The Eagles are 4-0. The problem is—it is a team that does not look like a 4-0 team. The Eagles survived a motley, sloppy, undisciplined performance with a 34-31 overtime victory over the visiting Washington Commanders at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday.
Jake Elliott’s four field goals, his 54-yarder proving to be the game-winner, was the difference. That offset 11 Eagles’ penalties, a late taunting call that gave Washington strong field position to tie the game, a dubious decision in regulation to go for a touchdown, instead of whittling the time down for a walk-off field goal and a defense that made Commanders’ middling quarterback Sam Howell look like the next coming of Joe Montana in the first half.
The 34 points ties a season-high in this young season for the Eagles, who are the first losing Super Bowl team to begin the following season 4-0 since the 1998 Green Bay Packers, who lost in the Wild Card round to the San Francisco 49ers that season.
Jalen Hurts completed 25 of 37 for 319 yards and two touchdowns to A.J. Brown. In the second half, Hurts was 13 of 21 for 203 yards. Howell completed 29 of 41 for 290 yards and a touchdown, including five completions on the Commanders’ final drive in regulation that tied the score on the last play.
Afterward, Eagles’ coach Nick Sirianni wiped the sweat from his forehead when asked about the different ways the Eagles have won this season.
“I just want to win, and do anything we could do to do that,” Sirianni said. “It’s natural in this league to have win multiple ways. And we’ve had to, but at the end of the day, however we need to get the victory, and I’ve said this a thousand times, if we need to blitz a hundred times, if we need to pas a hundred times, whatever we have to do to win, we’ll do that that week.”
“I think you try to place your players in best positions and try to do whatever you think is right. Sometimes are we wrong, heck yeah. But we’re trying to do everything to get the ‘W’ anyway we can.”
