‘Rare times’: 5 takeaways from Eagles-Commanders a day later
LANDOVER, MARYLAND - DECEMBER 20: Jalen Hurts #1 of the Philadelphia Eagles celebrates after a touchdown during an NFL football game against the Washington Commanders at Northwest Stadium on December 20, 2025 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)
The 2025 Eagles have been a rollercoaster. So many ups, downs, drama, and inconsistency. And when it is all said and done, they are NFC East champions for a second straight season, the first team to do that since 2004.
This is not the final goal; at this point, it seems to be an expectation, but it is still a major achievement and a huge step on the road to another Super Bowl.
The Eagles took down the Commanders, 29-18, in Landover on Saturday evening, securing their fifth-straight playoff spot for just the second time in franchise history in front of a crowd that was mostly Eagles fans.
This game looked a lot like how the Eagles’ season has gone: not perfect or pretty for 60 minutes, but coming out on top in the end.
Here are my five takeaways a day after the win:
1. ONCE AGAIN, JALEN Hurts did exactly what the Eagles needed him to do to win a football game. He was not fantastic by any means, but he did what he had to do.
Hurts completed 22-of-30 passes on Saturday, good for 73%, 185 yards, two touchdown passes, and no interceptions, marking a 111.1 passer rating. Since his five-turnover game against the Chargers two weeks ago, Hurts has thrown five touchdown passes, no turnovers, and has a completion percentage of 76%.
He is now only the sixth quarterback in NFL history to reach the postseason in his first five years as a full-time starter. And he is the first quarterback to clinch four consecutive playoff berths with four different offensive coordinators.
My favorite play of the day was Hurts’ touchdown pass on third down to Dallas Goedert. Third-and-goal from the 15, following a failed tush push, a false start, and a holding call on Fred Johnson, Hurts stepped up in the pocket, which was beginning to collapse, and fired a dot on the run to Goedert for his 10th touchdown of the season, tying him for the most by a tight end in Eagles history. It was a ball that only Goedert could go up and get. Hurts, knowing his personnel, delivered to his guy through a tight window.
The best part of this offense now is that the Eagles are spreading the ball around. A.J. Brown tore up the Commanders’ secondary, catching nine balls for 95 yards Saturday. DeVonta Smith also had six catches for 42 yards. Goedert had three receptions for 32 yards. Even Jahan Dotson had three-for-13. This offense, and Hurts, is at its best when everyone is getting involved.
2. THE EAGLES HAVE a run game. I repeat, the Eagles have a run game. It has taken 15 games to get going, but what better time to rev it up than before the playoffs start?
The Eagles, rather than abandoning the run game early like they were previously, are sticking with it when it is not working, and it is finding success.
Saquon Barkley had 21 rushes for 132 yards, averaging 6.3 per carry, and an incredible touchdown where he somehow stayed on his feet after being basically three-quarters of the way down. Hurts had seven rushes for 40 yards, and Tank Bigsby had four-for-37 with a late 22-yard touchdown. In total, the Eagles had 207 yards on the ground, their second 200-yard game this season.
“I guess we can call it an angry run,” Barkley said postgame on his touchdown. “I don’t know if I was necessarily angry in that moment. To be honest, I tried to make a move, I didn’t win on the move. I just kept my feet driving. The focus this week was my pad level and finishing runs. Haven’t been doing a great job of that this year, I feel like. I tried to do that this week.”
Barkley forced six missed tackles and rushed for a season-high 63 yards after missed tackles. This is the Barkley of 2024. It is starting to rejuvenate. And it also helps now that your offensive line is starting to heal up. Lane Johnson is reportedly set to return next week in Buffalo. It is only going to get better.
“A mindset this game was run like I’m 230, 235 [pounds],” Barkley said. “That’s what my coach said. There’s times when I don’t. I’ve had games where I’ve rushed for 200 yards and been more like a scat back. God blessed me with that ability. I don’t get caught up in yards after contact because there’s things we can do in a run with setting our shoulders and placing ‘backers and having a good relationship with the o-line that can create holes.”
Over the last two weeks, the Eagles have run 81 times for 390 yards, which is 4.8 yards per carry.
Do not look now, but the Eagles have a run game.
3. THE SPECIAL TEAMS may have put up the single worst performance by a specific group I have ever seen. Through 30 minutes, they fumbled the opening kickoff, missed a 43-yard field goal, made an awful decision bringing the kickoff out from the endzone, missed from 57, and missed from 52.
Now, Will Shipley‘s two mistakes were boneheaded, but Jake Elliott is really a problem, and he has been all season; it is just now really coming to light.
Elliott is 17-for-24, 70.8%, this season on field goals. He’ is six-for-nine, 66.7%, from 40-49 yards, and four-for-eight, 50%, from 50-59 yards. All of these numbers are well below the league averages, which keep rising as kickers are improving at a rapid rate this season.
In his last nine games, Elliott has missed seven field goal attempts, going 11-for-18 during that span. The worst part of it is that a lot of these misses are from the 40-49 range, which in 2025 are basically layups.
All of his misses on Saturday were just to the left and unaffected by the wind.
“No, honestly, not at all,” Elliott said when asked if the struggles were mental. “That’s kind of what’s frustrating about is I don’t feel that way at all. I kind of wish it was easier to fix.”
Elliott has been with the Eagles for nine seasons. He has two Super Bowl rings and has been money in the playoffs. But over the last few regular seasons, he has been less than satisfactory. Elliott made just 77.8% of his field goals last season, and he was just one-for-seven from 50+ yards.
“I have the utmost confidence in Jake,” Nick Sirianni said. “I think, like any team, you have ups and downs… I have the utmost confidence in him that he’ll respond, he’ll rebound from this because he’s mentally tough and a great kicker. We have utmost faith in Jake moving forward.”
4. THE DEFENSE WAS GREAT once again for the Eagles on Saturday, but Adoree’ Jackson was not. He has been impressive the last few weeks, but he was getting burned pretty badly in Landover.
Jackson, in the second quarter, got beaten by Terry McLaurin on a one-on-one, which ended with this 40-yard completion from Marcus Mariota.
Then, later in the fourth quarter, Jackson got absolutley ran through by Chris Rodriguez Jr.
Jackson got off to a really bad start this season, but turned it around as of late and has been pretty lockdown. Now, McLaurin is an elite wide receiver, but it was still a bit frightening seeing Jackson struggle like he did this week.
But, other than that, the Eagles’ defense impressed again. Until that final touchdown drive against the backups, they held the Commanders to 10 points, 178 yards, and 34 rushing yards. Cooper DeJean had an interception, Jordan Davis was bullying people, Zack Baun was everywhere, Brandon Graham got another sack, and Jalen Carter is coming back next week.
It will be very intriguing to see how this group fairs against Josh Allen and the Bills next week. It will be a big test, especially since these last two offenses have been horrible.
5. TAKE A MOMENT and appreciate that we are witnessing the greatest era of Eagles football ever.
The Eagles were always a losing franchise. The franchise had a 58-year championship drought, and having a winning record used to be an achievement.
The Eagles had five years from 2000 to 2004 with Andy Reid, but it only led to one Super Bowl appearance. After 2017, things went downhill with Doug Pederson and that group.
Now, from 2021-2025, Sirianni has been the head of the golden age of Eagles football.
“It’s hard. It’s hard to do this,” Sirianni said. “Obviously, in this division, we’ve seen the data says it’s hard to repeat as winners in this division. We’re happy about that. We’ll celebrate it. Got a lot to clean up and then we have a lot more goals on our mind.”
Sirianni is one of three Super Bowl era head coaches to make the playoffs five times and win three division championships in their first five career seasons. The others who did so are Bill Cowher and Chuck Knox. Among them, Sirianni is the only one to win a Super Bowl in their first five years.
Sirianni, in five years as the Eagles’ head coach, has a 58-25 (.699) regular season record, 6-3 (.667) playoff record, five playoff appearances, three NFC East titles, two NFC Titles, and a Super Bowl. And all he and his teams do is keep the main thing the main thing.
“Everyone is vying to get into the playoffs to do what the ultimate goal is,” Sirianni said. “We’re excited to be there. This division has had so much parity in it throughout the years. To be able to be a back-to-back winner and get ourselves into the playoffs, obviously, our goals are much higher. We’ve raised the expectations of what we expect. We’re pumped to get in but we’ve got more work to do. We’ll go back to work. We’ll celebrate this tonight. Players will be off tomorrow, coaches will be in and we’ll get back to work and try to improve from this game.”
It is a special time to be an Eagles fan. Never once has a team in franchise history been able to do what they are doing over the last five years.
How many teams in Philadelphia sports have done something like this? The old Philadelphia Athletics in the 1910s-20s? The Flyers in the 70s? The Phillies in the late 70s-early 80s, and again in the last 2000s-early 10s? Not many.
This is special. We should be very grateful.
“These times, they’re rare times,” Hurts said. “So something that we all need to soak in and relish in this moment right now. Take it a day at a time, as we always have, but keep the main thing the main thing. That’s what we’ve done. for five years since everybody’s collectively been here.
“It’s been my approach since I’ve been in Eagle. And I think as a team, you know, just the caliber of guys that we’ve been able to get with the mentality that where they come from and their backgrounds and defensively, the vibe that they have and that continuity that they have, everything kind of coming together. We just want to continue to improve…
“There’s always joy found in winning collectively, truly embracing that. And when guys put the team first, that’s when things are truly fun. And you think about all the guys that are on board and come into the team, every team changes every year. And not everyone experiences the same things, because they’re not here.
“It always changes. My point is, as a leader, as a quarterback, you want everybody to experience that level of winning, which is a first step for us.”
Benjamin Goldstein
Benjamin has been covering Philly Sports for Philly Sports Reports since 2017. He is a podcaster, writer, and founder of Philly Sports Reports. Benjamin is also an intern at the WBCB Sports Network on 1490AM. Through Philly Sports Reports, Benjamin has gotten the opportunity to meet Phillies owner John Middleton in his suite and be honored as the Philadelphia sports fan of the week for KYW News Radio. He hopes to be reporting on Philly sports as a full-time job in the future.
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