NFC Championship – Commanders at Eagles game recap: 3rd quarter summary – another fumble; Eagles lead 34-23

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Third Quarter

The second half began with Washington kicking off to the Eagles, who started the initial drive of the second half at the 31-yard line. Gainwell was shaken up on the play when Colson Yankoff was blocked into him on the return.

The Eagles made a change at center, putting Cam Jurgens in for Landon Dickerson and Steen stepping on for Dickerson.

Washington’s defense has to get a stop here.

The Eagles lost 9 yards on two plays, as scramble out of bounds followed by a sack by Dorance Armstong for a 7-yard loss to bring up 3rd & 19 at the 22-yard line.

Goedert could get only 9 yards. Three & out; the Eagles send out the punter. Great job by Washington’s defense to force the first actual punt of the game.

Washington’s first drive of the half starts at their own 26-yard line.

A sack by the Eagles on 2nd down forced 3rd & 20 and Tress Way ended up punting for the first time in the game to give the Eagles good field position at their own 42-yard line.

The teams have opened the half by trading 3 & outs, which is not what the Commanders need.

Things didn’t get better, with AJ Brown catching a 16 yard pass on a stop route on the right sideline vs Sainristil.

Goedert caught two passes, the second one when he was wide open down the left sideline for 26 yards, to earn 1st & goal at the 9-yard line.

On the next play, Hurts scored a touchdown on a called run to put the Eagles over 30 points. Following the PAT, the score was 34-15. The drive covered 58 yards in just 4 plays.

Facing a 19- point deficit, the Commanders will need to play a more flawless version of football in the final 24 minutes of the game. They can’t keep letting the Eagles score touchdowns.

Washington started the next offensive drive at the 30-yard line after the touchback.

The offensive drive started quickly with a 12-yard completion to Dyami Brown, followed by a 6-yard run to the 48-yard line by Brian Robinson. Eagles fans held their collective breaths as start DT Jalen Carter was shaken up on the play, but it didn’t seem to be serious.

Ertz went for 21 yards on the next play, giving the Commanders 1st & 10 at the Eagles’ 31-yard line, and then the team earned another first down on the following two plays.

On 1st & 10 from the 19-yard line, Daniels scrambled for 7 yards, and then Robinson ran for 2 to bring up 3rd & 1 at the Philly 10. It seems sure that the offense has two plays to earn this yard.

On 3rd down, Daniels went to his right, stopped, juked, and ran right up the middle for a touchdown!

Dan Quinn called for another 2-point attempt. Daniels faked a handoff, faked a quick keeper, kept his feet moving, and found Zaccheaus in the end zone for a successful conversion to cut the deficit to 11 points at 34-23.

With 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, Washington’s defense will need to step up with another stop.

The Eagles open up the next drive at the 31-yard line; the tv broadcast announced that Kenneth Gainwell is out with a concussion, so the Eagles will have to depend on Barkley the rest of the way.

The Washington defense swarmed Jalen Hurts on 2nd down, but the QB managed to ditch the ball out of bounds with Clelin Ferrell draped on him to bring up 3rd & 5, which the Eagles converted with a completion for 11 yards to DeVonta Smith.

Three plays later, the Eagles faced 3rd & 5 at the Washington 37-yard line. The Commanders defense need to get a big stop here.

A run blitz by Frankie Luvu right up the middle was just what the doctor ordered, tackling Barkley for a 3-yard loss just as he took the handoff.

It looked like the Eagles special teams unit did a great job to down the punt inside the 5-yard line, but officials ruled it a touchback, and the Commanders got the ball at the 20-yard line.

A pass to Zach Ertz in the middle of the field for 16 yards got the drive off to a good start, but the next pass was tipped at the line and incomplete and then Ertz couldn’t pull in the pass on 2nd down.

On 3rd & 10 at the 36-yard line, Daniel threw a laser to Zach Ertz, who slid into second base on the completion at the 49 yard line for another 1at down.

On the next play, disaster appeared to struck AGAIN, as Austin Ekeler caught a pass, went to the ground, got up, and then lost a fumble punched out by Burks. Philly recovered the ball at their own 49-yard line, killing what appeared to be a promising drive by the Commanders.

The Eagles gained 19 yards on the subsequent play as time ran out on the 3rd quarter.