Thursday Night Football: Eagles take firm control of NFC East with 26-18 win over Commanders

The Eagles scored 23 consecutive points in the second half Thursday night before Commanders tight end Zach Ertz scored a late touchdown and two-point conversion against his former team. Philadelphia won 26-18 despite three missed kicks from Jake Elliott.

With its sixth consecutive win, Philadelphia (8-2) now leads the NFC East by a 11/2 games over the Commanders (7-4). The teams play again on Dec. 22.

The Eagles outgained the Commanders 434 to 264, including 228 rushing yards by Philadelphia, but Elliott missed field goals of 44 and 51 yards and an extra point. All three were wide left. He made a 31-yarder.

Jalen Hurts’ 1-yard touchdown run gave the Eagles their first lead at 12-10 with 12:00 left.

Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels looked like the rookie he is as he battled through a rib injury, and the interception he threw to safety Reed Blankenship allowed Saquon Barkley to score two touchdowns in 20 seconds in the fourth quarter. Barkley’s 23-yard touchdown run with 4:58 left iced it, and his 39-yard touchdown run with 4:38 remaining provided the exclamation point.

Barkley, who had 56 yards in the first half, finished with 146 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries. He also caught two passes for 52 yards.

Hurts was 18-of-28 for 221 yards and ran for 40 yards on nine carries.

The Commanders could have taken the lead midway through the fourth quarter. But after not picking up the first down on Brian Robinson’s runs on second-and-1 and third-and-1 from the Philadelphia 25, Washington chose to bypass the go-ahead field goal on fourth down. Instead of being up 13-12 with a successful Zane Gonzalez kick, Daniels was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-2 by Zack Baun and Blankenship.

During the team’s six-game win streak, the Eagles defense has allowed only six touchdowns.

Ertz’s touchdown came with 28 seconds remaining as the Commanders took too much time on their 15-play, 70-yard drive, burning up 4:10. They did get a chance at an onside kick, but Dallas Goedert recovered for the Eagles.

Daniels was 22-of-32 for 191 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Running back Austin Ekeler caught eight passes for 89 yards as the Eagles locked down the Commanders’ wideouts. Terry McLaurin had only one catch for 10 yards and that came in the fourth quarter.