PHILADELPHIA – The receiving line looked like that of a funeral, and it essentially was – with Washington Commanders minority owners Mark Ein and Mitchell Rales, followed by managing partner and owner Josh Harris and general manager Adam Peters – hugging every player and staffer as they entered the visitor’s locker room. Sometimes they offered a word of encouragement. In other instances, it was simply a look following the team’s 55-23 loss at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC championship game Sunday.
“We’ll be back,” said wide receiver Terry McLaurin, who has experienced the franchise’s evolution from dysfunctional during ex-owner Dan Snyder’s reign to within one game of the Super Bowl. “We’ll be back. Most definitely.”
But McLaurin and everybody else – from the owners to the coaches to his teammates – knows they have to clean it up to give themselves a chance on one of the game’s biggest stages. Washington turned the ball over four times and didn’t force one themselves, and the minus-four differential contributed to the 32-point defeat.
“One hundred percent credit to them for capitalizing on the mistakes we had,” McLaurin said. “They were better than us.”
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Part of the culture change head coach Dan Quinn instilled this season, his first in Washington, centered on the idea that “it’s always going to be about the ball,” McLaurin said.
“We didn’t do a great job of protecting the football today,” he said, referencing Washington’s three fumbles. “And we didn’t create any turnovers.”
Equally destructive were a pair of personal-foul penalties at the end of the first half, as the Eagles extended their lead from 14-12 to 27-12 in 65 seconds between the two-minute warning and halftime.
Following Jalen Hurts’ first of three rushing touchdowns, Washington cornerback Marshon Lattimore – two weeks removed from the latest chapter in his feud with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Mike Evans – was going at it with Eagles wideout A.J. Brown. Officials hit him with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that allowed Philadelphia to try a two-point conversion (which was ultimately unsuccessful). The dust-up prompted members from both benches to enter the field in an attempt to prevent any escalation.
In the locker room after the game, Lattimore wasn’t much interested in telling his side of what went down with Brown.
“It is what it is,” he said, adding: “We know we got to keep our heads up. We went out there and gave it our all.”
But Washington’s unraveling continued on the Eagles’ next drive. Jeremy McNichols fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Eagles recovered at the Washington 24-yard line. A holding penalty backed Philadelphia up, however, and Hurts had to check down a third-down pass to Saquon Barkley. Rookie cornerback Mike Sainiristil was coming in hard, though, and decked Barkley as the running back stepped out of bounds – giving the Eagles another first down.
“It’s the game of football. Split-decision call that the refs have to make, so they hit me with the unnecessary roughness,” Sainristil said. “I just gotta be smarter in the situation – third down, get off the field, can’t make that hit on the sideline.”
Three plays after Sainristil’s penalty, Hurts darted 9 yards for another touchdown.
Pre-snap penalties can be dealt with, linebacker Frankie Luvu said. Penalties that come after the snap are unacceptable. In all, Washington was flagged nine times for 47 yards.
“We can’t hurt ourselves. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot,” Luvu said. “Special games like this we just got to be poised, so we just came up short, and that was that.”
Said defensive lineman Jonathan Allen: “In a game like this, everything affects it – turnovers, us not being able to get off the ball, not getting off the field on third down and fourth down. The penalties are just unfortunate on our part. So, we didn’t help ourselves.”
The Commanders’ first fumble came on their second offensive possession when receiver Dyami Brown, while fighting for extra yards, had the ball punched out by Eagles linebacker Zack Baun as cornerback Cooper DeJean held him up. Two minutes later, Barkley had his second rushing touchdown of the game, and the Eagles led 14-3 with just seven plays from scrimmage.
“I mean, I’m gonna have to watch the film on that, but turnovers, can’t have that,” center Tyler Biadasz said.
The offense wasn’t “quite firing on all cylinders” right tackle Andrew Wylie said. The turnovers were costly.
“But that’s just ball,” he said.
With the Commanders trailing by 11 points in the third quarter and driving again, quarterback Jayden Daniels found running back Austin Ekeler for a short pass. Ekeler went to the ground during the catch but rose before being touched, and when Eagles linebacker Oren Burks met him, he punched the ball out. Baun fell on it, and the Commanders had lost their third fumble of the game.
McLaurin said the Commanders knew the Eagles thrived off turnovers. Giving the Eagles extra possessions is never a good idea, Daniels said.
“Turnovers play a huge factor in a game,” said Daniels, who threw a late interception in the end zone with his team in desperation mode, “especially playing a good team like Philly.”
The calling card of the Commanders during their seven-game winning streak that ended Sunday was complementary football – the offense elevating the defense and vice versa. That didn’t happen against Philadelphia, said Quinn, who credited Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio for creating a plan that emphasized the ball.
“You have to create some (turnovers) too,” head coach Dan Quinn said. “And so, we’ll give Philadelphia credit, you know, like, they caused them. It wasn’t like a fumbled snap or something that was reckless in that way. They caused them.
“It was something we talked about a lot, winning the turnover margin in this game. Over seven weeks, we’ve been pretty complementary in that spot. And this was our first time not doing that.”
For the Commanders, it was also the wrong time.