It took overtime for the Eagles to beat the Commanders. Jalen Hurts said they 'needed a game like this'

Whether the Eagles should have won Sunday’s game over the Washington Commanders in regulation by their offense ticking down the clock, or their defense making a critical stop, or from earlier play calls that went awry or without penalties that extended drives, the fact that mattered most in the locker room following the 34-31 overtime victory was that they won. They’re 4-0, one of two unbeaten teams remaining in the NFL, and they’ve done it without even hitting their stride. 

“We needed a game like this for us,” quarterback Jalen Hurts said.

It took a 54-yard game-winning field goal by Jake Elliott on the second drive of overtime. It caused agita, and there is more than enough to decipher in the coming days about decisions — whether from coaches, players, or officials — and standout performances. If they needed a game like this could be up for debate, considering they were heavy favorites and had a superior team. But Hurts’ point is that winning is not easy in the NFL. To use his words, “tension and pressure build character.” So the Eagles now have more character. They are bona fide Super Bowl contenders, and they found value in being exposed to these types of situations. 

“We’re still putting it together,” said A.J. Brown, who starred with nine catches for 175 yards and two touchdowns. “Nobody wants to be playing their best football right now. We want to play really well, but we don’t want to play our best football right now in October. These are moments we’re learning from. These are experiences we’re learning from. If it happens again, nobody would blink.”

In fact, this was the first overtime game of coach Nick Sirianni’s tenure. It was the first walk-off field goal that Hurts can remember in a game he’s played. Sirianni’s message to the team was that they’ve had to win in different ways this year. They’ve won ugly. They’ve won by pounding the ball. They’ve won with a sterling defensive effort. The Eagles had their best offensive performance on Sunday, but they needed to play from behind and they required clutch drives on both sides of the ball.

“I just want to win and do anything we can do to be able to do that,” Sirianni said. “I guess what I’d say is it’s natural in this league to have to win multiple ways and we’ve had to. …I’ve said this a thousand times: If we need to blitz 100 times, if we need to throw it 100 times, if we need to pass it 100 times, whatever we have to do to win, we’ll win it that way. I think that’s what you do. You try to put your players in the best positions, and you try to do whatever you think is right. And sometimes are we wrong? Heck yeah. But everything we’re trying to do is trying to get the ‘W’ whatever way we possibly can.”

Based on that logic, there’s an argument that the Eagles should have been less aggressive late in the fourth quarter. It was a 24-24 game with 1:49 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Eagles were on Washington’s 28-yard line and the Commanders had only one timeout remaining. The Eagles could have run the ball and forced Washington to use its last timeout. A first down would have allowed the Eagles to ensure they could keep possession until the final seconds and attempt a game-winning field goal. 

Instead, the Eagles went for the end zone. Hurts threw deep down the right sideline for Brown, who caught his second touchdown of the game over rookie cornerback Emmanuel Forbes. Brown was so excited that his celebration was flagged for taunting, costing the Eagles 15 yards. So the Commanders didn’t merely get the ball back with 96 seconds, but they also benefited from favorable field position.  

“The main goal is to score, right?” Sirianni said. “We took an opportunity there and it worked. Jalen and A.J. made a great play. You go in there and score. What you don’t want is the penalty to give them the extra 15 yards. A.J., obviously, was apologetic about that coming off the field. 

“…You’ve seen it, a lot of times, that when maybe a team gets too conservative in that area, then they don’t score. And so, we saw an opportunity. Did we think it would go for a touchdown? We didn’t know. I mean, we thought it was an opportunity, right? And even if you don’t score on a scenario when you’re aggressive, it backs them off for the next play to help you get into where you want to get to. I’m not sure I’m going to apologize for scoring too quick ever unless we can help it. In that particular case, I didn’t think we could.” 

When asked what he saw that made him want to go for the touchdown in that situation, Hurts said “it comes down to feel.” The play worked, even if a case could be made for the alternative. But Sirianni’s point was correct that Brown’s penalty did not help; it allowed Washington to start a game-tying drive on their 36-yard line, essentially putting them 11 yards closer to scoring. 

“I got to be better. I’m a vet,” Brown said. “I can’t do stuff like that… It was unnecessary. Kind of cost us some yardage on the kickoff. I’ve got to be better than that. …Jalen brought it to my attention. He told me on the sideline, ‘You can’t do that.’”

The defense still could have made a stop. And the Eagles also benefited from Commanders coach Ron Rivera’s decision not to go for a two-point conversion after their touchdown at the end of regulation. (He said his offense was gassed following the long scoring drive.)  The defense still came through with a three-and-out when Washington won the coin toss in overtime, so all the Eagles needed to do was put Elliott in range for a field goal. 

On Sunday, that range within 59 yards. It looked murky when Hurts was flagged for intentional grounding when the Eagles were at Washington’s 34-yard line. But Hurts completed a clutch nine-yard catch to DeVonta Smith to set up the 54-yard field goal. That completion allowed Hurts to finish 25 of 37 for 319 yards and two touchdowns, and he did not turn the ball over. Sirianni called it the best game of Hurts’ season — and a “clutch” one. The clutch designation should also be distributed to Elliott, who made all four field goals on Sunday and has now made four kicks of 50-plus yards this season. 

“I love it when those situations come down to me,” Elliott said. “I always have — in tennis growing up, in baseball being the last batter, it’s just something I’ve always done and felt real comfortable in.”

The penalties, whether Brown’s taunting or Hurts’ intentional grounding, were costly for the Eagles. They were penalized 11 times on Sunday. Two defensive penalties extended drives in the red zone. The Eagles had a quarterback sneak thwarted when Landon Dickerson was flagged for being offsides. The officials were aggressive with how they oversaw game, but it will undoubtedly be a topic addressed by Sirianni this week.

“It’s huge,” Kelce said. “It stalled out multiple drives. It kept drives going on defense.”

There were also curious play calls, such as the Eagles’ decision to run the ball with Kenny Gainwell on third-and-11 from Washington’s 16-yard line in the fourth quarter. The play didn’t work, and the Eagles settled for a field goal to keep it a one-possession game. Sirianni defended the decision by pointing out how a similar play worked last week, and he stood by the call.

All those quibbles are easier to digest after a win. And appropriate praise could go to the Hurts-Brown connection, or Elliott’s reliability, or five sacks from the defense — including three from linebacker Nicholas Morrow.

The bottom line is they’re 4-0, and they haven’t yet hit their stride. The schedule gets tougher later this month, and the Eagles must play better to win those games. But those games are also why they cannot afford to lose these early matchups. And they haven’t, which is more than 30 teams in the NFL can say. 

“The record says nothing,” Brown said. “These experiences say everything.”