Washington Jumps Out Early, Aiming to Dent Eagles Playoff Hopes

Philadelphia has a chance to clicnh a playoff spot with a win, but has its ork cut out to come back from 16-7 halftime deficit

USA Today

Another game, another slow start by the Eagles.

This one led to a 16-7 deficit at halftime on Sunday against the Washington Football Team, who lost to the Eagles just 12 days ago, 27-17.

Washington’s Joey Slye, kicking for his third team this season, made a 55-yard field goal as time expired to put the Eagles behind by two scores.

The Eagles got off to a slow start in the first meeting too, slipping down 10-0, just like they did on Sunday at FedEx Field in front of mostly Eagles fans. They forged a tie at halftime in that game.

This time, they did not.

Quarterback Taylor Heinicke, who did not play in the first matchup, did in this one and was virtually unstoppable. He led the Football Team to points on all four of their first-half drives, completing his first 11 passes for 132 yards and ending the half 14-for-17 with 177 yards as he bids to become the sixth player this season to complete at least 80 percent of his throws against the Eagles defense.

Eagles QB Jalen Hurts was equally hot, completing his first seven throws to conclude the first two quarters 9-for-11 with 116 yards. By throwing for at least 70 yards, he became the fifth NFL player with 3,000 passing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns in a season, joining Kyler Murray, Cam Newton, who did it twice, Daunte Culpepper, and Kordell Stewart.

But the Eagles turned the ball over on downs on their first possession of the game. Already trailing 7-0 on an 11-yard TD run by Jaret Patterson, Jordan Howard was stuffed for no gain on fourth-and-two from the WFT 25.

Washington drove for a 31-yard field goal from Slye, who also was good from 39 yards with 5:36 to play in the second quarter to make it 13-7.

The Eagles’ lone points came on a two-yard touchdown run from Boston Scott with 11:49 to play in the second quarter. 

It was Scott’s sixth rushing score of the season. It made the score 10-7 at the time and was the Eagles’ 23rd rushing score of the season, which is the third-most in team history. The 1949 team had 25 with the 1945 team at the top of the list with 26.

The Eagles have started slowly during their three-game winning streak to claw above .500 at 8-7 but always found a way to rally for a win.

They need to this time if they want to win their fourth straight and possibly clinch a playoff spot in head coach Nick Sirianni’s first year as the team’s head coach.

Already, the team has doubled its win total from 2020 when they went 4-12.

Without Miles Sanders, the Eagles vaunted rushing attack was held in check, managing just 47 yards on 13 runs. With Hurts gaining 35 of those.

Eagles WR DeVonta Smith had two catches for 42 yards and needs 50 more yards to break DeSean Jackson’s rookie record for yards receiving of 912 set in 2008. Tight end Dallas Goedert, who had a career-high 135 yards receiving in the first matchup vs. the WFT, had three catches for 37 yards.

The Eagles defense allowed 230 total yards to a Washington team that suffered the largest margin of defeat in the NFL this season when it lost to the Dallas Cowboys 56-14 only a week ago.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.