The Philadelphia Eagles and their fans had to wait a couple extra days to face the Washington Football Team in Week 15, but that patience paid off, as the Birds (eventually) beat up on Washington, 27-17.
As always, win, lose, or tie, we hand out 10 awards.
1) The Ground and Pound Award 💪: The Eagles' rushing attack, and their run defense
The Eagles have now rushed for at least 175 yards in seven straight games. They remain the No. 1 rushing offense in the NFL, with an average of 165.6 rushing yards per game.
Here's how their 238 yards against Washington were split:
- Miles Sanders carried 18 times for 131 yards.
- Jordan Howard carried 15 times for 69 yards.
- Jalen Hurts carried 8 times for 38 yards and 2 TDs.
So that's nothing new. What has flown under the radar is how well the Eagles have also stopped the run of late, on defense. They out-rushed Washington 238-63 Tuesday night. But also, during that aforementioned seven-game span above, the Eagles are out-rushing their opponents 1501-554, which, just... 🤯. They are absolutely owning the trenches in the run game on both sides of the ball.
2) The 'Stock Up' Award 📈: Jalen Hurts
As we laid out a couple weeks ago when we took a stock up/stock down, game-by-game look at Hurts' season, it's been sort of a roller coaster ride for the second-year quarterback. Week 15 against Washington was a clear "stock up" performance.
- Week 1: Eagles 32 at Falcons 6 📈
- Week 2: 49ers 17 at Eagles 11 😐
- Week 3: Eagles 21 at Cowboys 41 📉
- Week 4: Chiefs 42 at Eagles 30 📈
- Week 5: Eagles 21 at Panthers 18 😐
- Week 6: Buccaneers 28 at Eagles 22 📉
- Week 7: Eagles 22 at Raiders 33 📉
- Week 8: Eagles 44 at Lions 6 😐
- Week 9: Chargers 27 at Eagles 24 😐
- Week 10: Eagles 30 at Broncos 13 📈
- Week 11: Saints 29 at Eagles 40 📈
- Week 12: Eagles 7 at Giants 13 📉
- Week 13: Eagles 33 at Jets 18 🪑
- Week 15: Washington 17 at Eagles 27 📈
The tale of the tape:
📈 = 5 games
📉 = 4 games
😐 = 4 games
🪑 = 1 game
On the night, Hurts was 20 of 26 for 296 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. The INT wasn't his fault, but he was also bailed out on an underthrown ball that probably should have been an INT, but instead Dallas Goedert stole the ball away for a long gain. So those two things probably cancel each other out.
Hurts' highlight of the game was on a back shoulder throw to Greg Ward, on what was one of his best passes of the season:
Hurts also scored two touchdowns, giving him 10 on the season. He's four behind the all-time, single-season quarterback rushing TD record of 14, set by Cam Newton in 2011. He's got an outside shot at that record.
MORE: Final observations: Eagles 27, Football Team 17 | Eagles 'if the season ended today' 2022 draft pick tracker
3) The 'Tough Coaching' Award 😡: Nick Sirianni
After an early fumble, TV cameras caught Sirianni chewing out Hurts.
If there were any concerns that Sirianni couldn't be tough with his players, I think he has put those to bed.
Also, to Hurts' credit, he said in his postgame interview that he's a coach's son, meaning that he had to live in the same house as his harshest critic growing up. Sirianni knows that Hurts can take tough coaching, so he dishes it out. Hurts is mentally tough, unlike some past Eagles quarterbacks.
4) The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Award ↕: Dallas Goedert
Goedert had two really bad drops Tuesday night, one of which turned into an INT, and really should have been a pick-six.
But there was plenty of good though, too. On the night, Goedert had 7 catches for 135 yards, and as noted above, he saved Hurts on a deep throw, shown here:
5) The 'Throwback' Award 🕒: Fletcher Cox
Cox had 1.5 sacks and was disruptive all night on the interior alongside Javon Hargrave. His sack at the end of the first half ensured that Washington did not add any points to the board heading into the locker room.
That play felt a little bit like it allowed the Eagles to keep the momentum they had gained after crawling back from a 0-10 start. Washington was without All-Pro RG Brandon Scherff, which helped, but Cox still had his best game of the season.
MORE: The good, bad and ugly from the first half of Eagles-WFT | A look back at 15 nicknamed Eagles games
6) The 'Every Hits, Woohoo!' Award: Jalen Reagor
Even Reagor got in on the fun Tuesday night, as he had a career high 57 yards on 3 catches. I know, I know, low bar. Baby steps, friends.
7) The 'Middle Finger' Award 🖕: The NFL, to the Eagles and their fans
By postponing this game, all the NFL did was make both the Eagles and Football Team lose more important players to the COVID list before kickoff, and put both teams at a disadvantage for their Week 16 games.
Along the way, they inconvenienced fans who planned their weeks around attending a game on Sunday afternoon, not a Tuesday night. It never made any sense, and in hindsight, the decision to move it looked even worse.
8) The 'Undermanned' Award: The Washington Football Team
We mentioned above that Scherff was out. He was hardly the only important player Washington was missing. A recap of the noteworthy players who did not play Tuesday night:
• QB: Ryan Fitzpatrick, Taylor Heinicke, Kyle Allen
• RB: J.D. McKissick
• WR: Curtis Samuel
• TE: Logan Thomas
• OL: Brandon Scherff, Chase Roullier, Tyler Larson
• DL: Chase Young, Tim Settle, James Smith-Williams
• LB: Jon Bostic
• CB: Kendall Fuller, William Jackson (played, but left early)
• S: Kam Curl
I mean, they started Garrett Gilbert, a guy they signed off the Patriots' practice squad four days ago. If the Eagles didn't beat this team, they may as well have just thrown in the towel on the season.
9) The 'Award For Excellence in Craptastic Quarterback Play' 💩: The guys the Eagles have beaten so far this year
Credit the Eagles for getting back to 0.500 with three games to play. The Eagles have a chance to finish the season with a winning record, and maybe even make the playoffs.
But we have to acknowledge the string of bad quarterbacks they've beaten:
- Week 1: Matt Ryan
- Week 5: Sam Darnold
- Week 8: Jared Goff
- Week 10: Teddy Bridgewater
- Week 11: Trevor Siemian
- Week 13: Zach Wilson
- Week 15: Garrett Gilbert
In Week 16, barring any surprise developments, the Eagles will face a Giants team that will start either Mike Glennon or Jake Fromm.
10) The 'Come Clean Up Your Mess' Award: Washington
In Week 14, the Dallas Cowboys brought their own benches to FedEx Field because the heated benches on the visiting sidelines reportedly don't work.
In a super lame copycat move, Washington had their own heated benches sent to Lincoln Financial Field.
As of 1:00 a.m., with the Washington Football Team likely already almost home by now, the benches are still here.
Hey Dan Snyder, come get your shit.
Follow Jimmy & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @JimmyKempski | thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Add Jimmy's RSS feed to your feed reader