Eagles pulling out Commanders’ hearts in a battle of ‘Thursday Night Football’ attrition is the mark of a really good team

The Eagles couldn’t have played more hungover if they’d spent Wednesday night on South Street. The Washington Commanders smelled even worse.

The two best teams in the NFC East provided three hours of mostly somnambulant play in a short-week display of why Thursday Night Football is a crime against nature. The Eagles had a road game Sunday in Dallas, with a three-hour flight that landed them back in town after midnight. The Commanders on Sunday lost a grueling game at home, by one point, to the Steelers, then had to be in Philly by Wednesday evening.

The game Thursday finished 26-18, and Saquon Barkley had two big touchdown runs, but the first three quarters were uglier than the Commanders’ helmets.

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Lane Johnson, 34, is the second-oldest Eagle. He saw it coming.

“I didn’t want an emotional Dallas win to be a lasting focus for us,” Johnson said. “It kind of showed up in the first half.”

They’re only human.

“I was talking today. I was tired,” said 36-year-old Brandon Graham, the oldest Eagle. Did fatigue affect the game’s aesthetic? ”I think so.”

Football players thrive on habit, and their habits got disrupted.

“Thursday games are difficult for everybody in the league,” Johnson said. “Short turnaround. Usually you have a third-down day, a four-minute day, and a goal-line day. You had to jumble them into one [this week].”

Still, they persisted.

As they did in 2017.

As they did in 2022.

As they did when they went to their most recent Super Bowls.

“There’s different points in a season you can say are catalysts. Certain wins can give you confidence,” Johnson said. “This is one of them.”

This win means something.

It means that the Eagles, now 8-2 and on top of the division, can win without their fastball.

It means they can beat a good team: The Commanders were 7-3.

It means they have real momentum; six straight wins, with every starter healthy, and nine days off before they travel to play the Rams.

Both teams were flatter than Jason Kelce on the Eagles’ annual Christmas album. The Commanders were the No. 4 scoring offense and the Eagles were No. 7, but they’d combined for 16 points through almost 48 minutes of play.

Jalen Hurts was about as sharp as Nick Sirianni’s enunciation. His passer rating in the last five games was 126.1. It was 88.5 on Thursday.

Eagles kicker Jake Elliott missed to the left like he was the Democratic Party. Elliott pulled his first two kicks, from 44 yards in the first quarter and 51 yards in the second, and pulled an extra point in the fourth. He nailed two other field goals and two extra points, but $6 million kickers are supposed to connect at better than 57%.

» READ MORE: How Lane Johnson became Jalen Carter’s unlikely mentor on the Eagles

With the exceptions of Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter, Graham, Commanders running back Austin Ekeler, and, of course, Barkley, both teams looked bushed almost all night. Little wonder, then, it was little-used little Kenneth Gainwell who carried the club on the fourth-quarter go-ahead drive. He gained 34 yards on three consecutive runs that set up Hurts’ Tush Push TD that made it 12-10 with 12 minutes to play.

Inexplicably, at the end of their next possession the Commanders declined the chance to take the lead, midway though the fourth quarter, when they opted to try a fourth-and-2 play instead of a 43-yard field goal. Reed Blankenship ran down quarterback Jayden Daniels before Zack Baun blasted him out of bounds, well short of the first-down marker.

Even more inexplicably, early in the second quarter, the Eagles suffered a 13-yard sack on a reverse that demanded two handoffs, long blocking, and competence — in short, it demanded lots of practice. Why would you even try a play like that raggedy reverse in a week in which you had zero days of full-speed practices?

Maybe the coaches were tired, too.

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Even some of the best plays looked sloppy. Dallas Goedert caught a 32-yard pass but had the ball punched out as he was tackled (Grant Calcaterra recovered it).

Two plays later, on third-and-3 from the Commanders’ 23, the visitors collapsed. Barkley romped for a touchdown, and none of the Commanders could muster the energy to catch him.

Blankenship intercepted Daniels on the Commanders’ next offensive play, just the third pick in the rookie’s first run through the league.

Barkley soon blitzed the Commanders again, this time from 39 yards, and it was pretty much over.

Thankfully.