A green and black FedEx field was joyous and loud as an easily partisan Philadelphia Eagles crowd celebrated a victory over the Washington Redskins, 24-0. As the social media calls for the jobs of President Bruce Allen and Head Coach Jay Gruden grow, the on field product on Sunday looked like a team that was resigned to the fate of being the co stars in an Eagles celebration.
The Redskins were dominated in every facet of this game. The offense was only on the field for 16 minutes total, and totaled just 89 yards of offense. The Eagles defensive line lived in the Redskins backfield and kept Adrian Peterson from gaining a single positive yard on four carries. The Redskins only totaled 21 yards rushing total and most of that was garbage time at the end of the game. The makeshift offensive line had no chance, which in turn gave Josh Johnson no chance.
The Redskins defense held for awhile against the Eagles offense. The backbreaker for them however was a 19 play, 87 yard, 11:49 minute touchdown, that took the majority of the second quarter. On that drive alone the Eagles converted three third downs and a another fourth down, to effectively wear out the defense. There was 30 seconds remaining in the half after that drive and the Eagles got the ball to start the second half. Making matters worse, Eagles quarterback Nick Foles tied the NFL record for consecutive completions with 25 in this game. The defense was always a step late or a step behind on Sunday.
There were few answers after the game was over. Coach Jay Gruden said that his team competed until the end and that they, and himself could not be accurately judged off of that game. Cornerback Josh Norman said more bluntly, ” we got man handled.” Running Back Adrian Peterson told the team that the must attack the offseason. When asked about it Peterson said,” Championship, you goal must be championship and everything falls under that.”
After Sunday’s game championship seems like it is light years away for the Redskins. On the field against them was the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles, executing in a must win situation. Up interstate 95 the Baltimore Ravens won a must win game to clinch a division championship. Further up 95, the Dallas Cowboys won a meaningless game against the New York Giants having already won the NFC East Championship. The teams all around the Redskins are winning championships and the gulf between the Redskins and those other teams seems to be growing, as the Redskins stay mired in the mud known as mediocrity.
