Paul’s Pivotal Plays: Eagles @ Commanders

September 29, 2022

By Paul Francis

Welcome to the Week 3 installment of Paul’s Pivotal Plays, where I select a single critical play from each quarter of Washington’s latest game and overanalyze it with some commentary.

We’re either going to look back at this Eagles game as the point where the Ron Rivera Era was fully and finally exposed as a rebuild attempt going nowhere, or we’re going to look back at this game as the spot where the Commanders got the wake-up-call-smackdown they needed to pull their act together in a winning campaign.  We’ll see.  Either way, looking back at the game to find pivotal plays was an interesting exercise this week considering there were no significant momentum shifts.  The Eagles got rolling, then it was over.  But here it goes.

1^st quarter – Eagles ball.  1^st and 10 at the Philadelphia 39. 1:20.

Watch the play here

With the game locked at 0-0 both teams are fighting to break through with a big play.  The Eagles send 4 players on passing routes.  The Commanders rush 4 and drop 7 into coverage.  With time to let the play develop, Hurts launches a deep pass to Devonta Smith on the right sideline, who has a step on Benjamin St-Juste and makes a diving catch for a big 45 yard gain.

Or does he?  Replays show that Devonta Smith fails to control the ball and get both feet down before diving out of bounds.  Sensing a potential challenge, the Eagles rush to the line of scrimmage and run a play.  Ron Rivera stalks the field with the challenge flag in hand as the Eagles lineup, but inexplicably fails toss it before the ball gets snapped.  The Eagles would eventually kick a field goal and go up 3-0.

This was the first big completion for Devonta Smith, who had a career day (8/169/1), and for Jalen Hurts, who would go on to have a tremendous outing throwing for 316 yards and 3 TDs in the first half.  The knock on Hurts has been that he can’t read defenses and commits too many unforced errors when made to play from the pocket.  That certainly wasn’t the case on Sunday.  Apart from the notice that Jalen Hurts is putting out to the Commanders, this play also highlights a simmering criticism in Washington.  What the heck is going on with the coaches?  Ron Rivera’s slow-draw on the challenge flag is emblematic of the larger concern that the coaching staff, starting with Rivera himself, is losing the script on this rebuild project.

2^nd quarter – Commanders ball.  2^nd 6 at the Washington 29. 14:03

Watch the play here

Just barely into the 2^nd quarter, the Commanders are trying to answer Philly’s score.  Wentz drops back, and though the Eagles only rush 4, he begins to feel pressure in the pocket.  As he tries to scramble to his left, Brandon Graham knocks the ball from his grasp and the fumble is recovered by Eagles teammate Jason Hargrave at the Washington 24-yard line.   Two plays later the Eagles would score the game’s first touchdown and boost their lead 10-0.

This was sack 5 of 9 on the day.  Keep in mind that up to that point, the Commanders had only had 4 drives.  That’s more sacks than drives.  The problems that emerged the week before against Lions exploded into a full-fledged crisis on Sunday.  Without getting into the weeds of who carries most of the blame for the 9-sack day, let’s just say that everyone failed.  Wentz failed to manage the pocket, the offensive line failed to manage the pass rush, and Scott Turner failed to manage the play-calling.

This is officially a problem.  The Commanders are now tied with the Bengals surrendering a league-worst 15 sacks through three games.  Diagnosing the issue is complicated.  Perhaps the offensive line has downgraded in talent this year with the turnover of players.  Perhaps “bad-Carson” is beginning to surface with a vengeance.  Whatever it is, John Matsko (who has done some really good work with the offensive line over the years) needs to get a handle on the issue.  And Scott Turner needs to get a better sense of the passing game’s strengths and vulnerabilities in real-time game flow.

3^rd Quarter – Commanders Ball.  4^th and 12 at the Philadelphia 29.  0:54.

Watch the play here

With both the Commanders and Philadelphia swapping punts on 5 consecutive drives to open the second half, the Commanders are finally putting a drive together deep in this quarter.  On 4^th and long, Joey Slye converts a 47 yard field goal to break the Commanders’ egg.  But Eagles defensive lineman Jordan Davis gets flagged for an unnecessary roughness penalty, which gives the Commanders a first down and injects new life into their drive.

Perhaps rookie Jordan Davis didn’t fully understand the NFL rule that you cannot line up over the snapper on a field goal and come after him.  It’s one of those obscure player-safety rules that the NFL installed on special teams.  Whatever the case, I included this as a pivotal play because for the first time all game the Commanders have caught a break.  With the ball at the Eagles 14ish yard line and a fresh set of downs, a touchdown could give the Commanders a very thin lifeline back into the game.

This non-field goal also highlights another obscure fun fact.  Through three games, the Commanders are the only team in the NFL without an official field goal attempt.  Yup, you read that correctly.  Not that it’s his fault, but Joey Slye was reportedly signed to a 2-year, $5 million deal in the offseason.  Here’s hoping that he can stabilize the kicking game in the way the team was hoping; guess we’ll have to keep waiting to see.

4^th Quarter.  Eagles ball.  1^st and 10 at the Eagles 1 yard line.  14:06.

Watch the play here.

Pinned back at their own half-yard line, the Eagles lineup in a heavy run formation and 1 WR with the obvious intent of trying run for some breathing space to work the next down.  Daron Payne immediately blows up hapless Dallas Goedert and swallows up Boston Scott as soon as he gets the ball.  Scott makes a valiant effort to keep his legs moving and work out of the predicament before physics wins and all 320 pounds of Payne pancake him for a safety.

The Commanders got stuffed on 4^th and goal on the previous drive.  But Daron Payne immediately seized a sliver of momentum back with this play, and maybe – just maybe – gave some hope to the hope that the Commanders might hopefully wrestle their way back into this game.  They wouldn’t, but what other plays could I highlight in the 4^th quarter, when the game was already basically over a quarter ago?  (No, Gibson’s garbage-time touchdown does not make the cut).

There were few silver linings in this game, but if we’re willing to see it, the defensive performance was one.  They did what I dared them to do – take away Philly’s run game and Hurts’ scrambles and force him to win from the pocket.  The Commanders held Philly to only 72 rushing yards, and Hurts ran for 20 insignificant yards on 9 carries.  Unfortunately, Hurts also answered the call and won the game from the pocket.  *Sigh*.  Still, the Commanders shut out the Eagles for 3 of the 4 quarters they played.  Too bad the other side of the ball couldn’t get their act together, otherwise we may have had a game.

Oh, well.  We fix our eyes squarely on Dallas, where a win against the Dak-less Cowboys can cover over a multitude of sins.  Bring home the “W” and even a putrid performance like we saw against the Eagles could be forgiven and forgotten.