The Philadelphia Eagles earned a key victory to stay in the thick of the playoff chase while the Washington Redskins lost their second quarterback to a season-ending in the last 16 days.
Carson Wentz passed for 306 yards and two touchdowns with an interception as the Eagles got back to .500 with a second straight win, 28-13, over an NFC East rival. It’s the first time this year the defending Super Bowl champions have managed consecutive victories.
Meanwhile, Colt McCoy, making his second start in place of Alex Smith, sustained a broken fibula in the second quarter of the game. Smith broke both the tibia and fibula in his leg in a game on Nov. 18 against the Houston Texans. Head coach Jay Gruden confirmed the injury after the game and said McCoy is expected to miss the remainder of the season.
Outside of a 90-yard touchdown romp from Adrian Peterson, McCoy’s replacement, Mark Sanchez, proved mostly ineffective in moving the Washington offense. After McCoy began the game 4 of 4 for 50 yards, Sanchez only was able to manage 100 yards passing on 13 completions over 21 attempts the rest of the night.
Peterson finished with just 98 yards on nine carries after having the 90-yard scoring run account for most of his production on the night.
The Eagles marched 75 yards on 12 plays on their opening possession of the game with Wentz connected with Golden Tate on a 6-yard touchdown, Tate’s first with the Eagles after a trade last month.
Washington answered with a 44-yard Dustin Hopkins field goal and Peterson’s 90-yard run gave them a 10-7 lead six minutes into the second quarter. A Washington goal line stand preserved the lead for a while before a 14-yard touchdown run by Darren Sproles gave Philadelphia a 14-10 lead.
Hopkins added a 47-yard field goal before halftime to head into halftime trailing only 14-13.
But the second half belonged to the Eagles.
Jordan Matthews caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Wentz and a two-point conversion to Tate gave the Eagles a 22-13 lead. Jake Elliott added field goals of 46 and 44 yards to extend the lead to 28-13. Washington managed just 36 yards of offense in the second half as the Eagles pulled away for the win.
Washington will need to address quarterback needs through free agency again this week as Sanchez is now the only healthy quarterback on the roster. They don’t even currently have a third quarterback on their practice squad.