Game ball, three stars, and snap count analysis: Week 16, Eagles at Commanders

In their Week 16 loss to the Washington Commanders, the Philadelphia Eagles played 74 snaps on offense and 68 on defense. Let's just get right to the snap counts, and some notes.

Quarterback

• 62 snaps: Kenny Pickett

• 12 snaps Jalen Hurts

Notes: Hurts was 1 of 4 for 11 yards, with 3 carries for 41 yards before he left with a concussion after the following helmet-to-helmet shot by Frankie Luvu (via @ChrisLaw).

Here's another look. It looks to me like a measured headshot by Luvu (via @Eaglesfans9).

It appeared that Hurts tried to ignore the officials' instructions to leave the field initially, but they insisted and he never returned to the game.

With Hurts in the game, the Eagles were running all over the Commanders. I think that sometimes we underrate Hurts' contributions to the run game. He takes some attention away from Saquon Barkley, he makes his own plays with his feet, and he has a lot to do with the Eagles' success running Brotherly Shoves.

With Pickett in the game, the Commanders did not respect the threat of Pickett keeping the ball on zone reads, and Barkley acknowledged that there was less room to run as a result. The Commanders also packed the box, daring Pickett to throw.

I thought Pickett missed some throws that he should have made, and his INT gave the Commanders a short field and kept them in the game. On the INT, he got baited by Luvu, who feigned like he was covering Grant Calcaterra in the flat, before reversing back into the passing lane in front of A.J. Brown, who was running a short curl route:

Pickett's biggest play of the day was an underthrown ball (via @BillyM_91):

Most alarmingly, however, was that on a 3rd and Goal, the Eagles felt more comfortable running a play designed for Saquon Barkley to pass rather than Pickett. Nothing was open and Barkley took a sack. They're not running that play with Hurts in the game.

Running back

• 61 snaps: Saquon Barkley

• 14 snaps: Kenny Gainwell

• 1 snap: Khari Blasingame

Notes: If you include the aforementioned "sack" that he took when it appeared that he was going to throw out of a Wildcat formation, Barkley carried the ball 30 times. He got off to an explosive start, rushing 7 times in the first quarter for 109 yards and this TD:

However, with Hurts out, the Commanders' primary focus became shutting down the run, which they did from the second quarter on, as Barkley carried 22 times for just 41 yards.

Barkley now has 314 carries on the season, a new career high. "The record" is within reach, but what the team needs more is for Barkley to take a week off. 

Wide receiver

• 74 snaps: A.J. Brown

• 61 snaps: DeVonta Smith

• 47 snaps: Jahan Dotson

• 9 snaps: Johnny Wilson

Notes: Brown forced three pass interference calls on Marshon Lattimore, and really, there should have been more. Lattimore couldn't cover Brown without holding onto him for dear life. It was almost kind of reminiscent of the Seahawks' "Legion of Boom" corners who would hold all game, and they'd get penalized a time or two, but the officials would stop throwing flags because, I dunno, it felt wrong to keep throwing flags for the same thing over and over even if they kept blatantly committing penalties?

Obviously, Smith had the bad drop at the end of the game that marred an otherwise good game in which he picked up a bunch of key first downs.

Dotson got his usual cardio work in. 47 snaps, 0 targets.

---

MORE: The pivotal plays from the Eagles' collapse to the Commanders

---

Tight end

• 61 snaps: Grant Calcaterra

• 30 snaps: C.J. Uzomah

• 6 snaps: E.J. Jenkins

Notes: Calcaterra wasn't targeted at all. If you think Hurts locks in on receivers, Pickett's targets went like so:

• 15 targets: A.J. Brown 
• 8 targets: DeVonta Smith
• 1 target each: Saquon Barkley and Kenny Gainwell

Offensive line

• 74 snaps each: Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Mekhi Becton, Lane Johnson

• 1 snap: Tyler Steen

Notes: Pickett took 3 sacks and Barkley took 1. The OL was mashing in the run game early, but there were just more bodies than they could handle from the second quarter on.

Edge defenders

• 56 snaps: Nolan Smith

• 37 snaps: Jalyx Hunt

• 31 snaps: Josh Sweat

• 7 snaps: Charles Harris

Notes: Sweat left the game for a bit with an ankle injury, but he returned.

Bryce Huff certainly wasn't special for the Eagles before he went on IR with a wrist injury, but he'll be an upgrade over Harris when he returns.

Nolan Smith had a sack. He now has 6.5 sacks on the season, all since the bye week.

Overall, the Eagles' edge defenders did not get nearly enough wins on the outside to affect Jayden Daniels, especially when they knew the Commanders would be throwing most of the day.

---

MORE: The Eagles are shrugging off the Commanders loss, moving on to Dallas

---

Interior defensive line

• 65 snaps: Jalen Carter

• 43 snaps: Milton Williams

• 21 snaps: Moro Ojomo

• 17 snaps: Jordan Davis

Notes: The Eagles' defense did a great job stopping the Commanders' running backs, but they lost contain far too often on Daniels scrambles. Part of that was on the interior defensive line, and part of it was arguably on the scheme.

Linebacker

• 68 snaps: Zack Baun

• 59 snaps: Nakobe Dean

• 6 snaps: Oren Burks

Notes: Dean (12 tackles) and Baun (11 tackles) were in double digits again. Baun forced his fifth fumble of the season.

Cornerback and safety

• 68 snaps: Quinyon Mitchell and Reed Blankenship

• 64 snaps: Darius Slay

• 63 snaps: Cooper DeJean

• 37 snaps: Chauncey Gardner-Johnson

• 31 snaps: Tristin McCollum

• 6 snaps: Isaiah Rodgers

• 1 snap: Kelee Ringo

Notes: The Eagles' secondary busted a coverage partly because of a substitution snafu that led to a long TD by Olamide Zaccheaus. 

Otherwise, I did like some of what I saw from this group:

• Slay made some uncharacteristically physical tackles.
• Blankenship grabbed his 4th INT of the season. (He has quietly had a very good season, in my opinion.)
• DeJean forced and recovered a fumble.

On the downside, Mitchell got roasted by Terry McLaurin for a TD.

McCollum seemed to be the victim of some big Commanders plays after CJGJ was ejected for saying mean things to the other team.

Three stars 🤩

I've always liked the hockey tradition of awarding "stars" to each of the three best players in a game, so let's apply that to Eagles games.

⭐⭐⭐: QB Jayden Daniels

🌟🌟: LB Frankie Luvu

✨: WR A.J. Brown