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The Washington Commanders didn’t play a perfect game Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, far from it.
The Commanders (10-5) turned the ball over five times, failed to convert a short fourth down early in the game, and gave up more than 100 yards rushing to Saquon Barkley in the first quarter.
However, the Commanders have Jayden Daniels and fans at Northwest Stadium watched in real-time as Daniels took another step in becoming the NFL’s next superstar quarterback.
Daniels went 24 for 39 for 258 yards, throwing 5 touchdowns, and two interceptions, and ran for 81 yards as Washington rallied from an early 21-7 deficit to beat their division rivals 36-33 in front of 64,128 fans.
“Just a regular Sunday afternoon again,” head coach Dan Quinn said. “Just what a wild game. Honestly, in the first quarter we dug ourselves a huge hole. And one thing about our team that I really admire, we’re never out of the fight. And it would take a lot to come back and I don’t think over the years I’ve won too many when you’re this far down on the turnover differential.”
The game has a nightmarish beginning. On its first possession, Washington turned the ball over on downs near midfield when the Eagles stuffed running back Brian Robinson Jr. on a fourth-and-1 play.
Eight plays later, Barkley scored the first of his two touchdowns to give Philly a 7-0 lead.
“The big one early I was like, ‘Oh boy, that was hard.’ Because we thought we had a good defense
played, but [Defensive Coordinator] Joe [Whitt Jr.] and the guys all week had made a big impact, and
I did too, to say in the second half he’s been incredible. So, almost seven yards a carry for the
season, like that is just unheard of,” Quinn said.
The nightmare, specifically Robinson’s, continued on the next series. On the first play of the drive, Robinson was caught behind the line of scrimmage. Eagles defensive lineman Jalen Carter forced the ball loose on Philadelphia recovered.
The Eagles converted the turnover into a touchdown but it was costly. Hurts was injured at the end of a 13-yard run to the Washington 21-yard line. Hurts left the game and was diagnosed with a concussion.
Backup Kenny Pickett finished the drive by throwing an 11-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Brown to make the score 14-0.
The Commanders cut the lead to 14-7 when Daniels threw his first touchdown pass of the day to Jameson Crowder but Barkley immediately countered, getting loose on a 68-yard touchdown run to put Philly up by 14 again, 21-7.
After another fumble snuffed out a promising drive, Daniels found Terry McLaurin on a 32-yard touchdown pass. McLaurin did a beautiful job of making the catch and keeping his feet in bounds as he crossed the goal line. Despite the mistake-filled first half, Washington only trailed by seven at halftime.
Philadelphia took a 27-14 lead into the fourth quarter when Quinn put the game on Daniels’s shoulders.
The rookie quarterback led the offense on an 11-play, 68-yard drive, the highlight being an 11-yard run to convert a fourth down then threw a four-yard touchdown pass to Olamide Zaccheaus to cut the lead to 27-21.
“This whole week DQ [Head Coach Dan Quinn] preached it’s going to be a five-quarter game no
matter what,” Daniels said after the game. “Obviously, it’s a very good team over there and what they’ve done over the years and how they’re established in this league. You have to go out there and put up a fight. The game is never done until the clock hits zero.”
The two would hook up again on Washington’s next possession. An Eagles coverage bust left Zaccheaus wide open for a 49-yard catch and run and all of a sudden, Washington led for the first time, 28-27.
“I did see they had twelve on the field. I think it was [CB Darius] Slay that was running off late,” Daniels said. “I knew we essentially had a free play at that and we had a holding call in which they had held on to[TE] Zach [Ertz] and I found OZ and he did the rest.”
Philly would counter with two fourth-quarter field goals, the last one the result of Daniels’s second interception but the Eagles gave Daniels the ball back with 1:52 remaining in the game.
He only needed 1:44.
Daniels drove the offense 57 yards on 9 plays, finding veteran Jameson Crowder in the end zone with six seconds left. The two-point conversion gave the Commanders the 36-33 win.
“It was a play that we had, you know, in this week in the red zone, and it’s crazy, Friday,
we actually ran it, and I caught the same pass,” Crowder said. So, we got the same look that we had thought we were going to get. And in my mind, just had to kind of get on the other side of that linebacker there
and be ready for the ball. And [QB] Jayden [Daniels] delivered a great pass, and I let it make a play.”
“It’s special man. What he’s able to do and his composure, we joke around a lot but his maturity to be
able to have that composure is just amazing,” linebacker Bobby Wagner said.
The win gives Washington its first ten-win season since 2012. It’s the best record for the franchise through 15 weeks since 1991.
Ironically, the Commander’s playoff position is no better than it was at the beginning of the day. A Falcons win over the New York Giants means Washington still needs to beat Atlanta next week or Dallas the last week of the season to secure its first postseason birth since 2020.
Post Game Notes:
Commanders defensive back Marshon Lattimore left the game in the fourth quarter with a hamstring injury. He had just returned from a similar injury.
The Commanders are now 6-2 at home, their best record at Northwest Field since 2015.
This was the first win against Philadelphia at home since 2020.
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