Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Game Review – PHI 24, WAS 22

Posted September 16th, 2026 | No Comments »

The Eagles didn’t play good football in the season opener, but they did play winning football, doing just enough to get by a fired up Commanders football team. The Eagles defense was outstanding for most of the game, but got sloppy late and let Washington make it closer than it probably should have been. The Philly offense delivered big plays, but struggled to sustain drives.

Give the Eagles credit for making a couple of more plays than Washington. That proved to be the difference in the game. Week 1 is more about survival than playing high level football. These starters don’t play in the preseason anymore so the first game involves shaking off rust and getting your initial game action of the year. The Eagles survived and got their W to start 1-0.

COACHING

Nick Sirianni is now 6-0 in season openers. That’s not an accident. He doesn’t have any magical formula, but his teams do a good job of not beating themselves. The Eagles didn’t have any turnovers. They had fewer penalties and were better on third downs. They also won the explosive play battle. It wasn’t great, but it was good enough.

I thought WAS played with more urgency and was the more physical team. The Eagles won because of talent. I think one of the problems last year was the team not being physical enough. I hope this team gets their stuff together in the coming weeks. WAS defenders got by or blew up blockers all game long. This offense requires skill players to block well. That didn’t happen on Sunday. It better get fixed or the playbook will have to change.

It was hard to get a feel for Sean Mannion in this game. The OL play was sloppy and that led the Eagles to a lot of 2nd and 3rd and longs. You aren’t calling what you want in those situations. There weren’t many overly creative plays. WAS blitzed at the second highest rate in the league so that also presented a challenge for Mannion. The Eagles kept extra blockers in on a lot of pass plays. We’ll get a better feel for the new scheme over time. There was at least one notable difference.

Vic Fangio had his guys ready to play and they kept WAS under control for most of the game. There were some coverage breakdowns, especially late. Those need to be fixed. Fangio blitzed more than usual. Some coaches do that vs mobile QBs to keep them from being able to run like they usually do. the red zone defense needs work. WAS was 3 for 3. Can’t let teams convert like that.

OFFENSE

QB – Jalen Hurts had a good game. He went 14-25-203 with 3 TDs and no turnovers. He made some terrific throws and had some critical runs as well. He finished 7-46 on the ground. Hurts hit DG for a pair of TDs. Both featured good throws into traffic. He hit Wicks for a gain of 64 with a good deep ball. His best throw was a pass down the right sideline to DeVonta.

The highlight run was a 22-yard scramble on 3rd & 18. That moved the chains and kept a scoring drive alive. Good things tend to happen when Hurts runs. It was good to see him use his legs when needed. Hurts is a winner because he can make critical plays when needed. He did what was needed to lead a sputtering offense to victory.

Decision-making remains an issue Hurts needs to work on. There was a play where Lemon was wide open for an easy first down. Hurts threw to DeVonta who was well-covered. That was an incompletion. On the first TD to Goedert, Lemon was again wide open. That would have been the easier throw. There were some plays in the second half where Hurts fell into his old habit of drifting right and throwing the ball away. Let’s hope that trend doesn’t continue.

RB – Saquon Barkley once again had to deal with defenders hitting him in the backfield. Ugh. He finished 15-83, but 42 of those yards came on one run. You love the explosive play, but you need more consistent gains to build the offense around. Barkley got the most out of the room he had to work with. His pass blocking needs to be better. The low point came when rookie Sonny Styles ran over him and sacked Hurts. Barkley caught 1 pass for -3 yards.

Tank Bigsby was 1-3 as a runner. Will Shipley was 2-4. The offense only ran 53 plays so there weren’t chances for a lot of reps.

WR – DeVonta Smith was 3-53. His sideline catch was a thing of beauty.

Dontayvion Wicks finished 2-73 in his Eagles debut. He hauled in a deep ball for a gain of 64 yards. He then ran a great route to get wide open in the end zone and caught his first TD of the season. Makai Lemon caught 3 passes, but he lost 5 yards on those catches. Some will blame him. That’s not accurate. The blocking was bad. He had no chance on them. The coaches forced the ball to him on those plays. It is fair to question the wisdom of that. If they can fix the blocking, then the short plays are viable and we’ll get a better feel for what Lemon can and can’t do.

TE – Dallas Goedert had a big game, goin 4-77-2. The first TD was a good catch in traffic. The second was more impressive. He caught the ball in the middle of multiple defenders and the spun away from them before racing into the end zone. That play covered 43 yards. DG had better effort as a blocker than we saw for much of last year. Johnny Mundt did a solid job as a blocker.

OL – Not a good showing. Penalties. Sloppy blocks. Missed assignments. WAS blitzed on more than 50 percent of plays and that certainly made things tough. You also factor in a lack of game tape on a new scheme. That made it challenging to prepare. Still, the OL should have played better. Landon Dickerson wasn’t healthy and it showed. He really struggled in pass protection. He didn’t have the quickness or lateral agility to get the job done. He got some movement in the run game, but also had his share of problems on run plays. He’s now on IR. Cam Jurgens had a couple of early penalties, but I thought he was solid overall. Tyler Steen was mostly good, but he has stuff to clean up as well. Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata were sloppier than you would want from players of their caliber. Mailata did have one highlight play.

DEFENSE

DL – Strong game. Moro Ojomo was regularly disruptive, using his quickness to give WAS fits. He was credited with 4 hurries and 3 tackles. He made the defensive play of the game on the 2-pt try at the end to seal the win.

Jordan Davis was excellent against the run. He was stout in the middle. He did a good job of shedding blocks and getting the runner, finishing with 8 tackles. Jalen Carter had a mixed game. RG Sam Cosmi played really well and kept Carter under control for most of the game. Carter still made his presence felt. He had 3 tackles, 4 hurries and a FF. He did a good job of chasing Daniels when the QB tried to run. He also had a crucial extra point block that changed the game. WAS had to chase that point the rest of the game.

Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt got regular pressure on Daniels. Hunt had 3 tackles and 7 pressures. Smith was credited with 2 tackles. Arnold Ebiketie and AJ Epenesa weren’t as productive, but were solid.

While the DL played well, they didn’t have any sacks or any official QB hits. Give Daniels credit for a lot of this. He used his speed to run away from pressure multiple times. Most of those plays resulted in throwaways.

LB – Zack Baun might have been the best defensive player in the entire league in Week 1.

Baun was nothing short of sensational. He made a mistake on the first play of the game and allowed a run up the middle to go for 11 yards. That was the last mistake he made for a while. Baun was good vs inside runs, in coverage and as a blitzer. Great start to the 2026 season.

Jihaad Campbell had 9 tackles and a sack. He was good vs inside runs, being physical and tackling well. He showed good range in pursuit. He was up and down in coverage. There was one play late in the game on 3rd & long where he lost a crossing receiver and that led to a key 1st down. He got caught looking at the QB and that let the receiver get some separation.

SAF – Marcus Epps had 7 tackles despite missing part of the first quarter with a shoulder issue. He was aggressive vs the run and tackled well. Drew Mukuba was credited with just 1 tackle. Epps and Mukuba did heir job in coverage, keeping things in front of them. They only allowed one play to go for more than 17 yards (the pass Campbell gave up).

CB – Quinyon Mitchell and Riq Woolen locked down the outside. McLaurin Lane and Brown combined for 3 catches for 18 yards. Cooper DeJean didn’t have a good game.  He gave up TDs to Diggs and Williams. Diggs seemed to give him fits.

Not ideal. DeJean did have some good moments. He blitzed and got a good hit on Daniels. Coop had good coverage on a TE on a throw into the end zone. He was credited with 8 tackles.

The back seven was outstanding for most of the game. There were plenty of plays where Daniels had no one to throw to. There were some busted coverages late in the game. Most notably, the RB was wide open in the left flat on the 2-pt play at the end. The eagles got lucky that Daniels didn’t see him. The coaches will get with the LBs and DBs to go over who screwed up on the coverage mistakes.

ST

Braden Mann was the STs star. He averaged 51.6 yards per punt. 4 of his 7 punts were downed inside the 20. WAS didn’t have good field position for much of the game thanks to him .

Jake Elliott hit his only FG.

Britain Covey averaged 9.3 yards on his 4 PRs. He is quick and decisive, but his lack of speed keeps him from being a serious threat.

Shipley and Bigsby averaged 25 yards per KOR.

Darius Cooper led the team with 3 STs tackles. Jeremiah Trotter Jr had 2. The coverage units need to be better. They gave up a 19-yd PR and a 36-yd KOR.

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