Eagles film: What happened to the Birds’ secondary in the fourth quarter vs. Jayden Daniels’ Commanders?

When watching the Eagles defense at the end of the team’s 36-33 loss to the Washington Commanders, the word that comes to mind is “uncharacteristic.”

The group that ranked No. 1 in fewest points allowed before this weekend gave up three touchdown drives in the fourth quarter alone, including the game-winning series in the final seconds. And after allowing just four completions of 40 or more yards all season, Washington managed two in one half against a reeling secondary unable to find answers against Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels.

» READ MORE: The Eagles paid a painful price for their lack of discipline vs. Washington. Will they learn their lesson?

To assess how Daniels went 12-for-17 with 139 yards and three touchdowns to complete the fourth-quarter comeback, let’s look at the film:

Even when the Eagles had a comfortable lead in the first half, there were a few warning signs for what was to come from the Washington offense.

The first came when Commanders receiver Dyami Brown got past cornerback Darius Slay on a go route. The Eagles appeared to be in a match coverage that pulled C.J. Gardner-Johnson into the intermediate middle of the field, leaving Slay without a deep safety to mask him getting out of his backpedal a tick too late. It’s worth noting the Eagles came out in a five-man front and sent all five rushers on this play, something they made a habit of in their second meeting with Washington without generating meaningful pressure most of the game.

Seven plays later, Mitchell gave up an uncharacteristic explosive of his own. The rookie cornerback pocketed Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin one month ago but got caught cheating to the inside badly for a 32-yard touchdown with the veteran wideout flying by him.

» READ MORE: Darius Slay has message for Eagles fans after Commanders loss: ‘Don’t y’all worry, we’re gonna get it in’

The Eagles were in a three-deep zone coverage with Mitchell responsible for his outside third, but he overcommitted to the possibility of McLaurin breaking inside and couldn’t recover when the receiver hit top speed headed toward the pylon. After noticing Mitchell gave up outside leverage so significantly, Daniels was able to throw the pass to McLaurin high and outside to let the receiver run underneath it and away from Mitchell, who hadn’t allowed a completion of more than 30 yards since Week 4 and hadn’t given up a single touchdown catch before Sunday.

Mitchell’s allowed completion is the one that might present the bigger long-term concern. Whether the Commanders drew the play up because their coaching staff picked up on the rookie corner’s tendency to wall off the inside in Cover 3 or Daniels just made an instinctual play in the moment, teams will likely test Mitchell’s discipline as a result. Whether it’s wideouts mimicking the start of McLaurin’s route with a slight feign to the inside or a full-blown double move, Mitchell will need to adjust in order to keep the lid on things.

For what it’s worth, Mitchell has been rock solid against deep shots this season, pretty much from Day 1.

Along with the explosive plays, the Eagles secondary is likely going to spend some time ironing out the miscommunications in the red zone and the role it played in the loss.

Daniels found open receivers in the end zone for two of his five touchdown passes, including the game-winning throw to Washington wideout Jamison Crowder with just 11 seconds remaining.

ESPN’s Ben Solak did a nice job dissecting the play design from Washington offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and how it specifically attacks the match coverages Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio often calls. In short, Washington tried to put Zack Baun in conflict with two in-breaking routes, one high and low, and Daniels capitalized on two things: Baun’s reluctance to commit to staying with Crowder on the deep in-breaking route and neither of the Eagles’ two deep safeties recognizing the pattern quickly enough.

» READ MORE: Opinion: Nick Sirianni must control Jalen Carter and C.J. Gardner-Johnson; Eagles can lose the NFC East: NFL Week 16

Still, it’s the play design that leads to the score more than individual execution, and it is a route concept that future opponents are certain to take notice of, given the result.

Earlier in the fourth quarter, Washington managed to get former Eagles wideout Olamide Zaccheaus open for a 4-yard touchdown catch because of a secondary miscommunication as well. Similar to the game-winner, Washington anticipated the Eagles were in a match zone coverage and stressed the secondary’s ability to sort out intersecting routes in response. As Zaccheaus broke toward the back pylon with Tristin McCollum as the strong-side safety in place of the ejected Gardner-Johnson, linebacker Nakobe Dean seemingly tried to pass him off to McCollum, who was out of position and late to react.

The two scores weren’t the only times the Commanders seemed to have the ideal call against the coverages the Eagles were in during the fourth quarter.

Two of Daniels’ completions in the lead-up to the go-ahead touchdown are hard to place at the feet of any individual rather than the leverage the nearest defender needed to play with in the structure of the zone coverage. Worrying about getting beaten over the top, Mitchell gave up a 10-yard catch on a stop route by McLaurin early in the series, and McLaurin had another 7-yard catch two plays later, taking advantage of the space afforded to him by the Eagles’ two-high safety shell.

Unpacking the handful of snaps that went wrong for the Eagles’ secondary, the group has played well enough for most of the season to suggest Sunday’s game may have been a blip rather than a worrying trend. The red-zone miscommunications could linger, though, especially as the stakes rise and coaching staffs look to exploit any available weakness that shows up on the tape.

» READ MORE: Something or nothing? Analyzing the Eagles’ sloppy loss vs. Commanders, from not-so special teams to a shaky run game