Hogs Haven
In a first half defined largely by special teams play by both teams (Washington good; Philadelphia bad), the Commanders held a 10-7 lead at halftime.
Starting Commanders QB Marcus Mariota was injured when his right hand was stepped on in the second half. Third-string QB Josh Johnson couldn’t move the offense, and the Eagles slowly took over the game, finishing with the win by a score of 29-18.
The game started perfectly for the Commanders when Mike Sainristil forced a fumble on the kickoff. Rookie Kain Medrano made the recovery.
WASHINGTON FOOTBALL at the PHI 26-yard line to open the game.
Commanders
Chris Rodriguez is back as the starting running back. A short run by CRod followed by a pass to Terry earned the game’s initial first down.
Two more CRod runs — one inside and one around the right end — get the Commanders to 1st & goal at the 5-yard line.
Kliff stuck with Rodriguez on first down. Play action on 2nd down resulted in a throwaway by Marcus Mariota. On 3rd & goal from the 2-yard line, with McNichols in at RB, Mariota missed Trey Burks in the back of the end zone.
Jake Moody came out to kick the chip shot field goal to give Washington the 3-0 lead. Good, but not as good as it could have been with at least one more Chris Rodriguez run.
Eagles
The Eagles first drive begins at the 32-yard line.
Jacob Martin opens up the defensive effort by tackling Saquon Barkley at the line of scrimmage on first down. After a short scramble by Hurts under pressure, on 3rd & 7, Davontae Smith was stopped short of the line to gain by a great tackle by Mikey Sainristil.
Sirianni kept his offense on the field for 4th & 1 at the PHI 41-yard line. On the 4th down play, from the shotgun, they let the play clock run to zero. After the delay of game penalty, the Eagles punted. 3 & out on their first offensive drive!
Commanders
Jaylin Lane was tackled at the 15-yard line where he caught the ball — a nice tackle by Syndey Brown. The Commanders face 85 yards of green grass to expand their early lead.
CRod is still on the field; we haven’t seen Bill Croskey-Merritt yet. After a good run by CRod on 2nd down, on 3rd & 4 at the 22 yard line, working from shotgun with an empty backfield, Mariota completes pass to McLaurin, who was laying on the grass after slipping on his route — when things are good, they are very good.
McNichols took the first down handoff for 3 yards, and then a checkdown pass for another 3 yards. On 3rd & 4, again from an empty set, Mariota found Trey Burks in the middle of the field for 16 yards, but the play was negated by a holding call against Brandon Coleman, playing at left tackle. It looked...
