The first drive to Landover, Maryland pretty much summed up what Sunday night was going to be like, even if it was something of a shock at first.
Andrew Mukuba jumped as high as he could to pick off an ill-advised chuck from Jayden Daniels in the end zone on third down, then was just as quickly knocked out with his head crashing into the grass after a hard hit from Treylon Burks knocked him down.
Mukuba kept the ball, but that didn’t matter. Because at the line of scrimmage, back at the Philadelphia 32-yard line, Jonathan Greenard jumped offside to give Washington five free yards and a recovery, just from a much more generous 3rd-and-1 instead of 3rd-and-6.
Washington then followed up with back-to-back false starts — with its quarterback somehow committing the first — a low incompletion and a missed field goal from 55 yards out.
Suddenly – ugly – swoop, it was a display of misplaced effort, a blatant lack of concentration, perhaps also of attention at that pace, and terrible execution.
And again, it wasn’t shocking.
The Philadelphia Eagles are now bad at professional football, as are the Washington Commanders, who one could argue were actually worse. Well, before a rudderless Sunday night, of course.
Because even with a paper layup on the schedule right in front of them, the Eagles still couldn’t stay out of their own way. Worse still, late Sunday night, they rolled over and died.
They lost to the Commanders, 27-10, to go on a six-game losing streak and a disgraceful trip to the bottom of the NFC East standings at 2-6. Washington beat the Eagles on a series of 27 unanswered points.
The Eagles’ only touchdown came on a gimmick play to Saquon Barkley in the first quarter, who essentially disappeared after a mix of nursing injuries, with the Eagles trying to preserve him by using him sparingly, but then running him straight into a wall every time they did.
And once out of the equation, there was nothing left.
Tanner McKee buckled under pressure and behind a patchwork offensive line that couldn’t protect him.
Elijah Mitchell, a fourth-string running back at best with a chance to play anyway due to dire circumstances, has only shown he has no place on an NFL field.
The Eagles offense as a whole didn’t score beyond the first quarter, with an illegal formation call leading to a missed Jake Elliott field goal in the fourth that really twisted that knife.
And the Eagles defensive front, which was supposed to be one of the best in the NFL before the season started, instead suffered another no-show. By halftime, Washington’s ground game was denting him by 5.6 yards per carry, while some costly passers didn’t get close to Daniels until the third quarter, when Jalen Carter finally got him for a sack for the team’s first in nearly two weeks.
Geoff Burke/IMAGING IMAGES via Reuters ConnectLike many opposing quarterbacks the Eagles have faced this year, Jayden Daniels was practically left standing Sunday night.
Washington had to get rid of it, but at that point, who cares? The Eagles weren’t going to capitalize anyway, and almost every spectator knew that, regardless of how much hope you might have clung to if you stayed up to watch.
How? With what? With whom ? After all, they were torched by Stefon Diggs in the final stretch of his career, and by Burks, the bust who not long ago was constantly presented as a punchline for Eagles fans to point at and mock the Tennessee Titans for how they mishandled AJ Brown.
I guess it all works out in the end, because now this Eagles team is its own punchline.
And it’s not just that they’re bad. They got to this point just as they were flying to London a few weeks ago.
It’s that they might actually be the worst now.
Geoff Burke/IMAGING IMAGES via Reuters ConnectSaquon Barkley can’t single-handedly save the Eagles now.
Look, the Washington Commanders are not a good football team, and everything leading up to Sunday night, the 1-4-1 record and everything said so. It doesn’t really change for them at the end of week 8 either. Commanders are still bad.
And yet, beyond the first quarter, the Eagles couldn’t even play them competitively. There was simply nothing there. No skill, no talent, no scheme, no cohesion, just a depleted roster that will likely be heavily modified over the next six months.
Because if you look at the remaining schedule, this Eagles team might not be able to win another game until the end. Who can this group beat after Sunday night’s performance? The Colts maybe? The Texans? Even then, these matches won’t take place until around December, and probably in a spiral that hasn’t stopped.
Washington, Sunday evening, could have been their last chance to show something, their last “lay-up”.
But the Eagles forgot to jump, or even dribble to begin with.
There are still nine games of misery left, it seems.
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