Forget the short week of practice. Dan Quinn was ready to lead his Washington Commanders into Thursday night’s NFC East showdown in Philadelphia by Monday.
“I’m fired up about it. … This is what division games should be — an absolute blast,” the first-year Washington coach said. “Philadelphia and Washington battling for it? Hell yeah!”
The Eagles (7-2) have a five-game winning streak and overtook the Commanders (7-3) for first place in the division on Sunday, when Philadelphia demolished Dallas and Washington lost a nail-biter to Pittsburgh.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni was a little less psyched about the prime-time matchup, calling the quick-turnaround Thursday night games “a pain in the butt to prepare for” during his Monday press conference.
“It’s just that everything gets crammed into a shorter amount of time,” Sirianni said. “So that’s what we’re working through right now, is I think a lot of guys will have big bags under their eyes at the end of the week, but we’ve got to do what we need to do as coaches to get the guys ready.”
Philadelphia certainly looked ready for a Dallas squad playing without Dak Prescott, scoring 27 unanswered points in a 34-6 victory in Arlington, Texas.
Jalen Hurts overcame two turnovers with four touchdowns (two passing, two rushing) before resting in the fourth quarter with many of the starters. The defense collected five takeaways and held the Cowboys to 146 total yards of offense — the fifth straight game that the Eagles allowed 280 or fewer yards.
The Philadelphia defense enters Week 11 ranked No. 2 in the NFL in yards allowed (274.1 per game) and tied for fifth in points allowed (17.9 per game).
“We’ve improved as a defense, but I know we feel we have a lot more to grow,” Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean said. “I don’t think you ever say that you have ‘arrived’ as a defense. It doesn’t work that way in this league.”
The Philly defense will be tested by a rookie quarterback who has “arrived.” No. 2 overall pick Jayden Daniels has completed 68.7 percent of his passes for 2,147 yards with nine touchdowns and just two interceptions through 10 starts, adding 464 yards and four scores on the ground.
The Washington offense is tied for third in the NFL in scoring (29.0 points per game) and ranks fourth with 377.0 yards per game.
The Commanders let a 10-point, second-half lead slip away against the Steelers, losing on Russell Wilson’s 32-yard TD pass to new teammate Mike Williams with 2:22 to play.
The loss stung, but right guard Sam Cosmi wanted to make sure it didn’t linger and addressed the Commanders in the locker room after the game.
“I wanted them to know that what we have here is still special,” Cosmi told reporters. “Like no matter what, we still keep fighting.”
The Commanders and Eagles will meet again in Week 16 in Landover, Md. Philadelphia has won five of the last six meetings, including season sweeps during the 2021 and 2023 campaigns.
The Eagles welcomed starting left tackle Jordan Mailata (hamstring) back to practice this week. Cornerback Darius Slay and tight end Dallas Goedert are dealing with ankle injuries. They were limited in Tuesday’s practice, along with Dean (groin) and receiver DeVonta Smith (hamstring).
Recently acquired cornerback Marshon Lattimore (hamstring) did not practice with the Commanders on Tuesday. Running back Brian Robinson Jr. (hamstring) has missed the last two games and was a limited participant, along with center Tyler Biadasz (ribs, thumb, foot), right tackle Andrew Wylie (shoulder), left tackle Brandon Coleman (shoulder) and defensive end Clelin Ferrell (knee).
–Field Level Media