Commanders Get Back on Track in a 27-10 Win Against the Eagles

It wasn’t pretty — at times, it was downright ugly — but the Commanders did enough to earn a 27-10 win against the Eagles on Sunday night.

Trailing 10-0 at home in the first quarter, it looked like Washington was well on its way to another demoralizing loss in a season full of them. But the defense stepped up, holding Philadelphia scoreless for the final three quarters and giving the Commanders’ offense time to find a rhythm.

“There is an energy that comes from adversity that can be constructive or it can be destructive — for us it was constructive,” coach Dan Quinn said. "[We decided] we were going to go fight, we were going to go battle.”

Washington allowed points on two of the game’s first three drives but shut Philadelphia down the rest of the way. The Commanders sacked Eagles quarterback Tanner McKee five times and forced a fumble. Corner Rasul Douglas nabbed an interception late in the fourth quarter to ice the game. The run defense — one of the team’s few bright spots this season — limited Eagles rushers to 91 yards on 29 carries. Saquon Barkley finished with just 54 total yards.

On offense, Jayden Daniels wasn’t efficient through the air (16 of 29 for 217 yards), but he threw a touchdown and went another game without an interception. Rookie receiver Antonio Williams, who Quinn said would see a bigger role after the season-ending injury to Terry McLaurin, was a steadying presence for Washington with five receptions for 54 yards. His leaping, 30-yard reception in the fourth quarter helped set up a 42-yard Drew Stevens field goal that put the Commanders up by two scores, 19-10.

“When we saw the safety roll down, we knew it was a good look for what we were trying to attack, and Jayden trusted me to make the play and to help us win the game,” Williams said.

Treylon Burks had a 53-yard reception that set up a field goal late in the third quarter. He led all receivers with 81 yards on the night. Daniels connected with Stefon Diggs for an 8-yard touchdown in the second quarter that tied the game at 10.

The win, Washington’s first since Week 3, moves the team to 2-4-1 and third place in the NFC East. The Cowboys (3-5) lost to the Cardinals on Sunday afternoon, keeping the divisional race close behind the first-place Giants. Washington faces the Rams (4-4) next week at home.

Washington was haunted by penalties. Again.

The dumb (actually, at this point they can be called asinine) pre-snap penalties and mental mistakes that have been plaguing the Commanders all season were present again on Sunday night. Back-to-back false starts led to a missed field goal on the opening drive and, on the next, a wide-open Burks had a momentum-killing drop.

And then, late in the first quarter, Washington put together this brutal sequence:

• Rachaad White touched the kickoff in the landing zone before it rolled into the back of the end zone, forcing Washington to start on its own 20-yard line rather than the 35.
• A 5-yard illegal man downfield penalty on right tackle Josh Conerly Jr.
• A 5-yard false start penalty on left guard Chris Paul.
• A lost fumble by tight end Chig Okonkwo.
  

That unfortunate series of events led to a 3-yard touchdown run by Barkley to put Philadelphia up 10-0.

The Commanders committed nine accepted penalties (10 overall) in the game for 70 yards, including five pre-snap penalties. On defense, a roughing the passer call on linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson on third-and-6 in the third quarter both spared the Eagles from punting and negated a Trey Amos interception.

Quinn and the team have harped on the issue all season, particularly the pre-snap penalties, which negated touchdowns against the Seahawks and Colts. At one point, Quinn brought in referees for practice. But as Sunday proved, this is an ongoing concern.

“To see that come up again — we’ve got to get to the bottom of that,” Quinn said while pounding the table at his postgame press conference. “That has to go down.”

Daniels called the team’s sloppy start “B.S.” After the Okonkwo fumble, he was seen on the sideline talking passionately to the offense.

“At that point it wasn’t our brand of football that we want to play or showcase,” he said. “It was at that point you just get frustrated, and you go up and speak your mind. So that’s what I did.”

Game MVP: The defense

On Sunday, the Commanders were able to create the kind of pressure that has been missing for most of the season — they entered Sunday with the second-highest blitz rate (42.5%) but were 24th in quarterback pressure rate (32.1%), according to Next Gen Stats.

On the first defensive drive of the game, McKee was pressured on second and third down to force a three-and-out. Philadelphia moved the ball on its second drive, but a blitz by safety Nick Cross on third down forced McKee to overthrow receiver Darius Cooper.

To start the second half, Cross ended a promising Eagles drive with a tackle for loss on Elijah Mitchell on third down. On the next drive, linebacker Dorance Armstrong knocked right tackle Markel Bell into McKee to force a fumble.

After allowing scores on two of the first three drives, the unit shut the Eagles offense down for nine straight possessions

“I did like seeing the group in connection together,” Quinn said. “Sometimes, as a pass rush, you might see a [defensive] end up high, a [defensive] tackle low, and it’s not in connection. So I felt they did a nice job of staying into that. … That’s something that we’ve been harping on, and so it was good to see that come to life.”

What they had to say

• Quinn on Daniels’ taking a big hit at the end of the first quarter: “I thought he showed a lot of toughness. He took a real shot … and so to see him like ‘I’m good, I’m going to come back’ and go make a bunch of plays in the second half — I thought that was a big step.”

• Austin Ekeler on the Cowboys’ 33-30 loss to the Cardinals: “I saw the Cowboys lost today. That’s good for the Commanders.”
• Williams on doing McLaurin’s celebration: “That’s my dog, and to see him go down kind of hurt all of us. We all came together as a receiver group, said we were just gonna keep spamming a little ‘Scary Terry’ emote.”
• Okonkwo on his acrobatic catch in the third quarter: “It does feel like slow motion actually. I really feel like I saw everything happen so slowly and then I just put my hand up and made the catch.”