Monday Night Football: Commanders knock off undefeated Eagles 32-21

Washington Commanders v Philadelphia Eagles
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The 1972 Dolphins can pop the champagne.

The Commanders dominated the Eagles, giving them their first loss after eight victories to start the season. It was not even as close as the 32-21 score might indicate as Washington evened its record to 5-5 with an impressive performance.

The Eagles, who had three turnovers in their first eight games, turned it over four times. They couldn’t stay on the field or get the Commanders off the field and had some untimely and uncharacteristic penalties to boot.

Washington had 81 plays, 330 yards and won time of possession 40:24 to 19:36. It had 49 running plays for 152 yards and two touchdowns. The Eagles had 47 plays and 263 yards.

The Eagles’ best final opportunity was lost on an unnecessary roughness penalty on Brandon Graham with 1:38 left with Philadelphia trailing 26-21. Commanders quarterback Taylor Heinicke was in trouble on third-and-seven and took a knee to keep the clock running when, after Haason Reddick touched him down and whistles blew, Graham came sliding in to hit Heinicke.

The Eagles got the ball back with five seconds left at their own 10-yard line, and on the final play, Washington defensive lineman Casey Toohill put an exclamation on the victory by recovering a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown.

Commanders kicker Joey Slye had field goals of 44, 58, 32 and 55, and Antonio Gibson and Brian Robinson each had 1-yard touchdown runs. Robinson rushed for 86 yards on 26 carries, and Gibson had 44 yards on 14 totes.

Heinicke was 17-of-29 for 211 yards and an interception.

Every time the Eagles seemed to have something going, they turned the ball over.

Commanders safety Darrick Forrest had an over-the-shoulder interception of Jalen Hurts. Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert lost a fumble on a blatant facemask penalty on Jamin Davis that officials missed, and receiver Quez Watkins had the ball punched out by Benjamin St-Juste after a 50-yard gain to the Washington 23 late in the fourth quarter.

Eagles defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson did have an interception in a fifth consecutive game. He has six this season, which is more than nine teams have total. The Saints, the team that traded him this offseason, have a league-low two interceptions.

Hurts went 17-of-26 for 175 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.

73 responses to “Monday Night Football: Commanders knock off undefeated Eagles 32-21

  1. Commies are a half-decent club. Defense is legit.

    And no way do they go back to Wentz. Keep Taylor in there.

  2. All those Eagles fans were so happy to see the Bills fall down the rankings. I think the Vikings are the #1 team in the NFC; I mean they wouldn’t lose to a team like the commands in week 10…..

  3. Congratulations to the 1972 Miami Dolphins the NFL’s greatest team ever!
    Perfectville still has one resident, their will never be another!

  4. Jamin Davis should be fined by the league for the nastiness of that missed facemask. Player safety, what?

  5. I think one of my biggest takeaways is that Washington defensive line can be a handful when healthy. They were pushing the pocket back all the time it seemed like, making Hurts revert back to back yard football more. Hopefully Chase Young can join soon. That would be fun to watch

  6. Its not feel good story. League parity is real, its any given Sunday.. for better or worse. This year is deff showing it.

  7. None of the top teams in either conference look great. The super bowl winner this season will be a wild card team. It’s 2020 all over again.

  8. Congrats Wash, River Boat great win. Taylor and run game on. Defense on point.

    Eagles, just not their night. So many freak accidents of turnovers. 3rd down defence was their issue.

  9. Refs mistakes impacted the outcome of the game.
    That the turnover was reviewed, and was clearly seen to be caused by an egregious face mask penalty, yet that can’t be scrutinized or lead to reversal is a gaping hole in the logic of the rules.
    And then there’s unnecessary roughness call on Graham, on something that wasn’t close to being a big hit or a malicious play but rather something that was hard to avoid with Heinicke’s suddenly taking a knee in the backfield while pressured.
    In totality though, Philadelphia didn’t do enough to earn that win, and had a monumentally inane game plan that had them only rushing the ball 4 times in the first half as Washington dominated time of possession.

  10. BS roughing call on Graham. Quarterback was getting back up. Can’t penalize Graham for touching him down in those circumstances even if the quarterback fell over backwards. Refs also blew the facemask call.

    But that’s not why the Eagles lost the game. Inexplicably, they failed to run the ball nearly enough. Smith and Hurts had bad games. As we know, the Eagles can’t stop the run.

    But give credit to the commanders quarterback. He played very well. Also their kicker kicked two 50 yard field goals in the wind which was the final margin.

  11. 60ftlesbianoctopus says:
    November 14, 2022 at 11:25 pm
    All those Eagles fans were so happy to see the Bills fall down the rankings. I think the Vikings are the #1 team in the NFC; I mean they wouldn’t lose to a team like the commands in week 10…..

    Yup, the Vikings only needed a big fourth quarter comeback to beat the Commanders in week 9. Not exactly a dominating win or something that would erase the memory of Minnesota being steamrolled by the Philadelphia in week 2.

  12. I kept waiting for the Eagles comeback and it never came. It’s nearly impossible to go undefeated in the NFL. The 72 Dolphins don’t want you to know they only played 14 games back then, hand free agency and no salary cap and a whole bunch of other things that made it much easier.

  13. Eagle’s come crashing back down to Earth. Now we no longer have to hear about them being the best team in the NFL.

  14. The Eagles time of possession was only 19:36?? Yikes. This is midseason now. You have to play better than that. We’ll how the rest of their games turn out.

  15. 1972 Dolphins know the 2007 Patriots was a much better and more impressive feat. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves.

  16. Just think. All week Uggle fans were anticipating this easy win, and all of the celebratory drinking and revelry associated with it. And now all they have is Fetterman. Well deserved.

  17. Graham made a dumb play. Or at least he made an ignorant play. It is clear to the viewer Heinecke gave himself up. He was tackled. Whistle blew. Play was over. Graham ignored this and continued his tackle. Ignorance is no excuse. 100% deserved.

  18. As a Washington fan – they really need to make player safety penalties reviewable. Also as a Washington fan – it’s clearly Taylor Time.

  19. I can absolutely see both the Eagles and Vikings getting bounced in the divisional round of the playoffs after their bye week. They are good, not great teams. 49ers and Buccaneers are the cream of the crop in the NFC. They will start to roll in the 2nd half after a slow start.

  20. Tackle football is one of the unique sports you can’t start taking seriously halfway through. Along with boxing, MMA, and hockey.

    Most sports allow you to get away with that. Not those.

  21. Hats off to Washington! The best part? Eagles fans came to party and celebrate all night; instead—disappointment and tears—on national TV!!! They are a good team but let’s not forget who they have beaten to get to 8-0. They are not a hands down best team in the NFL, Not even close.

  22. I don’t most people even homer fans could expect them to go undefeated. I know some talking heads floated the idea but it’s so rare. To top that off you want a little adversity as a team, gotta see how you respond. It also lifts a huge weight off your shoulders. We’ll see how they respond.

  23. “njeffrey says:
    November 14, 2022 at 11:43 pm
    I kept waiting for the Eagles comeback and it never came. It’s nearly impossible to go undefeated in the NFL. The 72 Dolphins don’t want you to know they only played 14 games back then, hand free agency and no salary cap and a whole bunch of other things that made it much easier.”
    ————————————————-
    If it was so easy back then, how come it’s only been done once and no other teams did it?

  24. Just an absolutely awful game for the Eagles. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, twice. The officials impact the game? Absolutely. Are they the reason the eagles lost? No. If you take away a couple of mistakes, they pull out a win. It’s probably better one term that they didn’t. Hopefully they can learn from this. Congrats to Washington on going in there and pulling off the win. They look like a different team from just a few weeks ago..

  25. Headshotting a kneeling QB after the whistle isn’t anything the refs can really *not* call, so get out of here with that stuff.

  26. snackswell37 says:
    November 14, 2022 at 11:46 pm
    1972 Dolphins know the 2007 Patriots was a much better and more impressive feat. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves.

    #########################

    Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Signed, Dolphin fans.

  27. Probably the best thing that could have happened to the Eagles. They’ll be more focused going forward after having tasted defeat. And yes, parody is alive and well in the NFL.

  28. Dominant? Was the game not in doubt up to the end? Its not a personal foul when the players hit on the field. It is though when youre tackled by your face mask. The eagles certainly didnt play their best game. But there was no dominance there. What a crappy opinion by Mr Williams. A good game played by Washington. Get em next week Philly.

  29. Maybe when I go to sleep, I will dream about the Eagles losing this game and laugh in my sleep. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

  30. Eagles are muuuuuuuuuch better than the commanders. However the commanders played better tonight. To many fluky turnovers and bad officiating as well as the eagles inability to stop the run. I bet eagles fans in some respect are glad to finally lose and get the monkey off their back.

  31. I wouldn’t read too much into it as far as Philly is concerned. Most team (read all except 72 dolphins) play a bad game and lose sometime. Better now than pull a 2007 Pats.

    However Philly is not a given for Super Bowl also.

  32. MortimerInMiami says:
    November 14, 2022 at 11:25 pm
    Congratulations to the 1972 Miami Dolphins the NFL’s greatest team ever!
    Perfectville still has one resident, their will never be another!
    ==============================================
    So many better teams that have played tougher regular season schedules (some in longer seasons) and ended their regular season with a loss or 3. Would have been much more impressive if they beat a playoff team during the regular season. As it was, they only played two winning teams with 8-6 records in the regular season, and those Miami teams of that era got Bob Griese in the HOF apparently for perfecting the handoff, because it certainly wasn’t based on his passing or his playoff performances as a QB.

  33. austinspencer says:
    November 14, 2022 at 11:57 pm
    I can absolutely see both the Eagles and Vikings getting bounced in the divisional round of the playoffs after their bye week.

    Only one team gets a bye week.

  34. njeffrey says:
    November 14, 2022 at 11:43 pm
    I kept waiting for the Eagles comeback and it never came. It’s nearly impossible to go undefeated in the NFL. The 72 Dolphins don’t want you to know they only played 14 games back then, hand free agency and no salary cap and a whole bunch of other things that made it much easier.
    _______________

    If it were that easy there would have been a lot more undefeated seasons back in those days.

  35. Pleased for Riverboat Ron as he seems like one of the good guys. Washington’s D will keep them competitive for the rest of the season.

  36. njeffrey says:
    November 14, 2022 at 11:43 pm
    I kept waiting for the Eagles comeback and it never came. It’s nearly impossible to go undefeated in the NFL. The 72 Dolphins don’t want you to know they only played 14 games back then, hand free agency and no salary cap and a whole bunch of other things that made it much easier.

    sour grapes? remember other teams couldn’t do it when there was only a 14 game schedule. The hitting was harder, more cheap shots and they didn’t protect the qb like the do today. Look at a Steelers-Raiders game back in the 70’s and it might give you a better understanding of what they accomplished.

  37. Curious now to see where PFT puts the Vikings, Eagles and Bills this week. Thinking Vikings #1 in the league, Eagles second, Bills third?

  38. MortimerInMiami says:
    November 14, 2022 at 11:25 pm
    Congratulations to the 1972 Miami Dolphins the NFL’s greatest team ever!
    Perfectville still has one resident, their will never be another!

    *******

    Child, please.

  39. McLaurin is a stud on the field, and took the reins in the locker room when Rivera was too choked up to speak. Team leader.

  40. Washington is a better team than must people give credit too and the eagles are not as good as people give credit too and they should stop making plans for the super bowl, it can all fall apart real fast.

  41. Are the majority of these comments from Cowboys fans who just lost to the hippie Aaron Rogers? Sad.

  42. This from a fan of all NFL teams. It seems like the refs are getting worse each week, which is really disappointing. While it’s understandable that they are human and mistakes are bound to happen, to cut down on bad calls and keep things fair, why not make plays reviewable. Increase the number of coaches challenges in the game, including allowing them in the final two minutes, and allowing all calls to be reviewable ie. do away with ‘non reviewable calls.’

  43. Yup, the Vikings only needed a big fourth quarter comeback to beat the Commanders in week 9. Not exactly a dominating win or something that would erase the memory of Minnesota being steamrolled by the Philadelphia in week 2.

    ______________________________________________________________________________________

    Yup, the Vikings were playing the Commanders on the road. Commanders were gifted a FREE TD when the back judge took out their safety who was going to make an easy interception. Eagles lost at home and gave up 32 points. LOL!

  44. Dolphins ’72 season should NOT have been 17-0. It should have been 16-1. The Minnesota Vikings had them beat 14-9 with almost no time left and on 4th down Greise’s pass was incomplete. The Refs called a roughing the passer and it wasn’t even close to being a penalty and gave the Dolphins new life and 15 yds. Even Larry Csonka said it was the only game we were thoroughly outplayed and we felt we were going to lose.

  45. If your only answer to Washington is that you had a few calls go against you, then you have to also admit that the pass interference that was not called against you early in the game should have been called – it was worse than the one that gifted you field position later in the game.

    Losers make excuses. You fumbled and threw an interception. You made mistakes. That was just the frosting on a cake that you thought you could half bake and could take Washington for granted. Washington gave you a case of humble pie.

  46. Nice work by the Commandeers. The only dark cloud in all of this is that Daniel Snyder was happy after the win.

  47. It was bound to happen. The Eagles haven’t had a statement win and most of their wins have come against poor teams. So they’re definitely good but no reason to think they’re an outlier from the rest of the league. This game seems to put them back in the mix with the overall muddled state of the league.

  48. Come on, did you really think the Eagles were that good? Have you paid attention to their schedule?

    Their opponents are a combined 38-46 and they’ve beaten exactly 2 teams with a record above .500.

    I laughed at all the hype before the game.

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