Stats & Snaps: Week 10 Commanders @ Eagles

Playing time breakdown for the Commanders’ miracle road win in Philadelphia 

As the defensive backs’ celebration finally winds down, and the NFL comes to grips with the emergence of a new disruptive force in the NFC East, it is time to review the snap counts and game statistics from the greatest upset of the season to date.

STATISTICS

• The Washington Commanders dominated time of possession against the Philadelphia football team, maintaining control of the ball for 40 minutes, 24 seconds, making this the 4^th most lopsided possession battle so far this season, and the 12^th most lopsided time of possession result in franchise history. The last time Washington had more than 40 minutes of possession time was the Week 12 victory against Seattle last season. The time before that was the Week 4 game against Philadelphia in 2015.
• Washington’s +11 point differential was the largest since the 2021 Week 18 demolition of the tanking New York Giants. The last game before that with a point differential greater than +10 was the 2020 Thanksgiving day blowout of Dallas by 25 points.
• Kicker Joey Slye was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for his perfect outing featuring field goals of 58, 55, 44 and 32 yards and going 2/2 on extra points.
• Terry McLaurin tied with Stefon Diggs as the NFL’s 3^rd leading receiver in Week 10 with 8 receptions for 128 yards. Terry wins the tiebreak, because Diggs took 12 receptions to reach the 128 yard mark.
• Taylor “Eagle Slayer” Heinicke had a respectable QBR of 62.4 in the road win in Philadelphia, which ranked 13^th in the league. Two weeks ago, I introduced the QB Value Rating (QBVR), which is QBR divided by cap hit. TH4 hit a season high 7^th in the league by QBVR in Week 10.
• Washington’s defense held the Eagles to 264 total yards, their lowest mark since their Week 6 loss to Tampa in 2021.
• The Commanders’ 4 defensive turnovers were the team’s highest total since the 19-16 win over the Detroit Lions in 2019.
• Brian Robinson led the team in rushing with 86 yards on 26 carries and one TD. Terry McLaurin was obviously the leading receiver. Jamin Davis was the leading tackler with 9 total, while Darrick Forrest led the defense in takeaways with a fumble recovery and a spectacular interception.

CARSON WENTZ SNAP COUNT TRACKER

The snap count story that fans care most about involves a player who didn’t even play this week. The Commanders’ trade for Carson Wentz sends a 2023 third round draft pick to the Colts, which converts to a second round pick if he plays more than 70% of offensive snaps this season.

As of Week 10, Wentz has played 422 of 704 total offensive snaps, for a snap percentage of 59.9%.

Season Projection: The Commanders have averaged 70.4 offensive snaps per game this season. If Wentz returns in game #12 against Atlanta and takes 100% of offensive snaps for the remainder of the season at 70.4 snaps per game, he will reach 844 of 1197 offensive snaps, which equates to 70.5% of snaps, sending Washington’s 2^nd round pick to Indianapolis. If he returns the following week and plays 100% of snaps at that rate he will end the season with 65% of snaps and our second round pick is safe.

This could come down to the wire, depending on just how crazy Rivera is about proving he was right, even if the Wentz trade was really Dan’s idea.

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

SNAP COUNTS – OFFENSE

Quarterback

Taylor Heinicke cemented his status as a Washington folk hero by the leading the team to an improbable upset of a heavily favored, undefeated Eagles squad. His box score stats (17/29 for 211 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, 3 sacks and 1 fumble lost) don’t quite do justice to the value of his 8 clutch completions and runs on 3^rd downs to keep drives alive, leading to scores.

Running Backs

Brian Robinson led the rushing attack with 86 yards on 26 carries, with 1 TD. While his 3.3 yards per carry and Antonio Gibson’s 3.1 ypc don’t seem that impressive, both ball carriers tended to get the yards when the team needed them. More importantly, they kept drives going, running down the clock and keeping the ball out of the hands of Philadelphia’s offense.

Fullback

Sadly, fullback Alex Armah was not signed from the practice squad for this game. The team managed without him by running a heavy dose of 2 TE sets. But how much more emphatic would the win have been if they used a fullback and 2 TEs? We may never know.

Wide Receiver

Terry McLaurin had his biggest game of the season, catching 8 passes for 128 yards on 11 targets with a long of 41. His targets and receptions have been increasing steadily since Heinicke replaced Wentz in Week 7. Five other receivers and backs caught passes on Monday. The official NFL gamebook lists Cam Sims as a starter at TE.

Tight Ends

Logan Thomas was the only TE to get a touch, with 2 receptions on 4 targets for 12 yards. All three TEs made their presence felt as blockers. According to the NFL official game summary, the two starting TEs were Logan Thomas and Cam Sims.

Offensive Linemen

LT Charles Leno, LG Andrew Norwell, RG Trai Turner, and C Tyler Larsen once again played 100% of offensive snaps. Sam Cosmi and Cornelius Lucas split time at RT, with Cosmi clearly outplaying Lucas.

Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

DEFENSE – SNAP COUNTS

Defensive Linemen

Montez Sweat caused problems for Philadelphia with a sack, a tackle for loss and a QB hit. Aside from that, the DL did not fill up the stats sheet, but they did a good job of containing the run and keeping Hurts from getting comfortable in the pocket. Casey Toohill put the exclamation point on the win with a fumble recovery for a TD as time ran out.

Linebackers

Jamin Davis led the defense with 9 total tackles and got lucky when the refs missed a facemask on a forced fumble recovery, which should really have been called back. Bostic chipped in 4 tackles. Davis and Bostic combined for 5 blitzes with nothing to show for them. On the other hand, they were perfect in coverage on 1 target against Davis and neither LB was credited with a missed tackle.

Cornerbacks

Kendall Fuller had 2 passes defended on 2 targets for a perfect shutdown performance. Benjamin St-Juste allowed only 4 completions on 7 targets for 29 yards, and had a crucial forced fumble, but also added to his record as the most penalized player on the team with a costly pass interference call for 30 yards. Rachad Wildgoose was inactive this game and was replaced by Bobby McCain playing in the slot.

Safeties

Curl, Forrest and McCain were officially listed as starting safeties and played 100% of defensive snaps. DeFoe had another big performance, recording a clutch interception and recovering the fumble that St-Juste punched out. Curl allowed 3 receptions on 4 targets but only gave up 15 yards. Bobby McCain allowed 3 receptions on 3 targets for 41 yards.

SPECIAL TEAMS

As mentioned above, Joey Slye was a perfect 4/4 on field goals with two over 50 yards and was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week. That wouldn’t have been possible without Tress Way pulling down a few Camaron Cheeseman snaps. Washington only had one kick return and one punt return for a total of 26 yards. Tress Way only had to punt twice and averaged 43.5 yards.

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