By: Kylan Watson

The Philadelphia Eagles have had it working throughout the first two weeks of the season. They faced the Washington Commanders who were trying to take full advantage of an Eagles team coming off a short week. Washington could not execute their game-plan, as the vaunted Philly defensive line showed up today. Sacking Carson Wentz nine times and forcing two fumbles and one interception.  That allowed the Eagles to roll, beating the Commanders 24-to-eight.

On the offensive side the Eagles started out very flat. They punted on their first couple of drives and were not able to really get rolling until a fumble was forced by Brandon Graham. That gave the Eagles a shortened field to work with and Jalen Hurts found Dallas Goedert for his first of three passing touchdowns in this contest. He had it working throughout the first half. Hurts found his receivers in favorable matchups and was throwing the ball into tight windows. He completed 21/34 passes for 331 yards and once again took full advantage of his weapons. He made a perfect throw to Devonta Smith (eight receptions, 169 yards and one touchdown) who was double covered, late in the second quarter to put the Eagles at the goal-line. He then connected with him for Philly’s last touchdown score of the game. This is the third straight game that Hurts has showed his offensive maturity, if he continues to throw receivers open. The Eagles will not just be one of the best teams in the NFC but probably in the whole league.

The Washington Commanders did not have it working throughout this game. Thanks to defensive pressure from the Eagles defensive line. Carson Wentz could not get comfortable throughout this game. As he had defenders in his face all the time. The pressure allowed the Eagles to sack him nine times which is a career high for Wentz. Philly’s defensive line only had three sacks throughout their first two games. Today was their most dominant day of the young season. Philly will need their defensive line to continue to be dominant if they want to make it to the playoffs.

On the start for the defensive line, “I mean the first drive was for us… the d-line we talked about just starting fast. I think when we start fast.  You know everybody else just feeds off it. That was the message all week just keep the edge and start fast,” said Eagles Nose Tackle Fletcher Cox.

Philadelphia will be looking for their fourth victory of the season as they prepare to face former coach Doug Pederson and the Jacksonville Jaguars next week. They will need to have another dominant day in all phases of the game if they want to beat the Jags and stop Trevor Lawrence and a much-improved Jags offensive unit.

On the defensive performance in today’s game, “They played their tails off. They were awesome. … We thought they could get after them a little bit and they did. That’s the strength of our team. … So that’s what you want in division games. You want the strength of your team to go out there and play like they did right there, and man it was a full team effort there. Full defensive line. It wasn’t just one guy it was all the guys that really got after it, and it was a fun game to watch,” said Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni.