Recapping Week 11 of Thursday Night Football

The NFL’s Week 11 schedule got underway on Thursday Night Football in a battle between NFC East teams, both of which came into the game with seven wins. The 7-3 Washington Commanders made the short trip to Philadelphia to take on the 7-2 Philadelphia Eagles.

The Commanders have been one of the most surprising teams in the league this year, led by rookie QB Jayden Daniels and first-year head coach Dan Quinn. Oddsmakers in Vegas set the Commanders’ over-under win total at 6.5 in the preseason, and no one expected them to exceed that total in their first 10 games.

As for the home team, the Eagles are exactly where everyone thought they would be in the preseason. Their seven wins on the season have them right in the thick of things for the NFC East title. The team’s acquisition of Saquon Barkley in the offseason made an already-explosive offense even better, and by all accounts, Barkley has been everything that the Eagles had hoped for and more.

The Commanders Strike First

In a game that was billed as a showdown between two of the best offenses in the NFC, there wasn’t a lot of offense in the earliest stage of the game.

After the two teams traded punts to start the game, Philly put together a long drive that ended in a missed Jake Elliot field goal. However, the Commanders weren’t able to take advantage of the Eagles’ miscue and went three and out in a hurry. The Eagles got the ball back, but it was their turn to go three and out.

With their second possession of the first quarter, the Commanders struck first. Brian Robinson returned after missing the last two games with an injury, and Washington decided to utilize their two-headed backfield, pairing Robinson and Austin Ekeler.

After Ekeler took a screen pass for 30 yards. Jayden Daniels then called his own number and rushed for a few yards as Washington inched toward the Philly goal line. It was Brian Robinson who finally punched it in, putting Washington on the board first in his return to action. The first quarter came to an end with Washington leading 7-0.

Elliot Continues to Struggle

Jake Elliot’s struggles didn’t begin in the first quarter when he missed a field goal. He came into Thursday Night’s game with an uncharacteristically inaccurate season under his belt, only making 80% of his field goal attempts.

While he’s yet to miss an extra point this season, Elliot, who has been dependable throughout his career, has struggled. Those struggles continued in the second quarter, adding to Philadelphia’s offensive woes.

The Eagles struggled to take advantage of good field position following a Washington punt, but once again, Elliot’s struggles stifled them. Elliot missed a 51-yard field goal attempt to go with his missed 44-yarder from the first quarter.

Elliot finally got the chance to redeem himself, but it wasn’t what Philadelphia wanted. After putting together an impressive 87-yard drive, the Eagles offense stalled inside the Commanders’ 10-yard line.

Elliot came out once again, this time to a chorus of boos from the home crowd, but he was able to knock the 21-yard field goal through, finally getting Philly on the scoreboard. Washington went into the half with a 7-3 lead. For a game that was expected to be high-scoring, the first half was anything but, as both offenses struggled with dropped passes and a host of miscues.

The Boo Birds Greet the Eagles

The Eagles got the ball first to start the second half, hoping to build on the momentum that they had after scoring the last points of the first half. Jalen Hurts spent a few moments in the injury tent before the half ended but led his team back onto the field at the start of the third quarter.

In what could only be described as a disaster, the Eagles fumbled the kickoff and Washington recovered. Once again, frustrated Eagles fans let their displeasure be known, as they’re apt to do, booing the team off the field.

Washington started the ensuing drive well behind their rushing game. However, the drive stalled and the Commanders were forced to settle for a 48-yard field goal. Zane Gonzalez connected from 48 in his second appearance for Washington, as he continued to fill in for the injured Austin Seibert.

The Eagles responded with a field goal of their own following another lengthy drive in which they just could not find the end zone. Jake Elliot moved to 2-4 on the night after knocking a chip shot through the uprights, as Washington held onto its lead 10-6.

Push It Real Good

It may have taken until the fourth quarter, but the Eagles finally hit paydirt. On the heels of a 76-yard drive that saw Saquon Barkley nearly score before being marked down at the Commanders’ 1-yard line, Philly dialed up the play that their offense has become known for in recent years: the tush push. It was enough to get Jalen Hurts into the end zone and for the first time, the Eagles took the lead.

However, all was not well for Philly. Jake Elliot, who had pushed two of his earlier field goal attempts to the left, missed the point-after attempt, his first missed PAT of the season.

It remains to be seen what Philadelphia is going to do about their kicking situation going forward, but in most cases, teams who experience kicking problems to this magnitude start bringing in free agent kickers for workouts within a couple of days.

The touchdown gave Philadelphia the lead, but the missed PAT meant that the Eagles only had a two-point lead as they went up 12-10.

Philly’s Defense Steps Up

The Commanders certainly hadn’t been moving the ball at will all night. With less than 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Terry McClaurin hadn’t even been targeted, and Washington’s only big plays had been on checkdowns to running backs.

However, knowing that they just needed to get into field goal range, the Commanders took an aggressive approach on their next possession and looked to be putting together a solid drive.

On second and inches, they gave the ball to Brian Robinson who got stuffed just behind the line. On third and one, they tried to run a similar play, but once again, the Eagles’ defense stepped up. Even though the Commanders were in field goal range, Dan Quinn left his offense on the field for a fourth and short.

For a moment, it looked like Jayden Daniels, who was playing with a cut on his throwing hand, was going to fumble the snap, but he managed to reel it in. Daniels tried to bounce it out wide, but the Eagles’ secondary came up and shut the play down, resulting in a two-yard loss, giving the Eagles the ball back with a little less than seven minutes to go in the game.

The failed fourth down conversion may have been the nail in the coffin for the Commanders. It only took Philadelphia five plays to go 74 yards as Saquon Barkley scored his seventh rushing touchdown of the season. Barkley had eclipsed the 1000-yard mark on the season in the fourth quarter. Elliot made the point after as Philly extended its lead to nine.

That’s All She Wrote

With less than five minutes to go, the Commanders were down by nine, which meant they needed to score in a hurry. On Washington’s first play, rookie Jayden Daniels was picked off by Reed Blankenship, handing the ball back to Philadelphia and essentially sealing the game. If Washington had any hope of coming back, those hopes were dashed when Barkley took another handoff for a touchdown, this one from 39 yards out.

Although Washington put up a late touchdown when Jayden Daniels connected with Zach Ertz, it just wasn’t enough as the Eagles won 26-18 following a successful two-point conversion. Jalen Hurts went a respectable 18 of 28 on the night, passing for 221 yards while adding another 40 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown.

Things didn’t go as well for Daniels, who went 22 of 32 on the night, passing for 191 yards with one touchdown and one interception. The game marked Daniels’ worst yardage total since week one with the exception of the game in Carolina that he left early with an injury.

What’s Next?

The Eagles return to prime time next week as they fly cross country to take on Matt Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams while the Commanders have a date with the Dallas Cowboys on November 24 in another divisional matchup.

Speaking of divisional matchups, be sure to tune into Thursday Night Football next week as Russell Wilson and the Pittsburgh Steelers host the Cleveland Browns.