Eagles’ defense picking up the pieces after shocking collapse originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
It had been almost three months since they allowed 20 points in a game.
On Sunday, they allowed 22 points in 13 ½ minutes.
The Eagles’ defense has been playing at such a high level it was hard to imagine this happening.
This being a 4th-quarter collapse the likes of which we’ve rarely seen in Eagles history.
Jayden Daniels and the Commanders came back from 13 points down early in the fourth quarter to beat the Eagles 36-33 and they did it by thrashing the No. 1 defense and No. 1 pass defense in the NFL.
“We know we’ve got to play better,” Nakobe Dean said. “We have to do better. We were doing a lot of uncharacteristic things as far as penalties and certain things that were going on out there. We know we have to play better, but we’re going to use this to build on.
“It’s time to practice what we preach now as far as continuing to get better and the way we handle adversity. This is adversity and how we handle it and how we grow for it and get better from it, it’s going to be a testament to this team, the players and the coaches.”
Daniels threw five touchdown passes against a defense that had allowed eight during the 10-game winning streak. He became the sixth quarterback ever to throw three TD passes against the Eagles in a fourth quarter. He became only the third QB in NFL history with five TD passes and 80 rushing yards in a game. And only the seventh rookie in history to throw five TDs in a game.
The vaunted Eagles defense had no answers.
“They drafted a 5-star quarterback,” Jalen Carter said. “ That boy Jayden, really talented, and he showed it today. He did what he needed to do to get his team a dub.
“We got an L today. They played their ass off and did what they needed to do to win. What we’ve got to do is just move on to next week and focus on the Cowboys.”
During the 10-game winning streak, the Eagles’ defense allowed 13.6 points, 148 passing yards and 240 total yards per game. All best in the NFL.
Sunday, they allowed 36 points, 255 passing yards and 368 total yards. And blew a 13-point 4th-quarterlead for the first time since 2018 against the Panthers.
All the things they’ve been doing so well they just couldn’t do against Daniels and the Commanders.
They couldn’t tackle. They couldn’t cover. They couldn’t pressure. They were a step slow, and in the fourth quarter they were several steps slow.
“Some of it was self-inflicted, penalties,” Cooper DeJean said. “We did a lot of stuff that hurt us today on the defensive side. Some miscommunications, things we have to clean up going forward. We just have to go back to practice and fix those things.
“Biggest thing is the penalties. We’ve got to be better in that aspect, not give them free yards.”
It didn’t help that Chauncey Gardner-Johnson – whose interception was one of five Eagles takeaways – got himself ejected and wasn’t around when the Commanders came charging back after trailing 27-14 as the fourth quarter began.
“They made some plays and we didn’t make some plays,” DeJean said. “We had ‘em on a 4th-and-10-plus, quarterback got out of there and ran (29 yards). We had them in second and long and gave them a first down. Little things like that. We’ve got to make sure we do better. Do what we do. What we’ve been doing.”
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