LANDOVER, Md. — The Eagles' defense had nary a sack.
It allowed the Redskins to go 7 for 13 on third down.
It committed seven of the Eagles' 13 penalties.
And then the kicker: It was dismantled for 230 yards rushing.
Sheesh.
In starting the season 3-0, the Eagles allowed a combined 213 yards on the ground.
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"It doesn't matter how good you are. You don't do your job, anybody can rush the ball," Malcolm Jenkins said after the Eagles' 27-20 loss to the Redskins (see Instant Replay). "We're not that good where we can just go out there and show up and just think we're going to have success because of what we've done in the past. We've got to all do our job.
"Whether that's filling the gap, tackling — it's being disciplined enough to make the plays that you're supposed to make and not go out there and try to make somebody else's plays. That's when we've been good — when everybody's been patient, held their gaps, making plays that come to them — just do that every play."
For the second straight week, the Eagles' D was roughed up in the first half (see 10 Observations). Last week the Lions ran all over the place before the Eagles shut them down in the second half. This time, however, the Redskins rushed for 126 yards in the first half and had 104 more in the second. Fifty-seven of those yards came on Matt Jones' game-sealing run with 1:27 left.
It didn't matter who ran the ball for Washington — each back found plenty of room. Jones finished with 135 yards on 16 carries, an average of 8.4 per pop. Boosted by a 45-yarder, rookie Robert Kelly averaged 11.8 per attempt, and Chris Thompson gained 4.1 per pop.
Even QB Kirk Cousins had a nine-yard run — on 3rd-and-7 no less.
"I mean they made more plays than we did," said Fletcher Cox, who wasn't credited with a tackle but for the second straight week was flagged for a costly roughing the passer penalty (see story). "I think we have to be better, and I am going to look in the mirror because I know I can be better and we as a team can be better."
It didn't help that the defense must have had flashbacks to last year when it was on the field for an eternity. In the second quarter, the Eagles' D was on the field for 13:13 of the 15 minutes. Then after halftime, the Redskins opened the third quarter with a 6:20 drive that ended with a field goal.
"It's tiring, especially when they're running the ball," Jenkins said. "It's physical. They weren't getting us with the big plays, but it's just play after play after play having to stop them. Then we had penalties — even when we did get a stop, penalties extend it. That's just a tough place to be in, a tough way to win. Most of it is our own fault."
Granted, the defense had to come right back on the field after a pair of returns for touchdowns — Wendell Smallwood's 86-yarder on a kickoff and Jenkins' 64-yard pick-6 (see standout plays).
But overall, the defense was on the field for 34:13, which may have been the norm last season, but is the longest span of any game thus far this season.
"I know we were out there a long time," Connor Barwin said. "I think that affected us to some level."
There were open gaps, missed tackles, penalties (13!), micommunications (Jenkins cited the TD pass to Vernon Davis) and as a result long pass completions. The Redskins had two runs of over 40 yards and two touchdown passes of over 20 yards. Cousins averaged 14.6 yards per completion.
"The first three weeks, that was really one of our strengths — we played very patient, very sound football and just eventually broke our opponents, and it's been the opposite of that the last two weeks. Our opponents have sat back and stayed steady, and we've beaten ourselves."
The Eagles barely put any pressure on the quarterback.
For the first time this season, they failed to record a sack. They entered the game first in the league in sacks per pass attempt (14 in 124 attempts, 11.29 percent).
They were credited with just two QB hits (the Redskins had 11).
"[Cousins] was getting the ball out, and they were running the ball on us," Barwin said. "They kind of controlled the game. It's hard to get there when they're running the ball and kind of controlling the clock."
The key to ball control is third down. The Eagles entered the game having allowed only a conversion rate of 32.5 percent on third down, fourth-best in the league.
Sunday the Redskins converted 53.8 percent.
"It's third downs. It's 100 percent third downs," Jordan Hicks said. "It's penalties here. It's mental mistakes here and there.
"If we can get off on third — and that's what we've been pretty good at in the games we've won — the times that we do get in the red zone, the times we do get backed up, they make a big play — we bend but we don't break. We come back, we stop them, get them on third down, get off the field and force a field goal. We've got to keep hammering that in. I trust this defense. I trust our guys."
Trust them to rediscover the mojo they had when they were 3-0, and quickly. Sam Bradford and the 5-0 Vikings — fresh off a bye — visit the Linc next Sunday.
"We have to move forward. We have no other choice," Hicks said. "This schedule gets aggressive — fast."
