Well, gang, it had to happen at some point. You'd like it to not happen at home, on national TV against an inferior divisional opponent. You'd REALLY not like it to happen because your defense played with no guts for more than half the game, but here we are. I'm not going to dwell on the bad luck, but for the record note that it's really rare to go 3-for-3 on lost fumbles (statistically this only happens 12.5% of the time a team fumbles three times in a game), especially if one comes on a breakaway and another comes with an uncalled facemask penalty. There was some pretty spicy officiating in this one, including the game ending personal foul on Brandon Graham. Joey Slye suddenly and magically turning into a competent kicker (hit two of his longest four career kicks in this game) didn't help either.
I'm not going to dwell on the bad luck largely because Washington deserved to win this game. They outplayed Philly for a solid two and a half quarters (mid first through the third), outgained the Birds 330-264, outfirstdowned them 25-18, ran nearly twice the number of plays (81-47) and had a two-to-one time of possession average. They converted twelve third downs (and one fourth down), many of them with long yardage to go. Philly's run defense stunk again, and their special teams contributed to this loss (that penalty that effectively cost Philly a timeout on the last punt was a doozy). The next six games on the slate (@Colts, Packers, Titans, @Giants, @Bears, @Cowboys) all come against teams that like to run the ball, so it's time to get that run D fixed after back to back weak performances. All told, it's hard to argue that the Commanders didn't deserve this win. They wanted it more, and overall they played better today.
We should not get too down after this loss; every other team in the league has a black eye or a cruddy game (or more than one) on their record so far:
Buffalo had that awful mistake-filled loss to Miami.
Kansas City lost on the road to the Colts.
Minnesota has seven straight wins by one score or less.
Dallas lost a two-touchdown fourth quarter lead for the first time in decades.
None of the Buccaneers, Rams or Packers even have winning records.
The Eagles still have the league's best record (I know Minnesota is also 8-1, but we've got the tiebreaker), and perhaps best of all, they'll finally have a wake up call. I expect that the coaching staff will hear a lot about this performance (in all facets) over the coming days, and I expect improvement going forward. The Eagles have traditionally done their best work when their back is to the wall, which really has not happened before now. Let's see if the trend continues.
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