If you looked on the backs of Washington Football Team defensive players Tuesday night, you'd have found tire marks from where the Philadelphia Eagles rode all over them in a 27-17 Philly win.
Washington gave up 238 rushing yards, including 131 to Miles Sanders and two Jalen Hurts rushing TDs, and allowed a whopping 519 total yards on 70 plays (7.4 yards per play average).
Washington defensive tackle Jonathan Allen spoke bluntly about the butt-kicking his unit took Tuesday night.
"I don't think we did anything well today when you give up however many yards we did today on the ground," Allen said, . "We got our a-- kicked. They were just the better team today."
Washington got rocked by COVID-19 positive tests, which forced the game from Sunday to Tuesday. The Football Team was without their top two quarterbacks, forcing Garrett Gilbert into the starting lineup four days after signing with the team. But Ron Rivera's squad did have much of its defensive line -- those not otherwise injured -- back before the game. Allen, Montez Sweat, Matthew Ioannidis, Casey Toohill and Daniel Wise were all cleared to play after being on the reserve list at some point.
Still, they couldn't slow a potent Eagles running game.
"In the NFL, you get paid to handle adversity. It is what it is," Allen said. "We can [explative] and moan about COVID, nobody cares. It really doesn't matter. If we do our job, we win the game today. We didn't do our job and we got embarrassed."
Washington isn't the only club that Philly has dominated on the ground. Tuesday marked the fifth game this season the Eagles churned out 200-plus rushing yards, which are most in the NFL.
After starting the season with Eagles fans begging Nick Sirianni to run the ball, Philly's ground-and-pound has them back in the playoff hunt.
Philly opened the season 2-5 in its first seven games, averaging 116.7 rush yards per game, 22.7 points per, and 26:06 time of possession. Since Week 8, they're 5-2, averaging 214 rush yards per tilt, 29.3 points, and 33:10 time of possession.
The Eagles have rushed for 175-plus yards in seven straight games, the first team to do so since the 1985 Chicago Bears and the first time in Philadelphia franchise history, per Eagles PR.
The cocktail of Sanders' homerun ability, Jordan Howard's penchant to plow up the middle for extra yards, and Hurts' run threat make Philly's run-game a menace for defenses. Add clobbering in an offensive line that is blowing D-lines off the ball, led by Jason Kelce, the league's best blocker in space, and the Eagles are making life miserable for opponents.
"It was unacceptable how [the Eagles] were rushing the ball," Sweat said.
The Eagles' run game made it look so easy Tuesday that despite all the Philly miscues, it never felt they were threatened, even as the game never reached more than a 10-point lead for the home team. Philadelphia's victory moved them to 7-7 and in the thick of the race for the final playoff spot in the NFC.
The loss thrust Washington into scramble-mode with three games to play. At 6-8, Washington will need a winning streak to close the season to have any shot to return to the playoffs. In two weeks, they'll host this very Eagles team that ran all over them. We'll see if Washington has a better answer on Jan. 2.
"That's what we're not going to do today [is] make excuses," Allen said. "They just played better than us. There's really not much else to say."
