Too many penalties, not enough run defense

The Eagles did it to us again Sunday, looking frustrating and flawed before getting it together and prevailing convincingly over their rivals from Washington.

In Week 4's 34-31 overtime win, Philly turned it on in the second half to get to 4-0 for the second time in as many seasons, and with easy games (on paper) ahead on the road against the Rams and Jets coming up on the schedule, the positivity surrounding this undefeated football team should continue for a few weeks.

But that doesn't mean the city will be completely satisfied. Yes, a walk-off win on a booming Jake Elliott field goal is great, but the win was pretty ugly. What will talk radio, and group texts between Eagles fan friends be chatting about next week? Here are our three picks for potential future headlines, in the aftermath of Philly's most recent painstaking win at home.

Explosive plays are nice

The Eagles needed a spark in the worst way after trailing at the half. The Commanders had more yards, more plays and crushed on time of possession. They also had a lead as big as 10 points in the second quarter and looked to be stuck a neutral with the football — and their makeshift secondary was looking quite shaky too.

That's when this 59-yard catch and run from Jalen Hurts to A.J. Brown set things right:

The play was the most important of the game*, and a reminder that in reality, all Hurts really needs to do in this offense is be a game manager.

*Brown had another big play — the 28-yard touchdown pass to put the Eagles ahead again with 1:43 to play.

Philly was tied for 11th in the NFL with six 25-plus yard pass plays on the season heading into Sunday. During their Super Bowl run last season they were second in the entire league with 63 passes of 20 or more yards and 13 passes of 40 or more. They need to pick up the pace. 

Penalties 

Whether it was shooting themselves in the foot by making stupid mistakes — or more often (at least if you ask Eagles fans) — getting a suspicious call from the men in zebra suits, the Eagles were flagged 11 times.

Heading into Week 4, the Eagles were tied for fifth fewest in the NFL averaging just five penalties per game. Last year they were in the middle of the pack at 13th, with 5.3 penalties per game — but the 38.7 yards lost in accepted penalties in 2022 was one of the many reasons they were the Super Bowl runners up.

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The most troubling big flag came in the fourth quarter with the Eagles up by a touchdown and the Commanders driving, when quarterback Sam Howell ran out of bounds and was "hit" late by safety Terrell Edmunds and called for unnecessary roughness. The QB was clearly giving up and running off the field of play, and the mistake helped set up the game-tying touchdown for Washington a few plays later.

Another big one came after Brown's go-ahead touchdown when he was called for taunting. That forced Elliott to kick off 15 yards further back and gave the Commanders a much shorter field to drive to tie the game.

Iffy calls, like a holding that led to a Washington touchdown in the red zone (just like in the Super Bowl), or a very unusual offensive offsides call that led to a punt instead of a tush push definitely threw the Eagles off their game in the early going. 

With this resulting in a 'W' in the standings, you can be sure — ticky tack or not — Nick Sirianni will not just ignore all the flags that made his team's job much more difficult.

Run defense buckles?

The Cowboys' defense has explosive plays and the Browns' defense has been pretty elite too. The 49ers' defense has star power. The Eagles' defense last year was a sack factory, leading the league with 70 of them. This year, their identity is as run stopping extraordinares. Or at least it was until Howell scrambled for 21 yards on a key third down deep in Eagles territory. The Commanders' running backs had just 64 yards rushing.

No team had allowed fewer rushing yards per game entering Week 4 than the Eagles, surrendering just 48.3 yards per game. That is partially due to their being in the lead quite a bit, forcing opponents to throw the ball (they saw just 16 running attempts per game). Washington had a little success moving the ball on the ground and winning the time of possession battle and tallying 107 yards. 

A look at the run defense's performances so far:

Brian Robinson did find the end zone in the fourth quarter but that doesn't really change the fact that the run stuffers up the middle — led by youngsters Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter, has feasted this season. And it should continue to do so, with this 100-yard blip a likely rarity going forward.

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