October 16, 2016
The Eagles were dominated in the first half for the second straight week, and for the second straight week, they weren't able to mount a comeback. The Washington Redskins thoroughly outplayed a sloppy Eagles team and improved to a 4-2 record with a 27-20 win.
The Eagles dropped to 3-2 with Sammy Sleeves and the undefeated Minnesota Vikings coming to town next week, and for the first time this season, they put together a poor 60-minute performance. Here's what I saw:
• Carson Wentz's ball placement on this 54-yard pass to Jordan Matthews was perfect:
Matthews straight down the seam and Wentz with a DIME!!! pic.twitter.com/qGWL9azhWL
— Philly Influencer (@PHL_Influencer) October 16, 2016
Wentz finished 11-22 for 179 yards, but I thought he played better than the numbers indicated outside of taking a bad sack as the Eagles were attempting to tie the game. His offensive line and receivers didn't give him much help at all (in particular, he was under siege all afternoon), and the rookie had a couple of throws that jumped off the screen.
• Still, the sack that Wentz took on second down of the Eagles final drive was a rookie mistake. He held onto the ball for far too long, especially when there was a lane on the outside to run.
• This Houdini act might have been the best play of Wentz's young career (with the exception of the touchdown pass to Darren Sproles against Pittsburgh), and it was taken away on this block in the back call. You be the judge:
The referees called THIS a block in the back. Unbelievable. https://t.co/qHYUAWuaKU
— Ben Livingston (@937TeenWolf) October 16, 2016
• I don't want to be the fun police, but Jalen Mills' finger wagging after every incompletion is pretty frustrating considering his poor first-half performance. To his credit, though, the rookie held DeSean Jackson without a catch in the second half.
• The Eagles had two long second-half drives stall out in the red zone. On the first, Pederson tried to run the ball on 3rd and 4, a play that went nowhere. On the second, Brandon Brooks committed a crucial false start penalty followed by Zach Ertz dropping an easy pass that very well could've resulted in a touchdown. Again, the Eagles played a major part in the loss by beating themselves at times.
• Washington ran the ball for 230 yards on 33 carries. The Eagles tackling at every level of the defense was nonexistent.
• The Eagles finished with 13 penalties for 114 yards. That's way too many.
• The Eagles were outgained 493 to 239. That's way too much (and way too little).
• The game was already over for all intents and purposes, but Doug Pederson's decision to take the timeout and then punt on 4th down at the end of the game was straight out of the Andy Reid Clock Management playbook.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
