December 22, 2024
Geoff Burke/Imagn Images
Saquon Barkley ran wild in the first quarter, but he was bottled up thereafter.
In Week 16, the Philadelphia Eagles had their 10-game winning streak snapped by the Washington Commanders in a weird, wild game. As always, win, lose, or tie, we hand out 10 awards.
The biggest news from the Eagles' matchup with the Commanders is that Jalen Hurts is hurt. He exited the game with 9:15 left in the first quarter, and was eventually ruled out for the day with a concussion.
Hurts has his flaws, but his strengths were also missed in the Eagles' loss. If the Eagles are going to make any sort of playoff run, they need a healthy Hurts.
Late-season injuries have become something of a tradition during the Hurts era.
• In 2021, Hurts missed a Week 13 game with an ankle injury. The Eagles beat the Jets with Gardner Minshew.
• In 2022, Hurts missed two games with a shoulder injury. The Eagles lost both games, to the Cowboys and Saints, again with Minshew filling in. Hurts would eventually return to the lineup and lead the Eagles to the Super Bowl.
• In 2023, Hurts didn't miss any games, but he was hampered by a knee injury and was not the same player as a runner. Hurts' play wasn't totally responsible for the team's epic collapse that season, but it contributed to it.
Head injuries have varying degrees of severity, like with any body part, and certainly concussions are serious, but it's not as if the fans have to wait around for an MRI to reveal if Hurts will likely return to the lineup soon or if he'll miss 6-8 weeks or something. The likelihood is that Hurts will return to the lineup soon. To be determined if he can return Week 17 against the Cowboys, or if Kenny Pickett will have to start.
Gardner-Johnson was ejected from this game for committing two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. He evidently said something mean enough to Dyami Brown that Brown punched his helmet off of his head, and the referee was like, "The penalty is on the guy who got punched," lol.
Gardner-Johnson wasn't available for comment after the game, but I'm going to need to know what exactly he said. CJGJ gave the double middle finger to the crowd on his way off the field.
Double bird from CJGJ as he leaves the field. pic.twitter.com/jYzRo92KFN
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) December 22, 2024
49ers interrupt the Eagles’ DBs drills… pic.twitter.com/5O0vHKqnoW
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) December 3, 2023
That incident would have gone down differently if CJGJ were on the team last year.
Do you want CJGJ to get himself thrown out of a game in which the Eagles can clinch the division and continue to compete for the 1 seed? No. Do you want Jalen Carter punching a guy in the head during a punt return like he did a week ago? Obviously not.
But it's better than the softness the team exhibited a season ago! Neither extreme is ideal, though, and the Eagles have to find a way to be smarter on the field while also keeping their fire and their edge.
MORE: Eagles collapse in face of electric Jayden Daniels performance
The unsportsmanlike penalties aside, the Eagles just made too many uncharacteristic mistakes against the Commanders. The worst example was a play in which Isaiah Rodgers exited the game, and both Darius Slay and Kelee Ringo came onto the field. Slay realized that the Eagles had 12 men on the field and tried to hustle off, but also probably left Olamide Zaccheaus wide open deep down the field as a result.
"Just sloppy," Nick Sirianni said. "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... That's always going to be on me as the head coach."
I would also add that the special teams units — notably the kick coverage team — also stunk.
The Eagles forced five turnovers, and lost. They also only really turned it over once, if you don't count the last play of the game. They were realistically +4. Above, Sirianni said "It's going to be hard to win" if you're sloppy, regardless of how many turnovers you create.
I would argue that if you're +4 in turnover differential it's extremely hard to lose. It's not like the Commanders played well. I mean, hell, they turned it over five times! You have to be pretty damn sloppy to lose a game like that.
Usually, the Eagles start slowly, adjust, and then beat their opponents in the second halves of games. Against the Commanders, it was the reverse. The Eagles got out to a lightning-fast start, scoring 21 first-quarter points. The rest of the way they got outscored 29-12.
"Usually we're the team that adjusts better in the second half, and we've shown that throughout the whole season," Saquon Barkley said. "Credit to those guys."
MORE: The pivotal plays from the Eagles' collapse to the Commanders
In the first quarter, Barkley exploded for 7 carries for 109 yards and 2 TDs. The rest of the way he had 22 carries for 41 yards.
The Commanders packed the box and dared Kenny Pickett to beat them through the air. But also, Barkley didn't have the advantage of the threat of Hurts keeping the ball on zone reads and helping occupy other defenders.
Ultimately, the Commanders did a good job slowing Barkley down for the final three quarters, which gave them opportunities to get back into the game.
In the Eagles' Week 2 loss to the Falcons, Barkley was wide open for a game-sealing catch and first down, but he dropped a perfectly thrown ball from Hurts.
Costly drop! @saquon Barkley can’t haul in the pass from Jalen Hurts.
— DIE-HARD 🦅 REALTOR® (@Eaglesfans9) September 17, 2024
The drop stopped the clock and the Eagles are forced to go for the FG.
HUGE MISTAKE BY 26. pic.twitter.com/JshkQPBdGK
Against the Commanders, DeVonta Smith had a chance to all but put the Commanders away if he had made a catch for a third-down conversion. But, OH NO!
Smith took accountability after the game:
DeVonta Smith on the crucial drop in the 4th quarter -
— Ashlyn Sullivan (@ashlynrsullivan) December 22, 2024
“I just dropped the ball, there is nothing I can do about it now. I was calling for the ball… when Kenny put it in my hands I have to make the God d**n play.” pic.twitter.com/1ATToYdtfR
The Eagles would be 14-1 without those drops from Barkley and Smith. Of course, they also wouldn't be 12-3 without them either.
After the DeVonta Smith drop, the Eagles' defense still had a chance to get a stop and win the game. Like in the loss to the Falcons, they didn't.
The Commanders started at their own 43 after poor kick coverage and an illegal formation on Sydney Brown. They then drove 9 plays for 57 yards in 1:52 and made it look easy.
The Eagles' defense has been outstanding this season, but they came up small on the game's most important possession.
For a guy who went over 1000 yards for the season with a couple games to play, it's perhaps a compliment to say that Brown is having a "down" season, at least compared to what we've seen from him his first two seasons in Philly. Part of that was because he missed three games with a hamstring injury. Part of it is because the Eagles have been so run-heavy because Barkley has been so good.
But Brown is starting to play his best football of the season. Marshon Lattimore is one of the league's better corners, and he couldn't cover Brown without grabbing and holding him all day. Brown caught 8 passes for 97 yards and a TD, and he also forced three pass interference calls on Lattimore (and Lattimore was lucky he wasn't flagged for more). Brown quipped that if it were a basketball game, Lattimore "would have fouled out."
Brown looks like he's going to be a handful for opposing defenses the rest of the way.
With the Eagles' loss and the Lions' win over the Bears Week 16, the Eagles can pretty much kiss any reasonable hope for the 1 seed goodbye.
The silver lining is that they will still clinch the NFC East and at least the 2 seed if they beat the injury-devastated Cowboys Week 17 or the tanking Giants Week 18, OR if the Commanders lose either of their final two games to the Falcons or Cowboys.
If the Eagles are able to clinch Week 17, they can rest starters Week 18, when they might have otherwise gone all out to win their final two games and still likely ended up as the 2 seed anyway.
MORE: Barkley's chase continues, Eagles can't overcome Hurts' concussion
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