LeSean McCoy and Nick Foles both got hammered in game three against Washington last year, and neither was the same for a few games. Shady took a helmet-to-helmet spear from David Amerson that left him splayed out on the field for a while; he had 19 carries for 22 yards that day, and was 10 for 17 the following week at San Francisco. Foles was nearly suplexed on Chris Baker’s cheap shot that led to a bench clearing brawl.

This game against Washington may be even worse. The Eagles started with only five active defensive linemen, and before the end of the first quarter DE Brandon Bair — starting in place of the injured Cedric Thornton — was out for the game with a groin injury.

Two other defensive starters were on the bench after the Skins first drive: CB Byron Maxwell and ILB Mychal Kendricks. They both have good if raw replacements in Eric Rowe and Jordan Hicks, respectively, but the roster is getting dangerously thin, even as Washington is grinding out long drive after long drive while the Birds can’t sustain a drive.

And Bennie Logan looked “uncomfortable” after the second drive, which might have been some kind of injury or simply exhaustion by that point. He kept playing, though.

The defense is playing remarkably stout (with a couple of bad exceptions) despite fatigue and a tough run game by Washington. But they’re already looking winded, and any further injuries could be devastating.


On offense, the news is even worse. Matt Tobin was already struggling in place of Andrew Gardner. Then Jason Peters went out after reinjuring his quad, which had left him questionable for the rest of the game. He started but was having a lot of trouble on the first drive sliding and blocking edge rushers. The effects are obvious — Bradford has rushers on him almost immediately on a lot of plays.