Philadelphia Eagles vs. Washington Commanders: 5 Things to Watch, Predictions

Here are five things/predictions to keep an eye on in Week 8's NFC East rematch between the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders.

PHILADELPHIA – Here we go again, round 2 of the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders.

In a strange bit of scheduling, the Eagles will be done playing the Commanders before they have played anybody else in the NFC East.

Washington did not make things easy in Round 1 in Week 4, scoring two touchdowns in the final quarter, including a touchdown pass as time expired to send the game into overtime, where Philly prevailed, 34-31.

The Eagles have won four of the last five meetings vs. Washington, but it never seems easy.

The Commanders took Philly to overtime in Week 4 despite coming out of a 37-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills in which Sam Howell was sacked nine times and threw four interceptions.

This week, they are coming off a 14-7 loss to a one-win New York Giants team in which Howell was sacked six times and picked off once.

Here are five things/predictions to watch:

Jalen Hurts’ legs. More specifically, the knee. The Eagles quarterback is playing with a sleeve on his left knee after he suffered an unspecified injury at some point prior to the game against the Miami Dolphins last week. He managed his way through the pain in last week’s win and will do so again.

The question is, can he do it without turning the ball over? Hurts has thrown eight interceptions this season and fumbled twice already. His last turnover-free game was in the first meeting against the Commanders, so why not do it again?

Howell and Hurts / FanStreamSports.com

Sam Howell’s legs. Washington’s quarterback was a big reason why the Commanders are the only team to have put up more than 100 yards rushing against the Eagles’ top-ranked run defense. He had 40 yards on six scrambles, two of the runs ending in first downs with both coming in the fourth quarter.

“We have to be aware of that, we have to have a plan for it,” said linebacker Nick Morrow, who made 11 tackles and had three sacks in the first meeting.

“I wouldn’t say they surprised us, that’s not the right word, but he played with the ability to get out of the pocket. That last drive, in the fourth quarter, he came alive, so we have to find a way to stop that, and we have the guys in the room to do that, especially on the d-line.”

A.J. Brown. Will the receiver become the first in NFL history to record six straight games with 125-plus receiving yards? The first game against the Commanders was the second one on Brown’s historic streak, but Washington used rookie Emmanuel Forbes on Brown. It’s doubtful Washington will make the same mistake after Forbes was benched recently.

Sooner or later the Eagles will have to get DeVonta Smith more involved, and the suspicion is it will be Smith’s turn to top 100 yards, so the thinking here is Brown’s streak ends.

Eagles on edge. Haason Reddick and Josh Sweat are tied for the team lead in sacks with 5.5 each.

Sweat had his first multi-sack game of the season in last week’s win over the Dolphins and has at least a half-sack in five of the Eagles’ seven games this season.

“It’s a race to get there," said Sweat about the quarterback. “We have so many great players making plays, and you never know who’s going to make it, so it’s a race every time, so I’m like shoot I gotta get there.”

Reddick aims to become the third player in Eagles history to post at least two sacks in three straight road games and will join Reggie White (four straight, 1987) and Clyde Simmons (three, 1991-92) if he does.

Eagles run defense. How good has it been? They surrender just 62.9 yards per game to lead the NFL in the fewest allowed. Even better, it’s the fewest they have allowed through seven games since 1944 (62.0), a team led defensively by the late, great Temple product, Bucko Kilroy.

PREDICTION: Eagles 30, Commanders 20

Season record: 5-2