Roob’s Observations: Eagles drop heartbreaker to Commanders originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Kenny Pickett almost won it, and the NFL’s top-ranked defense lost it.
After Pickett drove the Eagles to a couple late field goals, the Eagles’ vaunted defense let the Commanders drive the length of the field for its third touchdown of the fourth quarter.
The winning streak is gone, their hopes for the No. 1 seed took a huge hit and the Eagles may need to regroup against the Cowboys Sunday without Jalen Hurts, who is now in concussion protocol.
First time the Eagles have blown a 13-point 4th-quarter lead in five years.
Commanders 36, Eagles 33.
This was bad.
1. The defense had been playing so well since the bye it was shocking to see them collapse like this – 36 points, 368 yards, five TD passes, 22 points in the fourth quarter. They allowed more points in the final 13 1/2 minutes of the game than they had allowed in any game since before the bye. They just fell to pieces in the fourth quarter, allowing touchdown drives of 61, 87 and 57 yards, including Jayden Daniels’ game-winning touchdown pass to Jamison Crowder with six seconds left. Daniels kept the Eagles’ defense off balance in the fourth quarter both throwing it and running it, and the Eagles looked gassed trying to slow him and his receivers down. In the fourth quarter alone, Daniels threw for 139 yards with three touchdowns. In all, he threw five touchdowns and ran for 82 yards against the top-rated pass defense in the league. The Eagles sure missed Josh Sweat, who left with an ankle injury in the second quarter, and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, who got himself ejected after picking up his second unsportsmanlike conduct. The Eagles forced five turnovers, which was encouraging to see, but by the fourth quarter they had no answers. Coverage fell apart, tackling fell apart, pass rush was non-existent. They just needed one final stop and they couldn’t get it.
2. Pickett wasn’t perfect at all, but dang-it, he gave the Eagles a chance to win, and if it weren’t for late drops by Saquon Barkley in the right flat on one field goal drive and DeVonta Smith over the middle on the next, the Eagles would have won the game and they’d still be riding that winning streak. Pickett had a nice TD pass to A.J. Brown on his first drive and he also had that 45-yarder to Brown on a non-scoring drive, picked up 67 yards on three Marshon Lattimore DPIs on A.J. Brown and converted two gutsy 4th-down passes on a 4th-quarter field goal drive. The interception deep in Eagles territory was terrible and led directly to Washington’s first touchdown, and his fumble deep in Washington territory could have been disastrous. Fortunately, Lane Johnson recovered. But Pickett put 26 points up on the scoreboard in his first playing time in a year and his first game as an Eagle against the NFL’s No. 4 pass defense, and if not for those two drops he wins the game. Most likely, Pickett will start against the Cowboys Sunday, although it’s not unheard of for someone to clear the protocol in a week. If he plays like this against the Cowboys Sunday, he’ll give the Eagles a shot.
3. Chauncey Gardner-Johnson is playing terrific football, and his interception Sunday was his fourth during the winning streak. But he’s always played on the edge and he got himself ejected in the middle of the third quarter for his second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. You love his energy and feistiness, but he just can’t let that happen. And who was covering Olamide Zaccheaus on his 4th-quarter touchdown catch? Tristin McCallum, who went in the game for C.J. That was Gardner-Johnson’s guy. He’s got to be smarter. He’s in his sixth year now, and he’s got to know better. Has to. Play tough, play physical, play with an edge, but you’ve got to know where the line is and don’t go over it.
4. It’s really hard to lose a game when you get five takeaways. Teams forcing five turnovers over the last 10 years were 71-5 coming into this week and 235-18 over the last 20 years. The Eagles hadn’t lost a game with five takeaways since 1999 and they were 45-3 in such games since 1975. Two takeaways: It’s great to see the Eagles’ defense this aggressive. But when you get five takeaways, you have to take advantage of those opportunities, and the Eagles didn’t. They got seven after the first turnover but the next four takeaways netted just six points – a punt, a missed field goal and two field goals. Those are opportunities you can’t squander. Five takeaways is great. Ten points off those takeaways is awful.
5. Once Josh Sweat left the game with an ankle injury in the second quarter, the Eagles had real issues generating pressure, and that’s not surprising. That injury meant the Eagles were down Sweat, Bryce Huff and Brandon Graham from their original edge rotation. With Huff still inactive after wrist surgery and B.G. out for the year, that left Smith, rookie 3rd-round pick Jalyx Hunt and 2017 Dolphins 1st-round pick Charles Harris as the only healthy edge rushers, and it doesn’t look like Harris got in the game. Nolan Smith got an early sack, but the Commanders – who had allowed 20 sacks in their last five games – didn’t allow another one the rest of the game, and on those last three TD drives they barely pressured Daniels. And when they did, he just ran away. We don’t know how long Sweat will be out or when Huff will be back, but they need both those guys if they’re going to generate the pressure they need.
More coming …
