The Eagles are back under the lights for the second straight week, and this time the opponent is Washington in a Sunday night NFC East meeting that looks a lot different than anyone expected when the schedule came out.
Back then, both teams had a more appealing shine. Philadelphia had Nick Sirianni’s playoff track record behind it, and Washington looked like a real variable with Jayden Daniels expected to be healthy after a 2025 season slowed by injuries.
Now the matchup carries a very different feel. The Eagles and Commanders are both well below .500, the division has been one of the worst in football, and what’s left is a national-TV game with a lot riding on it for both sides.
For Philadelphia, the stakes go beyond one night. A loss would stretch the skid to six and push the conversation toward a full reset before the 2026 NFL trade deadline, with Howie Roseman potentially needing to move Riq Woolen, Moro Ojomo, Hollywood Brown and maybe even Saquon Barkley. That path would mean leaning into development and seeing whether players like Tanner McKee, Jeremiah Trotter Jr., Ty Robinson and Eli Stowers can become part of the team’s 2027 future.
A win changes the mood immediately. At 3-5, the division is still there for the taking, and if Sean Mannion and McKee can settle into something workable, the Eagles could suddenly be looking at a much better path.
Washington’s outlook is just as fragile. If Dan Quinn’s group doesn’t straighten things out quickly, head coaching changes could be coming, along with other organizational shakeups as the team starts looking ahead to a premium draft pick in 2027. That’s why Amik Robinson calling this a “must win” doesn’t feel exaggerated.
One thing Philadelphia rediscovered in Week 7 was its ground game. The Eagles ran for more than 120 yards for the first time since Week 1, after a stretch in which the offense drifted away from the run during the losing streak. The numbers had dropped off hard: 107 against the Chicago Bears, 104 against the Los Angeles Rams, then just 22 in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars and 35 back in South Philadelphia in Week 6.
Some of that decline came with Jalen Hurts out and Tanner McKee in, since McKee isn’t a rushing threat. But against Washington, Philadelphia made a point of leaning back into the run anyway, with Saquon Barkley and Dameon Pierce combining for 121 yards on the ground.
The Eagles still lost, so there was no finishing the job with the run game, but Nick Sirianni said on Wednesday that he liked what he saw and wants to keep building on it.
“We did a couple things that we’ve done. We did a couple new things that will be an addition to what we will do.
I think it was a good step for us offensively with the game that they played,” Siriani said. “That’s no secret that’s been the secret to our success here and my time here.
When we’ve been really good to a point where you get to Super Bowls, we’ve run the ball really well. When we made that turn in 2021, I mean, we ran the ball really well.
“Our best stretches of football were happening when we were pounding the football, being efficient in the pass game and being able to create explosives in the pass game. I think that, again, there is no moral victories, as we know in this, but there was a lot to build upon on offense.
We’re pissed that we lost. We’re pissed about the outcome, but there was a lot to build upon offensively for the next game going ahead and so on and so forth.”
That said, there’s still reason for concern. The Eagles seemed to drift away from what had made them dangerous in the first place, and once the outside zone looks Mannion wanted didn’t work, the offense probably should have gotten back to a more direct approach sooner. Still, if Philadelphia can generate yards on the ground again and force Washington to crowd the box, that opens the door for more productive offense in Week 8.
The bigger warning sign may be on defense. Despite having Jordan Davis in the middle and Zack Baun leading the linebacker group, Philadelphia was gashed for a season-high 204 rushing yards by the Cowboys last week. The Eagles didn’t record a tackle for loss on Monday Night Football and allowed Javonte Williams to put up the best rushing game of his career.
Washington already showed it can move the ball on the ground against Philadelphia, too. In Week 1, the Commanders ran for 132 yards, which stood as their top rushing total of the season heading into Week 7. And after Dallas piled up two different triple-digit rushing efforts against the Eagles, there’s little doubt David Blough will have run plays ready to test Vic Fangio’s defense again coming off the bye.
With Daniels back to full strength and averaging 8.5 rushing yards per attempt, Washington may want to lean on the ground game even more, especially with Stefon Diggs and Treylon Burks on the injury report and Terry McLaurin on IR. The safest way to get the passing game going may be to borrow from Philadelphia and keep feeding the run early.
Could this game end in a tie? It’s possible, and in a matchup this messy, that outcome wouldn’t be shocking.
But if a winner has to be picked, the Eagles still get the nod. The losing streak is ugly, but this may be the most winnable game left on the schedule. Washington has been just as shaky, Marcus Mariota somehow has more wins than Daniels at 1-1 compared with 0-3-1, and Blough’s offense might be even less convincing than Mannion’s.
Strangely enough, Philadelphia might actually be better off winning here. After dropping game after game in close spots, it would fit the script for the Eagles to steal one they probably shouldn’t, and if that happens, the conversation around the 2026 NFL trade deadline gets very interesting very quickly.
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