The turnaround for the Philadelphia Eagles(9-7) is almost complete. After starting the season 3-6, the Eagles have won four straight and six of their last seven, including Sunday’s 20-16 victory over the Washington Football Team at FedEx Field.
Like they did in their first matchup, the Eagles trailed 10-0 early, and like last time, they were able to seize control and hold on late as Rodney McLeod intercepted Taylor Heinicke’s pass in the endzone to secure the win.
Philadelphia will clinch a playoff berth if the Packers defeat the Vikings Sunday night.
Jalen Hurts had another solid performance for the Eagles as he completed 17-of-26 attempts for 214 yards and added 44 yards on seven carries. The second-year quarterback has been one of the big reasons Philly has turned things around, and during the tough times, according to Hurts, the team stayed confident.
“We’ve connected, we’ve communicated, we’ve grown, we’ve put the work in, and we’ve just grown one percent better every day,” Hurts said after the game. “That has been our goal. That has been our true identity. That has been who we are with all the youth, with all the inexperience from coaching to players. We just bought into who we are, bought into what we could be, and trusted in the grind in approaching every day the way we do. In a game like this, to be able to persevere and show straight grit in tough moments in the football game, we found a way to win today. I couldn’t be more proud of this team.”
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni was impressed by what he saw from Hurts, who, despite an ankle injury, was able to move around with no issues against Washington.
“This guy is so tough,” Sirianni said about Hurts. “He looked at me at one point in this game and said, obviously the whole game was tight, so tight part of this game; he looked at me and said, whatever, you gotta call, call, and I’ll make it work. What he was saying to me was run, pass, quarterback, run, quarterback read. Whatever you call, I know how much this game means to our team; I’ll make it work. And that, gosh, the calmness, the confidence, that installs calmness and confidence in everybody. And so again, I can’t say enough for him as a leader, can’t say enough for him as a competitor, can’t say enough about his toughness. I hope everyone knows when I give a player the compliment of being a tough player from me, that’s the best compliment that I can give. I just think so much of our players that are tough. We got a lot of tough guys on this football team. That’s who I think we are as a football team, and Jalen Hurts is the epitome of that.”
Barring anything crazy, the Eagles will make the playoffs, but as Hurts said numerous times, the job is not done.
“I’ve always had the approach of enjoying it when it’s done,” Hurts said. “I’ll let everyone else reflect on how far we’ve come as a football team. I’ll let you guys talk about that. I’ll prepare myself for these questions as they continue to come in. But for me, the job is not done for us. It is not done, so we’re not done yet.”
Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts returned Tuesday night against the Washington Football Team(6-8) after missing one game due to an ankle sprain.
In his return, Hurts was solid. He completed 20-of-26 attempts for 296 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, and a 110.4 passer rating while adding 38 yards and two touchdowns on eight rushing attempts.
Hurts now owns the single-season franchise record for rushing touchdown by a QB (10).
The Eagles would generate 519 yards of total offense as they would defeat Washington 27-17 at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Eagles rushed for 238 yards Tuesday and became the first NFL team to record 175-plus rushing yards in seven consecutive games (franchise record) since the 1985 Chicago Bears (also seven).
With the win, the Eagles(7-7) are tied with the Vikings(7-7) for the third and final wild-card spot in the NFC.
The last time we saw Hurts, he completed 14-of-31 passes for 134 yards and three interceptions against the Giants, which was the worst game of his career, but he said that game is way behind him.
“I flushed that a long time ago,” Hurts said postgame. “I forgot about it. I get to play them this week.”
Hurts is happy to be back on the field and happy to get to .500, but according to him, the job is not done for Philadelphia.
“I think it was very fun being back on the field,” Hurts said postgame. “Being back on the field and getting the win in which we needed. First division win for this football team this year. It can’t come at a better time. We’re back at .500 for the first time ever this year. It’s a big deal, but I know the job isn’t done. The job isn’t done, nowhere near from done. We know what we want to accomplish. I said it to the guys; you just have to have the mentality of not being denied. I’ve said all year that the youth of this football team, the youth we’ve had, and the different things we’ve overcome. Had the experience of the different nuances of having new everything. Right now in December, we can’t be denied of what we want.”
It wasn’t all good for Hurts. After he lost a fumble in the first quarter, which Washington recovered. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni was unhappy and let Hurts know about it. As a son of a coach, Hurts had no issue with it.
“I’ve been telling him all year that I’m a coaches’ kid,” he said. “Basically, all the coaches’ kids out there know what that means. It means they’ve been coached. They’ve heard everything. In high school, I lived with the guy that was chewing me out. I made it clear to Coach all year, ‘You know, you can get on me a little bit.’ So after the fumble, he came up to me and said what he had to say. Then, later on in the game, he comes back and jokes with me and says, ‘I guess I’m just going to start coaching you like your dad coached you.’ So it was a funny moment. Whatever he said worked.”
Hurts handled his business against Washington, and now he has the Eagles in a position to make the playoffs. Credit to him for bouncing back and a credit to the team for getting the job done.
COVID is wreaking havoc on the NFL, and Friday, the league had to postpone three games.
The Las Vegas Raiders-Cleveland Browns game scheduled for Saturday, December 18, has been moved to Monday, December 20 at 5 p.m. ET on NFL Network.
The Washington Football Team-Philadelphia Eagles game and Seattle Seahawks-Los Angeles Rams game scheduled for Sunday, December 19, have been moved to Tuesday, December 21. Washington-Philadelphia and Seattle-Los Angeles Rams will kick off at 7 p.m. ET on FOX and be available on NFL Sunday Ticket.
According to the league, these schedule changes are based on medical advice and after discussion with the NFLPA as we are seeing a new, highly transmissible form of the virus this week, resulting in a substantial increase in cases across the league.
The updated Week 15 schedule (all times ET):
Saturday, December 18
New England Patriots at Indianapolis Colts 8:15 PM NFLN
Sunday, December 19
Carolina Panthers at Buffalo Bills
1:00 PM
FOX
Arizona Cardinals at Detroit Lions
1:00 PM
FOX
Houston Texans at Jacksonville Jaguars
1:00 PM
CBS
New York Jets at Miami Dolphins
1:00 PM
CBS
Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants
1:00 PM
FOX
Tennessee Titans at Pittsburgh Steelers
1:00 PM
CBS
Cincinnati Bengals at Denver Broncos
4:05 PM
CBS
Atlanta Falcons at San Francisco 49ers
4:05 PM
CBS
Green Bay Packers at Baltimore Ravens
4:25 PM
FOX
New Orleans Saints at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
8:20 PM
NBC
Monday, December 20
Las Vegas Raiders at Cleveland Browns
5:00 PM
NFLN
Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears
8:15 PM
ESPN
Tuesday, December 21
Seattle Seahawks at Los Angeles Rams 7:00 PM FOX
Washington Football Team at Philadelphia Eagles 7:00 PM FOX
Life is good when you control your own destiny, and at this point, the Washington Football Team control their own destiny.
After being 2-6, Washington has won four straight to move to 6-6, including Sunday’s 17-15 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium. From this point on, Washington plays only division foes, which starts next Sunday at home(8-4) in the first of their two matchups against the Cowboys.
If the season ended today, Washington would be one of three wild card teams as the sixth seed in the NFC. However, if they sweep their final five games, Washington would win the NFC East for the second consecutive season.
On Monday, Washington head coach Ron Rivera discussed controlling their own destiny.
“We’re at the part where we control it,” Rivera said. “I mean, for ourselves, for us, what’s gonna happen to, to the Washington Football Team is now in our hands. We go out and play the way we’re capable of. We give ourselves a chance, and that’s where we wanted to be. That’s one of the things we talked about when the schedule first came out because you can get to this point, and you have a chance. You have an opportunity now; you’ve gotta make the best of it.”
Washington is playing well enough to win the NFC East, but the Wild Card is probably a little more realistic for Washington, especially when you consider they play Dallas and Philly twice in the next four weeks. It’s hard to beat a team twice in a season, and it becomes even more challenging to do when you play the team twice in such a short period.
Rivera has this team playing very well, so we’ll see how the final five weeks will go for the Washington Football Team.
Last season, in Week 17, the New York Giants needed the Philadelphia Eagles to defeat the Washington Football Team to win the NFC East, and after three quarters, the Eagles trailed 17-14.
However, early in the fourth quarter, then Eagles head coach Doug Pederson replaced quarterback Jalen Hurts with Nate Sudfeld, who was awful, and ultimately, Washington would defeat Philadelphia 20-14 to win the NFC East.
The following day, Giants head coach Joe Judge was livid and ripped the Eagles for what transpired in that game.
“There’s a number of sacrifices that have been made by all the players and coaches in this league,” Judge said back in January. “There’s a number of sacrifices that come along as well for the family members of the people connected to them. To disrespect the effort that everyone put forward to make this season a success for the National Football League, to disrespect the game by going out there and not competing for 60 minutes and doing everything you can to help those players win. We will never do that as long as I am the head coach of the New York Giants.”
Philadelphia(5-6), who have won three of their last four games, will travel to MetLife Stadium to battle the Giants(3-7) on Sunday for the first time since last season. New York(3-7) has lost two of its last three.
On Friday, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, who was not here last season, spoke about the situation from last year.
“That’s a good question, but that’s something I can’t speak on since I wasn’t here for it,” Sirianni said. “I wasn’t in the building for it. It’s a big rivalry that we are all blessed to be a part of. I am just honored that I can be a part of this rivalry. And it’s a rare thing in the NFL – I don’t want to say a rare thing, but it’s pretty cool to have the rivalries that we have in this division, so I am just honored to be a part of it.”
In reality, after Pederson’s firing, this whole issue is kind of nonexistent. Plus, the Giants are not very good this season and just fired their offensive coordinator, so they have more significant issues to worry about.
The Washington Football(4-6) Team got their second straight impressive win on Sunday as they defeated the Carolina Panthers on the road 27-21.
Sunday’s game was all about the return of Cam Newton as the Panthers starting quarterback and the return of former Panthers head coach Ron Rivera to Carolina.
However, Washington quarterback Taylor Heinicke, who played with the Panthers in 2018, stole the show as he completed 16-of-22 passes for 206 passing yards and three touchdowns for a passer rating of 141.3. He also rushed six times for 29 yards.
The game was personal for a lot of people, which Heinicke discussed post-game.
“I was only here for a year, so it didn’t mean that much, but there was a lot of players, staff, and one of our general managers came from there,” he said. “We knew it was big for them, and it was kind of personal, and to know that they were going to win with those last two kneels, that was nice.”
Last week, in a win over Tampa Bay, Heinicke was 26/32 for 256 yards. According to Rivera, Heinicke is seeing everything better.
“I think the biggest things he is doing is he is starting to see things,” he said. “He is starting to see what he needs to see. He is throwing the windows he needs to throw. We are getting healthy up front. Now, we have got a couple of nicked guys. We got to get those guys back on the football field, but I think that is all a part of it as well.”
Heinicke explained why he has played so well in the past two weeks.
“It’s a culmination of a lot of things, but me personally, I feel like I’ve played better by just going out there and having fun,” he said. “Being myself and letting the personality come out, and I think that rubs off on some of the guys. There’s guys out there fighting, and all 11 of those guys on every play are doing the right thing.
“We just have to keep the ball rolling. We have a big one on Monday against Seattle, and it’s going to be exciting.”
After losing four straight and being 2-6 heading into their bye week, Washington may have found their way, and Rivera sees a team that’s now playing together.
“Well, I think they are starting to play together,” Rivera said. “They are becoming resilient. They do the things that they need to. They rely on each other. The thing I am really pleased with is it is all starting up front on both sides of the ball. I think the offensive and defensive line is coming alive. Those guys are playing some very solid and sound football. Again, they are just doing the things they need to do to give us a chance.”
Wide receiver Terry McLaurin, who had five receptions for 103 yards and a touchdown, added about the team’s turnaround: “I just think we have put two good weeks of practice together first and foremost. I feel like our o-line and our d-line are really establishing the line of scrimmage, which is very important. I feel like we are sustaining drives offensively. Defense is creating turnovers and short field. You’re creating winning formula.”
Notes:
-Washington won back-to-back games for the first time since winning four-straight games from Nov. 22nd to December
=Running back Antonio Gibson finished with 95 yards on 19 carries. This marks the first time Gibson ran for 90+ yards since rushing for 115 yards on November 26 of last season.13 of last season.
For the second straight game, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers(6-3) lose on the road, and this time against a very beatable opponent in the Washington Football Team(3-6) as the world champions fell to Washington 29-19 on Sunday at FedExField.
After the game, Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians was not very happy about the team’s performance following their bye week.
“That display was very reminiscent of the last one,” Arians said. “It’s baffling to me after the week of practice I watched these guys have that we could play that poorly. We played with enough passion and energy for about eight or nine minutes to win games in this league. We got to show up on Sundays. We are doing one hell of a job on Monday through Friday, but we are not showing up on Sundays.”
Tampa Bay never led in this one and trailed 13-0 in the second quarter, and Washington would take a 16-6 lead into halftime. The Buccaneers would draw closer in the third when Tom Brady connected with Cameron Brate on a six-yard touchdown reception to cut the lead to 16-13, but Washington responded with an eight-play, 71-yard drive that ended with Antonio Gibson’s one-yard touchdown run.
After the Buccaneers cut Washington’s lead to 23-19 in the fourth, Washington would go on a 19-play, 80-yard drive that took 10;29 and concluded with Gibson scoring again from one yard out to put the game away.
Washington’s 19-play, 80-yard, 10:29 fourth-quarter touchdown drive was the longest fourth-quarter drive in Washington franchise history in terms of plays since 2001. In addition, per Stathead, it was the longest fourth quarter drive in terms of time of possession resulting in a touchdown in the NFL since 2001.
“That’s very disappointing for us,” Arians said about Washington’s game-clinching drive. “We pride ourselves on defense, and we lost too many games and given up the lead too many times in the fourth quarter.”
Ir wasn’t a good game for Tampa’s defense and wasn’t a good game for Brady, who threw two interceptions on consecutive possessions in the first quarter, which led to 10 Washington points.
It was the first time Brady has been intercepted twice in the first quarter of a game since 2012.
“It has nothing to do with his receivers; it is on him,” Arians said about Brady’s interceptions.
Brady, who threw for 220 yards with two touchdowns, two interceptions, added on the loss: “We just never really played on our terms. We played from behind the whole game. They played a good game. They had a good plan.”
This was a big win for Washington as they got revenge after losing to Tampa Bay in the playoffs last season. However, Washington’s star DE Chase Young did leave in the first half with an apparent knee injury.
“We know it’s a knee, there’s some concern,” Washington head coach Ron Rivera said postgame about Young. “We’ll have him evaluated tomorrow, potentially an ACL but we’re not sure yet. Once we get the evaluation, we’ll know for sure.”
Regarding the Buccaneers, they’re struggling right now.
Simply put, the Buccaneers have to start playing better if they want to turn things around.
Best of the Rest:
-Washington QB Taylor Heinicke completed 26-of-32 passes for 256 yards and a touchdown, and a 110.4 passer rating. He also rushed three times for 15 yards.
-Washington defeated Brady for the first time since September 28, 2003. It is the second time the team has ever beaten the three-time NFL MVP.
-Buccaneers DT Vita Vea was carted off in the fourth was apparent knee injury.
In 2020, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers(6-2) went out and got maybe the greatest quarterback of all time in Tom Brady, who ultimately led the team to their second championship in team history.
Before Brady, the Buccaneers had not made the playoffs since 2007, and the year before Brady came along, Jameis Winston did throw for over 5000 yards and 33 touchdowns. However, Winston did throw 30 interceptions, and Tampa finished 7-9.
The Buccaneers had a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, but they needed a leader; they needed a player who could take them to the next level, and Brady was that guy.
During Tampa’s run to the Super Bowl, they won three times on the road, including against the Washington Football Team(2-6) at FedEx Field in the Wild Card round, and they return to FedEx Field on Sunday to battle the Washington Football Team.
On Friday, Washington head coach Ron Rivera discussed how Brady pushed the Buccaneers over the hump.
“I think you started off by saying it perfectly: Tom Brady,” Rivera said about how Brady being the difference in Tampa. “I think that really speaks for itself. You look at the year before they got Tom, and they were close. But they hadn’t gotten over the hump. They get Tom, and then you see everything come together. You get a guy with his experience, his years in the league, his six Super Bowl rings before he got his seventh, and that’s going to speak very loudly in your locker room. For any team in this league, that’s the biggest difference.”
Washington is still looking for a franchise quarterback. They started the season with Ryan Fitzpatrick, who got injured. Taylor Heinicke has had his moments, but it’s safe to say he’s not the guy. Washington has some talent on their roster, but they need a quarterback, and there are not many times where quarterbacks as good as Brady become available, so it will probably have to come through the draft.
The Washington Football Team head into their bye week on a four-game losing streak after falling to the Denver Broncos on the road 17-10.
During this losing streak, Washington has played some pretty good teams, including losses to the Packers, Saints, and the Chiefs. When they return after the bye week, Washington hosts the world champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Last season, after eight games, Washington was 2-6, but they finished the season 5-3, including a four-game winning streak, and ultimately, Washington was able to win the NFC East.
Over the years, Ron Rivera-coached teams have done well in the second half of the season, and on Monday, Rivera explained why that is the case.
“Well, just because I’d like to believe that as we progress through the year, through the season, especially my early years as a head coach, a lot of things seem to come together,” Rivera said. “That’s what I kind of feel with last year; things kind of came to go at the right time for us. I like to believe we are on the same path. Just because I think some of the things that we’ve done have helped us to trend in the right direction. I mean, obviously offensively, we’ve outgained the last two teams we’ve played. Unfortunately, we just haven’t outscored them. And that’s important.
“Defensively, we’ve been able to hold certain aspects of our opponents in check. We played against a couple of good running teams, and we’ve held them both under a hundred yards rushing. We played a very dynamic quarterback in Aaron Rodgers and kept him under his numbers. We still haven’t won. But the thing that you can sit there and say is it’s coming together. It’s not where we want to be, obviously, but if we continue to trend in the right way, we have a chance. So that’s really what we’re looking at.”
Health has not been on Washington’s side this season. Key players that Washington was counting on this season like Ryan Fitzpatrick, Curtis Samuel, Brandon Scherff, Logan Thomas, and Sam Cosmi have missed time.
Rivera is hoping to get those key players back on the field at some point this season.
“We haven’t had the guys on the field that we feel could really help us to play better and hopefully win some football games,” Rivera said. “I think it’s going to be huge, being able to get Brandon [Scherff] and Sam [Cosmi] back on the football field. I think it could be very helpful having a healthy Curtis(Samuel) and Logan(Thomas) out there working together with our offensive guys. I think defensively, trying to figure out how we are, where we are. That’s a little bit more of a work in progress. I think some of the things that we’ve done lately have really shown that we have the potential to get it going again, but we just got to keep working on that. But finding who we are got a lot to do with the guys that we haven’t been able to use and play with, So I think coming out of this, we’ll see how we respond to it, especially if we do get those guys back on the football field.”
Fortunately for Washington, the schedule does get a little easier as they play the Eagles twice, Giants, but they still have games against the Cowboys(2X), Panthers, and Las Vegas. So, it should be interesting to see if Washington can turn things around in the second half of the season.
The Washington Football Team(2-4) battled hard against the Kansas City Chiefs(3-3) on Sunday and led at halftime, but Kansas City took over the game in the second half and would defeat Washington 31-13 at FedExField.
Washington has now lost two straight and three out of their last four.
In the first half, Washington had 200 yards of total offense and led 13-`10 at halftime, but they had only 76 yards of total offense in the second half and did not score.
WFT QB Taylor Heinicke, who completed 24-of-39 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown, felt the team could not put anything together in the second half.
“We just couldn’t get the ball rolling in the second half, whether it was penalties or keeping it on the sticks, or the defense making a good play, or a dropped ball, bad throw,” Heinicke said postgame. “We just couldn’t put it together. It was frustrating. But again, we’ll get better.”
According to Washington head coach Ron Rivera, the team needed to play a complete game to beat the Chiefs.
“I think the message to the guys more so than anything else is we have to handle adversity,” Rivera said. “We have to play two halves of football. We played a good first half. We didn’t play a good enough second half to give ourselves a chance to win. We’ve got to be able to handle the mistakes, correct the mistakes and just keep going forward. The truth is it’s the sixth game; we’ve got a few more left to play, obviously. We’ve got to shake this one off, learn from it, and get ready for next week. It’s all we can do.”
All four of Washington’s losses have come against teams .500 or better, so the schedule has not been easy, which Rivera addressed after the game.
“We did lose to four good teams, but we could have also beat a couple of them,” Rivera said. “That’s the hard thing to swallow if you’re going, to be honest with it. I mean, we had a chance last week, a chance the opening game. You are what your record says you are. The only way we can get better is to practice, work at it and then go out and play better. And that's pretty much what we have left.”
The next three games for Washington won’t be easy as they have two straight road games against the Packers and Broncos, and back home against the defending world champions, the Buccaneers, so the schedule will continue to be difficult, but Washington has to find ways to overcome it.
Sean Taylor’s jersey retired:
At halftime, the Washington Football Team retired the late Sean Taylor’s number #21 jersey. The Taylor family and friends were honored on the field with a framed Sean Taylor #21 jersey. Also, the team formally commemorated the renaming of the road leading to FedExField as Sean Taylor Road in a pregame ceremony with Taylor’s family, alumni, and team representatives.
Taylor spent four season in NFL, all with Washington. Sadly, his life was cut short after being shot by intruders who tried to burglarize his home back in 2007. He was only 24 years old.
Below are highlights of Taylor’s ceremony from today:
