Sportsnaut
NFL Week 16 kicked off early with a fantastic Thursday Night Football matchup. Fans didn’t have to wait long for more football, with Saturday delivering a two-game slate that was led off by the Philadelphia Eagles versus the Washington Commanders.
Let’s dive into the winners and losers from the Eagles vs Commanders game, with Philadelphia winning convincingly thanks to a second-half takeover.
While A.J. Brown had a relatively quiet performance a week ago versus the Las Vegas Raiders, that had more to do with it being a blowout. Jalen Hurts has gotten his No. 1 receiver more involved in the last few weeks, as evidenced by his 383 receiving yards and four touchdowns in the last four games. Brown continued to shine in Week 16, eclipsing 95 receiving yards and drawing double-digit targets for the fourth time in the last five games. Now, Philadelphia does still have a 2-3 record during that stretch, but this does not look like a team with any intention of trading its top pass-catcher this offseason.
It is shaping up to be a bad weekend for kickers. In college football, we witnessed some abysmal kicking by Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Miami in the College Football Playoff. Jake Elliott at least made his fellow kickers at the collegiate level feel like they have company in the NFL. Elliott went wide left from 43 yards out on his first field-goal attempt in the second quarter. When a shot at redemption came, well, at least he was consistent. After missing wide on a 57-yard field-goal attempt before the half, Elliott got bailed out by a penalty to give him a second chance from 52 yards away. He kicked it to the exact same spot, with the football hooking left and going wide of the post by several feet.
Related: Week 16 Fantasy Kicker Rankings
It is shaping up to be an interesting stretch for the Philadelphia Eagles. The return of 44-year-old quarterback Philip Rivers might be slightly overshadowing Brandon Graham coming out of retirement, but Graham is still producing at 37 years old. With Jalen Carter sidelined, Philadelphia has called upon Graham to provide some pass-rushing juice on the interior, and he has made quite the impact as of late. Coming off a two-sack performance versus Las Vegas, Graham delivered his third sack of the season on Saturday night. While he did not start seeing the field until the second week of November, Graham has a shot at recording his highest sack total since the 2022 season. Not bad for someone who was enjoying retirement when the season kicked off.
Read More: NFL Defense Rankings 2025, Weekly Defensive Evaluations
Neither the fan base nor the organization should be elated about how the Eagles offense performed on Saturday. Consider that the Commanders defense entered Week 16 allowing a 6.2 yards-per-play...
