DeVonta Smith's career day highlights Commanders' secondary issues originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
This past week, Washington Commanders' head coach Ron Rivera said the club's Week 2, 36-27 loss to the Detroit Lions was a difference of five or six explosive plays.
One week later, it was the same story. The Commanders' defense struggled, once again, to contain big plays, highlighted by DeVonta Smith's career day in the Philadelphia Eagles' 24-8 victory over Washington at FedEx Field on Sunday.
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At first, the Commanders' defense held strong; Washington forced punts on the Eagles' first two possessions. However, the Burgundy and Gold offense was just as ineffective early on and unable to capitalize, punting the football right back to the visitors.
It was only a matter of time before Jalen Hurts and the Eagles' offense found a rhythm, though. On Philadelphia's third offensive possession, Hurts connected with Smith on a 45-yard pass down the right sideline, setting up the Eagles with a prime scoring opportunity. Four plays later, Jake Elliott knocked through a field goal.
On the ensuing possession, a Carson Wentz fumble set up Philadelphia once again deep in Washington territory, just outside the red zone. On the second play of the drive, Hurts found Dallas Goedert on a screen pass; the tight end made multiple Commanders defenders miss en route to a 23-yard touchdown.
After Washington's offense punted once more, the Commanders' bend-but-not-break defense forced a turnover on downs on the Eagles' next offensive drive. But another Washington punt followed, which was then answered by an eight-play, 64-yard touchdown drive by the guys in green.
But perhaps the most eye-popping, this-simply-can't-happen Commanders defensive series came right before the halftime break. Philadelphia, already up 17, took over on its own 12-yard line with just under two minutes to play. Six plays and roughly a minute later, the Eagles offense was right back at midfield, moving the ball with ease.
Then, with just 37 seconds remaining in the half, Hurts uncorked a deep shot to Smith. The second-year receiver outleaped two Commanders defenders in double coverage and hauled in the pass at the one-yard line -- another explosive play allowed by Jack Del Rio's unit.
“As a receiver, that is what it comes down to. 50-50 balls, you gotta win it," Smith said postgame. "The trust that Jalen has in our receivers, it's our ball [or] nobody’s ball. Just being there with him, just being able to make sure that if we don’t come down with it, nobody comes down with it.”
Well, it was Smith's ball, alright.
Two plays later, Hurts found Smith, once again, in the back of the end zone as time expired in the second quarter. The FedEx Field crowd -- one that was filled with Eagles' green -- was buzzing. The home fans? Silent, or booing.
To make matters worse, Smith said postgame the touchdown play wasn't even in the game plan -- the Eagles just called it on the fly. Kendall Fuller, who was in coverage on both Smith receptions at the end of the half, took responsibility for allowing both completions.
"All 11 [players] have to be on one page and the biggest thing is not giving up explosives," Fuller said. "I gave up two that both led to points, so that’s something we have to get better at and I have to get better at.”
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As Smith returned to the sideline following his touchdown catch, the Eagles receivers unit placed a Batman cape on his back -- one A.J. Brown said he purchased on Amazon for $9.99. At that point, the game was effectively over.
"He’s a great player, all-around player. Slim reaper," Hurts said on Smith. "By the eyes, he may be a little sly, but he plays like a big boy and he is. He is a grown man.”
Smith entered halftime with a career-high 156 receiving yards. He could've finished with a lot more, had the Eagles not taken their foot off the gas pedal in the second half. Philadelphia's defense continued to play lights out over the final 30 minutes, as the Commanders were never truly able to make it close.
In total, the Eagles recorded six plays of 20-plus yards in the contest. Three of those went for 40 or more yards. Any talk of Washington's inability to prevent explosive plays being a one-off in Detroit can be put to rest. It's a legit issue with this defense and one that needs to be fixed immediately.
Postgame, the overall feeling in Washington's locker room was a sense of disappointment, but not panic. Yes, the players obviously wished Sunday's game went a lot better. Yet, they were quick to remind the media present that there still are 14 games left in the season. In other words, they believe there's a lot of time to turn their current struggles around.
“I'm not too frustrated about [being 1-2] because as I said earlier, we got 14 games left," Rivera said. "We have plenty of time. We will run out of time if we don’t fix the things that are wrong.”
"We have a long season in front of us," running back Antonio Gibson said. "We write about our future. Still have a long season.”
The mistakes aren't going to fix themselves, though. And, just because the Commanders' defense knows where it's struggling, it doesn't mean changes are imminent.
“We are going to put our head down and work," defensive tackle Jon Allen said. "No expectations, nothing but standards. We are going to work and see what happens."
For the Commanders' sake, hopefully they're able to make some changes before it's too late.
