Eagles lose Jalen Hurts to injury, squander late lead in wild 36-33 defeat to Commanders

Jeff Neiburg, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Dec 22, 2024

Published in Football

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LANDOVER, Md. — Jalen Hurts left the game with a concussion. His replacement, Kenny Pickett, threw a touchdown and an interception. Saquon Barkley topped 100 yards and scored two rushing touchdowns.

Eagles players had to be separated from their Washington Commanders counterparts multiple times by the game’s officials.

All of that happened in one quarter of football.

The rest were whacky, too.

It was an eventful day at Northwest Stadium, and the Eagles, without their starting quarterback for 55 minutes, fell to the Commanders, 36-33, for their first loss since September. The Eagles remain two games ahead of the Commanders in the NFC East with two games to play. They dropped a game behind Detroit for the top spot in the conference.

Here’s our instant analysis from Sunday’s game:

Hurts injured, Pickett plays

After leading a scoring drive that finished with a Barkley touchdown run on the Eagles’ first drive, Hurts was driving the Eagles down the field for another score when he took off on a designed run for 13 yards. Hurts didn’t slide an instead plowed forward when meeting with a pair of Washington defenders. His head appeared to hit the ground with some force.

Hurts briefly went to the blue medical tent before jogging off the field. He never returned to the sidelines.

Pickett finished that initial drive off with a four-yard touchdown throw to A.J. Brown, but the drop-off from Hurts to his backup was at times pretty dramatic. Pickett was off target, off schedule, and on one throw put the ball right into the stomach of Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu.

Pickett finished 14 for 24 for 143 yards plus a touchdown and a pick.

He did, however, lead a go-ahead drive, a grueling 12-play, 34-yard drive that ended with a field goal with 3 minutes, 48 seconds to go. Pickett on that drive completed fourth-down passes to DeVonta Smith and Brown.

The Eagles’ star receivers were busy. They combined for 23 of the Eagles’ 25 passing targets. Brown caught eight of 15 targets for 97 yards. Smith caught six of eight targets for 51 yards. Smith’s drop on third-and-5 with 2:02 left in the game kept Washington alive and loomed large.

Kenneth Gainwell was the only other Eagles player with a catch.

Defense bends, breaks

The Eagles hadn’t given up more than 23 points since before the bye week. But an upstart Commanders offense led by rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels found some holes.

Midway through the second quarter, Daniels connected with Terry McLaurin for a 32-yard touchdown. That came against rookie corner Quinyon Mitchell, who shut McLaurin down for much of the first matchup between the teams.

Daniels, who was also damaging to the Eagles with his legs, connected twice with former Eagles receiver Olamide Zaccheaus for fourth-quarter touchdowns. The second of the two came on a play when the Eagles were out of sorts, out of position, and with 12 men on the field. That score and point-after gave Washington a 28-27 lead.

The Eagles responded on offense, and then the defense punched back with an interception from Reed Blankenship.

The defense was back on the field for a final time, the Eagles leading by five. Daniels drove the Commanders 57 yards in nine plays. The drive finished with a nine-yard touchdown from Daniels to Jamison Crowder, the latter’s second touchdown catch of the day.

The Eagles forced five turnovers and still fell. They were without safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson for most of the second half after he was ejected.

Elliott delivers, but it’s not enough

Jake Elliott picked a good time to hit his first kick this season from 50-plus yards. Elliott missed a kick from 56 yards before halftime, dropping him to 0 for 6 from the deepest distances.

But Elliott was given a chance at redemption after that penultimate Eagles drive. From 50 yards on the dot, Elliott got the ball through the uprights for a 30-28 Eagles lead.

He later extended the lead to 33-28 with a 40-yard kick. It was not enough.

Barkley keeps pace

Barkley entered Sunday needing 139 yards per game to beat Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record. He rushed for 150 yards on 29 carries, but was bottled up after rushing for 109 of those yards in the first quarter.

With Hurts out, the Eagles were much easier to defend.

Injury report

Hurts was far from the only Eagles player injured Sunday.

Edge rusher Josh Sweat left the game with an ankle injury in the first half and did not return until the fourth quarter, leaving the Eagles for long stretches with three healthy edge rushers, one of them little-used Chuck Harris. Defensive tackle Jordan Davis was out of the game for a while with a lower-body injury. Cornerback Darius Slay briefly left the game with an injury in the fourth quarter. Right guard Mekhi Becton, too, limped off the field with an injury on the Eagles’ final drive.

Like Hurts, backup running back and specialist Will Shipley also left the game in the first half with a concussion.

It was a physical NFC East game on a cold December day, and the Eagles will be traveling back north banged up and beaten, but with a division championship still in sight.