Well, that sucked. If you’re gonna lose, so be it, but the circumstances of this one were a total kick in the nuts.

Jalen Hurts exits with a concussion, Kenny Pickett does just enough to get you a couple of late field goals, then DeVonta Smith drops a pass that would have bled the clock and won you the game. That’s capped off with the defense giving up the game-losing touchdown with less than 10 seconds on the clock.

So there goes the #1 seed and the 10-game winning streak. They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as we head to the observations:

1) Jalen Hurts wore the same mismatching shoes one week after being fined for it. This was basically the highlight of his day:

2) GREAT stop by the defense on the first Communist drive. It started at the 40-yard line because of the short kick off, but they got a Darius Slay PBU on second down and then stuffed Brian Robinson on 4th and short. That’s one of those instances where Jordan Davis pops on film, and does something well, but he doesn’t get credit for it in the box score. It went down as a a Josh Sweat tackle, and since it was behind the line of scrimmage, counts as a stuff as well.


3) Believe it or not, the Eagles’ opening-drive touchdown was their first of the season. Saquon Barkley ran it four times for 37 yards and the score, and a third-down Commie penalty was the difference between 7 points and 3.

4) Special teams was shaky early. Illegal kick off to start the game, then they conceded a 47-yard return on the second kick, and then Sydney Brown with a late penalty. Michael Clay might have to kick someone’s ass during Christmas week film.

5) Does it make anyone else roll their eyes when FOX almost immediately dumps to commercial break after a big turnover? Jalen Carter forces the Robinson fumble, we get a quick back-angle replay and can’t see anything, then they immediately fade into a commercial break. They always give us the full replay afterward, but it just takes the air out of the game, like “BIG TURNOVER! .. now here’s an Ozempic advertisement.”

6) We never doubted Kenny Pickett. This man came in on a 3rd and 7, hit A.J. Brown to move the sticks, then hit A.J. again on 3rd down for a score. We never said anything about his small hands or choice of college. Hail to Pitt!

(on a more serious note, they let the dude sling it on that first drive.. other coaches would have just handed the ball off and settled for a field goal)

7) …and then Pickett throws a terrible interception on the next drive. Nevermind. We did doubt him.

All told, he was not HORRIBLE when you look at the box score, and the late drives that set up the field goals, but his limitations were clearly on display in the second half especially, when Hurts would have moved the ball with his legs and escaped the pocket and extended drives. Every second-half snap felt like an adventure, but it’s hard to say they lost the game because of Pickett. He wasn’t amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but he left the game with the lead.

8) Comical “roughing the passer” penalty on Milton Williams, who should know that if you give the zebras any opportunity, they’ll take it.

9) Saquon, 68 yards to the house. He now has six runs of 50+ yards this season. Incredible. Now up to 16 total in his career. He’d need three more to jump Derrick Henry for third place all time. Barry Sanders is second, with 24, and Adrian Peterson has the record at 25.

10) With Hurts going down, and Saquon Barkley cooking Washington almost immediately, that really sells the MVP case. What other skill player in the NFL can make up for the loss of QB1? Washington’s entire game plan after that touchdown was to sell out, stop the run, and make Pickett beat them, which should tell you everything.

11) The defense does need to chill out a bit and read the reffing situation. Beyond the Williams penalty, CJGJ was popped for 15 questionable yards during a commercial break. That was followed up with Jalen Carter getting an IFFY 15 yarder of his own. The refs were being clowns all game long, so you gotta try to recognize that and adjust accordingly. Instead, CJGJ was later tossed, which meant big second half minutes for Tristin McCollum, who was in coverage on the third Commie touchdown.

12) Robinson Jr. is a pretty good running back and the Eagles totally shut him down in this game. Two first-half fumbles, 10 total carries for 24 yards.

13) Marshon Lattimore had a rough time with A.J. Brown, who went over 1,000 yards for the third straight season. All things considered, “chuck it up there for A.J. Brown” is not a horrible strategy, and one that Pickett used several times to good effect, drawing a couple of penalty flags in the process.

14) Greg Olsen is 100 times better at television than Tom Brady. People say he talks too much, which might be true, but he explains the nuance of the game and the rules, which is his job.

15) You figured Terry McLaurin was due after Quinyon Mitchell shut him down in Philadelphia. Mitchell gave him a cushion and obviously wasn’t expecting something over the top. He lost outside leverage as a result. First TD Mitchell has given up as a rookie.

16) They did not run the tush push with Pickett on 4th and 1 from their own 35. They didn’t run it at all.

17)  Darius Slay played a great game. Looked like prime Troy Vincent out there at times. He was covering, hitting, doing it all. Only gave up one big completion before he ended up leaving the game, which saw Isaiah Rodgers enter. Then Slay had the PBU on the late Reed Blankenship interception.

18) The “block” that took Jordan Davis out of the game for a short time was a smaller guy rolling into his knees. No flag of course.

19) Initially, they didn’t seem to be going conservative with Pickett in the game. Then the drive before halftime they ran Kenny Gainwell on 2nd and 10 before handing it to Saquon on 3rd and 7. This was before the two-minute warning, when Washington also had timeouts remaining. It felt like they were just trying to get the locker room when there was plenty of time to do something on that drive. Of couse, if Pickett had thrown the ball in front of Brown on 1st down, they would have moved the sticks.

20) Thankfully, Daniels threw a hideous pick on the ensuing possession, so no points for them. The Eagles blew a 3rd and 1, but converted on fourth, then Jake Elliott was JUST short from 56 yards. Not an easy kick and he didn’t shank it, but that dropped him to 0-6 from 50+ this season.*

21) The Hurts hit did not seem dirty when watching it live. Felt like a bang-bang type of play. On the second replay, you can see Frankie Luvu leading with the helmet. You tell me:

22) First half penalties: Eagles – 8 for 71 yards, Commies – 2 for 10 yards. After those two penalties on Lattimore, the Commies overtook the Birds in penalty yardage. At least one of those was a make-up call.

23) Didn’t hate the wildcat play in the red zone. Thought Washington played it well. The Eagles were banking on the Commies selling out to stop the run, but they had DeVonta Smith covered, so Saquon just swallowed it and they kicked the field goal. Without Hurts’ running ability in the red zone, they were gonna be really limited.

24) Honestly, the Eagles did a great job falling on loose balls in this game. Nolan Smith had two recoveries for the defense, and when Pickett was blindsided in the third quarter, Lane Johnson was able to get in there after it bounced around a bit. Four fumbles in this game, all recovered by the Birds.

25) At least two of the three flags on Lattimore were legitimate. There was a fourth that went uncalled, with Pickett throwing for Brown in the end zone, Lattimore draped all over him, and then the second DB coming in high with the helmet. I guess they felt like they couldn’t call anything else against him. Swallowed the whistles.

26) 3rd and 11, Daniels throws down the middle, the ball bounces backward 20 yards. Anyone else have flashbacks of Keanu Neal in the 2018 playoffs?

27) Inexcusable to let Daniels run for 30 yards on 4th and 11. How do you not have someone spying him? Even if you have to rush three, drop seven, and leave a linebacker there, it would have made a lot more sense than whatever coverage that was. It was the play that changed the game and gave Washington life.

28) Communist fans can boo all they want, but it was obvious that Pickett was trying to shovel pass the ball on that 4th quarter drive.

29) Also no excuses for the secondary breakdown on the fourth Washington TD. 12 men on the field? Slay was out and CJGJ ejected, and they couldn’t get the right personnel out there.

30) Joe Davis seemed surprised that the Commanders were able to mount a comeback, perhaps unaware that Kenny Pickett had replaced Jalen Hurts two hours prior.

31) It changes the game if Saquon hauls in that sideline shot. Nice play by Bobby Wagner, but man oh man, it was there. Thankfully Brown was there to convert on 4th down and continue the drive.

32) Refs made the right call on the picked up flag during that Pickett scramble. No way on Earth that was a penalty.

33) *Elliott hit from 50. He hit from 50! Great kick, clutch kick. He needed that. We all needed that.

34) As bad as the 4th and 11 coverage was, Vic Fangio was brilliant on the late Daniels pick. It was a three-man rush with a delayed blitz, and with Nakobe Dean coming late, Daniels slid to his right and tried to throw across his body. Great defensive call:

35) DeVonta Smith dropped a pass that would have won the game. He catches that 999 out of 1,000 times.

36) Really underwhelming from the D on the final drive. Couldn’t replicate the magic of the prior drive and then Zack Baun got lost a little bit and that was all she wrote. Poor touchdown to give up, all things considered.

 

(I RIFLED through this proofreading, email me with typos and other assorted nonsense)