Philadelphia Eagles vs. Washington Commanders 10 Thoughts: Haason Reddick's Revenge, Turning Point & One Rarity
LANDOVER, MD. – Thoughts after the Philadelphia Eagles’ 38-31 win over the determined Washington Commanders in Week 8 gave Philly the best record in the entire NFL right now at 7-1 for a second straight year around the season’s midway point?
There were plenty. Here are 10:
TURNING POINT. It could be the Julio Jones eight-yard touchdown catch that gave the Eagles their first lead with just over seven minutes to pay in the final quarter. It was a great catch on a throw that was just a tick behind him, and he paid the price for it, taking a shot to the head from safety Kam Curl that was originally flagged but the refs decided to pick up the flag.
The turning point in this goes to Reed Blankenship, who was having a difficult day but redeemed himself with an interception deep in Commanders' territory. It was the play that set up the TD from Jones.
“I was just reading his eyes,” said Blankenship of Washington quarterback Sam Howell. “I saw he was looking backside pretty hard and knew we had to make a play. I tried it and luckily it came up pretty good.”
On a day where both defenses had trouble stopping either offense, it was a much-needed turnover.
STRIDER. It won’t get much mention, but on the play before Blankenship’s interception, linebacker Nick Morrow was running stride for stride with tight end Logan Thomas deep down the middle of the field and didn’t allow a completion.
Morrow played the fewest linebacker snaps on the day, getting 27 (38 percent) to Zach Cunningham’s 51 (71 percent) and Nakobe Dean’s 50 (69 percent). Dean made 12 tackles, which surpassed his previous career-high of seven set in the season-opener against the New England Patriots.
STAND BY YOUR MAN. That’s what head coach Nick Sirianni did after running back Kenny Gainwell fumbled at the three-yard line. On the Eagles’ next series after that, he threw the ball to Gainwell three straight times as the Eagles marched down the field to pull within 14-10 on A.J. Brown’s first touchdown catch of the day.
“We don’t ever lose faith in him,” Sirianni said of Gainwell. “He had a fumble. And if Jalen (Hurts) has an interception, we don’t take him out. If Kenny has a fumble, we don’t take him out. If I had done that with A.J. last year when he had three games in a row with a fumble, that would’ve been dumb.”
Gainwell ended the game with two carries that lost four yards and five catches for 30 yards.
MORE SIRIANNI. The Eagles are now 17-5 in road games under Sirianni and 13-2 in their last 15 away starts, including 3-0 against Washington.
REDDICK REVENGE. Haason Reddick beat right tackle Andrew Wylie around the corner to notch the only sack for the Eagles. It was a big one, as it came on fourth down as Washington was still a touchdown down with 2:13 to play in the game. The play allowed the Eagles to take a two-touchdown lead with 1:50 left.
Reddick and Wylie went against each other in the Super Bowl when Wylie was with the Kansas City Chiefs last year.
RARITY. It’s not often that James Bradberry declines to talk to reporters, whether after a game or during the week between games, but he chose not to comment in the postgame locker room.
Remember, this is as stand-up a player as there is, as we saw after the Super Bowl when his holding call allowed the Chiefs to kick the game-winning field goal and Bradberry remained in the locker room graciously and patiently answering questions about the hold from several different waves of reporters.
Bradberry struggled somewhat on Sunday, allowing two touchdowns, but the back seven struggled to cover and allowed San Howell to throw for a career-high 397 yards and four touchdowns.
“We got to damn sure gotta get better, a lot of corrections to make definitely,” said CB Darius Slay. “Definitely the back seven has to get s*** fixed up because that s*** shouldn’t be going on.”
D'Andre Swift runs for his third touchdown of the season late in the Philadelphia Eagles' win over the Washington Commanders in Week 8.
USA Today
BROTHERLY SHOVE. Jalen Hurts fumbled the ball at the goal line, and took ownership of it afterward, saying he “didn’t secure the ball well enough.” The second time the Eagles used it, they handed it off to D’Andre Swift who ran it in for a seven-yard touchdown and a 38-24 lead with 1:50 to go in the game.
You could make the case – and not be wrong - that maybe Swift should’ve slid down around the three-yard line rather than score because Washington was out of timeouts and the Eagles could have drained the clock and kicked a field goal to ice it with probably less than 30 seconds to go.
MIND BOGGLING. It’s still hard to get my head around the fact that the Eagles opened 8-1 last year and are 7-1 this season. That just doesn’t happen very much. Add in the fact that teams who lose the Super Bowl one year don’t usually come back and win seven of eight the next season, and that makes it pretty amazing. Does anyone care about style points anymore?
If you’re an Eagles fan, enjoy.
TOO GOOD TO IGNORE. Devin McCourty said something during the Sunday night telecast between the Chargers and Bears that hit the nail right on the head when talking about the Eagles.
He said: “Are they a run team? Are they a pass team?’ Philadelphia is a winning team. They just go and win games any way that they can.”
SPECIAL SPECIAL TEAMS. Jake Elliott booted a 51-yard field goal, which was his fifth 50-plus yard kick of the season which ties the career-high he had in 2017 and 2022 (both Super Bowl seasons, mind you), Braden Mann had two punts for an average of 58.5 yards and a net of 43.0, and punt returner Britain Covey had a 25-yard return to midfield that helped set up the Eagles’ touchdown that made it 17-17 in the third quarter.
Covey, who is tied for the most 25-plus yard punt returns in the NFL this season with three, may have taken the ball back further but ran into Nolan Smith.
