PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jayden Daniels’ nascent NFL career is all of 10 games old, yet the Washington QB responsible for the instant reshaping of the Commanders into a respectable franchise, and, finally, winners, already knows when a big game is on the schedule.
“I think people just know it’s Philly week,” Daniels said.
Oh yes, Commanders-Eagles, as serious as it gets this time of the NFL season. As a bonus, for the first time in nearly three decades, the outcome truly matters for either team.
Daniels has the Commanders (7-3) on the precipice of their biggest regular-season game in the series against the NFC East rival Eagles (7-2) in decades.
Hyperbole?
Not a chance. Washington and Philadelphia meet — not only with the division lead at stake — but with both teams at least four games over .500 entering the game for the first time since 1996.
Terry Allen and Ricky Watters. Koy Detmer and Gus Frerotte. Norv Turner and Ray Rhodes.
Names forgotten to the history books until this week when every piece of the series rivalry has been resurrected as part of the anticipation for the prime-time showdown at Lincoln Financial Field. The only drawback to the game is that the short week — the Eagles won at Dallas and the Commanders lost to the Steelers on Sunday — has robbed the rivalry of a few extra days of hype.
Behind QB Jalen Hurts and running back Saquon Barkley — who ranks second in the NFL with an average of 110.1 yards per game while Washington is 28th in the league defensively against the run, allowing 142.7 yards per game — the Eagles are riding a five-game winning streak; the Commanders have won three of four games.
The Eagles are 3 1/2-point favorites, per BetMGM Sportsbook.
“I’m excited just to go to Philly and that type of atmosphere,” Daniels said. "Heard they got very passionate fans, so man, I can’t wait. I can’t wait to go out there and see that fan base, and just experience that. And I know it’s going to be a great venue, a great site, and we’ll just go out there and see what happens.”
Led by Daniels, the Washington offense keeps putting up points, week in, week out, even against stingy opponents such as Pittsburgh, which entered Sunday allowing just 14.9 per game. The QB is building a strong connection with receiver Terry McLaurin, who topped 100 yards receiving for the fourth time in the past eight games, accumulating 113 on five catches.
The Eagles, who have won by 20-plus points in three of their past four games, understand the challenge Daniels presents.
“A really good player who started off on fire, so we’ll have a challenge here this week,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “You know how he’s going to the right place with the football, being accurate, the things he can do when things do break down.”
With a win, Washington would move to 8-3, its best record through 11 games since, yup, 1996.
“Taking our show on the road to go up and have another division battle, Thursday night in November, like come on, what are we talking about?" Commanders coach Dan Quinn said.
Late bye attrition
While the Eagles had the earliest bye in the NFL in Week 5, the Commanders have the latest in Week 14, and the injuries are piling up after a relatively healthy start to the season. Kicker Austin Seibert (right hip) is out for a second consecutive game, as is cornerback Marshon Lattimore (hamstring), their big trade deadline pickup.
The short turnaround doesn’t help the situation, including tackles Andrew Wylie, Brandon Coleman and Cornelius Lucas all being questionable, but Quinn is trying to turn it into a positive.
“This is a really tough-minded group, and so if you told them it was going to be on a Wednesday, they’d be down for it,” Quinn said. “Short weeks, it’s hard, but it also favors guys who are like, ‘Hey man, I’m down for the fight and I’ll be ready and whatever it takes’ kind of attitude. And we got a lot of those kind of guys with a big giant-sized chip on their shoulder.”
The team announced Wednesday Robinson would be active against the Eagles. Washington is 1-2 without him this season.
Run, Jayden run?
Daniels ran just three times for 5 yards in Washington’s 28-27 home loss to the Steelers, by far the rookie quarterback’s fewest carries and smallest impact on the ground this season. The No. 2 draft pick out of LSU has been playing through sore ribs for several weeks and credited Pittsburgh’s defense for shutting down rushing lanes, and Philadelphia’s second-ranked unit presents another challenge.
“Every game is different,” said Daniels, who has completed 56.4% of his passes the past three games after 75.6% in his first seven. “It just depends on the coordinator. Just going out there and just kind of adjusting to what I see and what they’re doing.”
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AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno in Washington contributed to this report.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Dan Gelston, The Associated Press
