The Philadelphia Eagles clinched the NFC East on Saturday thanks to their 29-18 win over the Washington Commanders. They're the first back-to-back winners of the division since they themselves won it four times in a row from 2001 through 2004.
Jalen Hurts completed 22 of 30 passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns while Saquon Barkley ran 21 times for 132 yards and a score of his own as the Eagles overcame a slow start and a halftime deficit to storm back and totally take over the game in the second half.
Things got off to a disastrous start for Philly with Will Shipley fumbling on the opening kickoff, which led to the Commanders driving for a field goal and taking an early lead. (The Commanders kicked that field goal from the 2-yard line, foreshadowing a conservative approach that they'd take for most of the evening.) That was not the only special-teams mistake the Eagles would make in this game, as Jake Elliott missed not one, not two, but three field goal kicks in the first half. (Only two of them counted as one was negated by penalty.)
Still, they were able to stay in the game because the first half was played at a very slow pace and included only four drives per team. One of those Philly drives culminated with a touchdown pass from Hurts to DeVonta Smith, who finished the game with 6 catches for 42 yards and the score. Despite the missed kicks, Philly entered halftime down by just three points thanks to that touchdown.
After the break, though, the Eagles took over, out-scoring the Commanders 22-0 before Washington drove for a garbage-time touchdown with just over a minute remaining.
They scored a touchdown on a pass from Hurts to Dallas Goedert to cap what was a 17-play, 83-yard drive that took 10 minutes and 35 seconds off the clock. On the ensuing drive, Cooper DeJean intercepted backup quarterback Josh Johnson, who had entered the game in place of an injured Marcus Mariota. Philly then took advantage of that miscue by driving for another touchdown on its next possession, with Barkley spinning into the end zone on a short run to put the Eagles in front by two scores.
With third-stringer Johnson in the game, Washington couldn't muster much offensively on its remaining drives. The Commanders went three-and-out twice following Barkley's touchdown, and the Eagles added an insurance score when Tank Bigbsy ran through the left side of the offensive line for a 22-yard touchdown late in the game.
Washington looked like it would be content to mostly run out the clock on its next drive, but a big run and a pass interference penalty got the Commanders down near the goal line, where Chris Rodriguez punched in a score with just over a minute remaining. The Commanders tried for an onside kick, but Philly recovered and ran out the clock.
Thanks to the victory, the Eagles are headed to the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season and will have a chance to defend their Super Bowl title. The Eagles also ended the faint playoff hopes of the Dallas Cowboys, who were officially eliminated. They are still the No. 3 seed in the NFC, but they'll have a chance to move up the board by capturing wins in the final two weeks of the season and getting some help from opponents of the Bears and/or Packers, who play each other on Saturday night with first place in the NFC North -- and the No. 2 seed in the conference -- on the line.
Barkley, as mentioned, ran 21 times for 132 yards. While that was pretty standard fare for him last season, it was only his third 100-plus-yard rushing game of this season. Two of those have now come in the last three weeks, though, so he may be heating up headed into a potential playoff run.
Barkley's day was highlighted by two specific runs: his 12-yard touchdown on which he spun through and away from several Commanders defenders before plowing his way into the end zone, and a 48-yard jaunt where he spun away from a defender in the backfield and broke multiple tackles before taking off up the left sideline.
Coupled with his three 100-plus-yard games against the Commanders last season (including the playoffs), this was Barkley's fourth straight game with 100 rushing yards or more against Washington, tying Emmitt Smith's record for most consecutive games against this franchise with 100-plus yards on the ground.
The Commanders dropped to 4-11 with this loss, a massive disappointment after they went 12-5 and reached the NFC title game last year in their first season under Dan Quinn. They lost several more players to injury in this game, including backup quarterback Marcus Mariota, who was already filling in for Jayden Daniels. The Commanders are set to make a top 10 pick in next year's draft, which is cold comfort after their season went off the rails the way it did.
Washington looked like it was going to be content to mostly just run out the clock on this last drive, but broke a big run to get into scoring territory. A pass-interference penalty on Kelee Ringo got the Commanders down to the goal line, and Rodriguez punched the ball in from two yards out. Washington converted the two-point try to make it an 11-point game.
Tyler Steen, Javon Kinlaw and Jacob Martin were ejected.
Following the two-point conversion by Barkley, there was a skirmish on the field. Tyler Steen and Mike Sainristil seemed to be in the middle of it along with several Commanders defenders and Eagles offensive linemen, though it appeared to start with Eagles wideout Darius Cooper. It looked like some open-hand slaps were thrown, and there may have been some punches as well. Players might be ejected here as there are six flags and multiple hats down on the field.
After a huge run from Saquon Barkley got them into scoring position, the Eagles got into the end zone again thanks to Barkley's backup. It's his first touchdown of the season. The Eagles have outscored the Commanders 22-0 in the second half. It's 29-10 Philadelphia.
The Commanders have essentially given up on the game, punting the ball away on fourth-and-6 from their own 44-yard line with just 6:44 remaining and down by 11 points.
Rather than burning a lot of time off the clock, Philly stalled out after just three plays and 45 seconds. Washington will get the ball back with a chance to cut the lead to one score.
Washington's post-touchdown drive went nowhere as Chris Rodriguez was taklced behind the line of scrimmage for a three-yard loss on third-and-1. Washington punted it away. The Eagles can salt away a whole lot of clock here with their next drive, and a score would all but put the game to bed.
Really nice run from Barkley, bouncing off a few second-level defenders to get the Eagles onto the board again and stretch the lead to two scores at 21-10. Eagles take advantage of the interception by DeJean and they're 11:30 away from clinching the NFC East.
Johnson committed one of the cardinal sins any quarterback can make, throwing late and back across the field. He was leaning to his left and tried to throw all the way back to the right and Cooper DeJean easily jumped the route for an interception to set the Eagles up with great field position for their next drive.
Mariota was cleared from the concussion protocol but is questionable to return with a hand injury. Josh Johnson is in the game.
This 17-play, 83-yard drive was an ADVENTURE, folks. There were five penalties on the drive, four of which were accepted. The Eagles a fourth down via penalty, a third down with a Saquon Barkley run, another third down via pass interference penalty and finally a third-and-goal from the 15-yard line with a beautiful throw and catch from Hurts and Goedert to jump back into the lead. They're up 14-10 late in the third quarter.
A false start on a tush push followed by a holding penalty that negated a touchdown pass to Jahan Dotson have undermined a promising goal-to-go drive.
With Jake Elliott having missed three kicks so far in this game, the Eagles went for it on fourth-and-7 just over midfield. Hurts threw deep for A.J. Brown into double coverage and got intercepted, but the Eagles got a free first down thanks to an illegal contact penalty for a defender working against a different receiver. Big break for Philly.
Mariota is headed to the locker room. Josh Johnson is the only other QB on the active roster because Sam Hartman is on the practice squad and was not elevated, which means he can't serve as the emergency third quarterback.
Dean has been downgraded to OUT with a hamstring injury.
Washington's quarterback is headed to the medical tent. Josh Johnson is the backup.
The Commanders started the half with a really nice completion over the middle to a diving Chris Moore, but then threw three consecutive incomplete passes from just inside Eagles territory and had to punt less than a minute into the third quarter.
Elliott hooked another field goal wide to the left to end the half. Washington maintains its 10-7 lead going into the break. Awful special teams play from the Eagles so far in this game has massively helped the Commanders.
Jake Elliott missed another field goal but Washington was lined up in the neutral zone and gave the Eagles a free first down with 13 seconds remaining in the half.
Pretty wild sequence results in a Jacory Croskey-Merritt touchdown. He had a third-down run that was initially ruled a first down at the 1-yard line, but overturned by expedited review to say he was short. Washington then challenged that ruling and lost, only for Chris Rodriguez to convert the fourth-down opportunity on the next snap. JCM then got a pair of tries from the 1-yard line and punched the second one in to give Washington a 10-7 lead.
Eagles opponents have picked on Adoree' Jackson all season and it was no different right here. As Greg Olsen pointed out on the broadcast, Washington saw that Quinyon Mitchell didn't follow McLaurin to this side of the formation and Mariota attacked the one-on-one matchup with the deep ball.
Philly was putting together a really nice drive but got stopped in its tracks just outside the red zone. The Eagles ended up in second- and third-and-long and Hurts threw incomplete for A.J. Brown on both plays, then Jake Elliott pulled his 43-yard field goal attempt wide. It remains 7-3 Eagles a little less than midway through the second quarter.
After Bill Croskey-Merritt picked up a first down with a nice run up the middle, Washington quickly stalled out on the next set of downs. Brandon Graham came away with a sack on third-and-long to stop the drive in its tracks. Once we return from the end-of-quarter commercial, the Commanders will be punting the ball away.
Quick, efficient drive for the Eagles culminates in an end-zone trip from a few yards out. Jalen Hurts hit DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown for chunk gains and also ran for one himself along the way. Saquon Barkley nearly scored on first-and-goal but the touchdown was overturned as he was ruled short of the goal line. After a false start on a tush push attempt, Hurts found Smith in the flat on play action for the touchdown. It's 7-3 Philly.
Philadelphia's starting linebacker is headed to the locker room with some sort of issue.
After they converted a third-down with a pass to Terry McLaurin (who had fallen on his butt before catching the ball), a holding penalty on Brandon Coleman erased a conversion to Treylon Burks and set the Commanders back to third-and-long on their next set of downs. Mariota threw incomplete for Ben Sinnott and Washington had to punt.
Not the start that Philly wanted offensively. The Eagles got into a fourth-and-1 situation just outside their own 40-yard line and lined up like they were going to go for it, but instead just took a delay of game and punted the ball away.
The Commanders got down into the low red zone thanks to several successful runs but then went with a pass on both second- and third-and-goal from just outside the 2-yard line and came up empty both times. They settled for a field goal to take an early 3-0 lead.
The Eagles fumbled on the opening kickoff and Washington recovered deep in Philadelphia territory. The Commies had eight takeaways the entire season coming into this game -- second-fewest in the NFL. Mike Sainristil forced the fumble.
The Eagles dropped 387 yards, 27 first downs and 31 points on the Raiders last week. Considering they had been averaging 317.4 yards, 16.2 first downs and 16.2 points in their five games since their Week 9 bye, it was an extraordinarily welcome development. Lane Johnson remains out, but Landon Dickerson will play, and that should help them maintain some of what they were able to accomplish last week. Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert should be able to feat on a weak Commanders defense here.
