With the season on the line, Eagles safety Rodney McLeod intercepted a pass into the end zone by Washington Football Team quarterback, Taylor Heinicke and the interception helped the Eagles lockdown a 20 to 16 victory. It was a great interception by McLeod, as he got his left hand under the football on an overthrow by Heinicke. The interception ended an end of the game drive by Washington which had taken them down inside and that was the key to him catching it.
The win puts the Eagles in a better position to make the playoffs. They still need help, but there’s good chance they could clinch a playoff spot on Sunday night with Green Bay beating the Minnesota Vikings.
Again the Eagles started out very slowly, much like they have done the last two weeks in victories over Washington and the New York Giants. Washington went into halftime with a 10-0 lead after their offense had totally outplayed the Eagles defense by moving the football up and down the field. Heinicke was having tremendous success versus the Birds zone coverages, which the Birds were playing.
The Birds were scoreless despite having put together a couple of long drives in the first half. One drive ended with Washington stopping Jordan Howard on fourth down on an inside run attempt and the other drive ended on a missed field goal attempt by Eagles kicker Jake Elliott.
Nick Sirianni’s football team took over the game after halftime. They were able to put together long scoring drives with Jalen Hurts connecting on pass plays to tight end Dallas Goedert (six catches 71 yards) and wide receiver DeVonta Smith (three catches for 54 yards) and scrambling for key first down.
It was the little guy, running back Boston Scott, who was taking the place of the injured Miles Sanders and he came up big for the Birds. He scored the team’s two touchdowns on fourth down plays in order to put the Eagles in position to win the game. He carried the ball 14 times for 47 yards and also caught four passes for 39 yards.
Still the Eagles have got to find a way to remedy the slow starts. It’s a bad play here or a bad play there that stops their drives, early in the games. All in all, they found a way and put together those major scoring drives in the second half in order to win the football game.
The Eagles got some big games from their defense and the guy leading the way was defensive end Josh Sweat, who had one and a half sacks. Sweat also deflected two or three passes, as the Birds defense took over the game in the second half. I thought defensive tackles Fletcher Cox, who shared in one of sacks and
Defensive end/linebacker Genard Avery who got his first quarterback sack of the season, when he sacked Heinicke on a key third down play in the second half. Avery made a number of key tackles in the second half.
