The Philadelphia Eagles (11-6) concluded the regular season with a 24-17 loss to the Washington Commanders(5-12) on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.
With the loss, the Eagles, who had an opportunity to capture the number two seed with a win after the Bears loss to the Lions, will have the third seed and face the 49ers at the Linc in the Wild Card Round (Date/Time TBD).
Let’s take a moment to appreciate Philly’s ‘Big 3’ and their outstanding performances on Sunday:
-OLB Jalyx Hunt has had a very good regular season, and he played well against the Commanders. Hunt had an interception and a fumble recovery on Sunday. He finished the season leading the team in sacks (6.5) and interceptions (3). He became the first player in team history to lead the team in both categories.
Hunt is also just the second player in franchise history to post 6.0+ sacks and 3+ INTs in the same season, joining Seth Joyner who accomplished the feat in 1991 and 1992.
-RB Tank Bigsby had 75 yards on 16 carries, and he had one catch for 31 yards.
-DeVonta Smith, who needed 44 yards to get his third one-thousand-yard receiving season of his career, had three catches for 52 yards. He ends the season with 77 catches for 1,008 yards and four touchdowns.
He is the fifth player in Eagles history to record three 1,000+ yard receiving seasons, joining A.J. Brown (four) Harold Carmichael, DeSean Jackson and Mike Quick.
Honorable Mention:
-Jeremiah Trotter Jr. had a game-high 12 tackles and one tackle for loss.
End of the Day:
The Eagles made the right move by not playing their starters, but this is a missed opportunity; however, this is not the end of the world.
It would have been nice to get the second seed in the NFC, which would have meant at least two guaranteed home games, but health is more important. If they had played the starters and a key contributor went down, Nick Sirianni and the organization would have been heavily criticized.
Obviously, with the loss, Sirianni and the organization will be criticized, but if they go on a long playoff run, no one will care. If they don’t, the criticism will come.
End of the day, this team is good enough to beat any team, anywhere, but anybody can beat them too, so we’ll see what happens.
What’s Next:
The Eagles host the 49ers in the Wild Card Round next Saturday or Sunday.
One More Thing..
Eagles QB Tanner Mckee, in his first start of the season, was very averaged as he completed 21-of-40 passes for 241 yards, touchdown, interception.
Leave a Reply