Eagles defense puts NFL on notice after stifling Jayden Daniels, Commanders on TNF

The Philadelphia Eagles entered Thursday Night Football this week looking like a sleeping giant. They left it as one of hottest and most feared teams in the NFL.

Saquon Barkley broke the game open with a pair of electric touchdown runs in the fourth quarter, but Philly’s offense wasn’t the story on Thursday night. The story was a defense that completely stifled yet another opponent in a 26-18 statement win over the Washington Commanders at the Linc.

The Eagles (8-2) won their sixth straight game. Over that stretch, the defense has piled up an astounding 22 sacks and 11 takeaways, while allowing just 67 total points to opposing offenses (11.2 per game).

The turning point came with 8:01 remaining in regulation and the Eagles clinging to a 12-10 lead. On fourth-and-2 from the Philly 26, Commanders head coach Dan Quinn decided against a go-ahead field goal attempt with backup kicker Zane Gonzalez, and put the ball in the hands of his star rookie quarterback. 

The play was doomed from the start. Jayden Daniels bobbled the snap, tucked and carried toward the right sideline, where he got blasted at the line of scrimmage by linebacker Zack Baun for no gain.

Would love nothing more than Zack Baun to become the first player to ever get a contract extension in the middle of a gamepic.twitter.com/wv04nPrDcs

Baun, now in desperate need of a pay raise as one of the top inside linebackers in the NFL, led the Eagles with 15 total tackles. Safety Reed Blankenship effectively ended the game with a fourth quarter interception. Rookie Quinyon Mitchell, once again, was one of the best players on the field, hounding star wide receiver Terry McLaurin to the point where the Commanders tried to hide him on the sideline and create matchups with any other player.

Entering Thursday night, the national media had yet to take this Eagles team seriously. Most pundits kept Philly outside the top five of NFL power rankings. Some called out a soft stretch of opponents, or lamented how head coach Nick Sirianni can’t be trusted.

The reality is the Eagles are rolling behind a dominant offensive line and run game — they rushed for 228 yards and three scores on Thursday night — and the hottest defense in football.

If the rest of the league wasn’t already on notice, it is now.

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