Key numbers from Washington Football Team’s playoff-clinching win

The Good

3: Washington became the third team to go to the playoffs with a losing record (not including strike-shortened seasons), following the 2010 Seattle Seahawks and the 2014 Carolina Panthers, who were coached by Ron Rivera.

Despite the sloppy play by Washington against the Eagles, the silver lining is that both the Seahawks and the Panthers went on to win their Wild Card games in 2010 and 2014, respectively. Could Washington follow suit?

+3: Coming into the game, Washington had the league’s third-worst first-half scoring differential (-106 points). It looked like it might be more of the same as Washington allowed Philadelphia to score 14 straight to take a 14-10 lead.

A late-scoring drive before the half, capped off by an outstanding leaping catch by Logan Thomas in the end zone gave Washington a 17-14 lead going into halftime, securing a +3 first-half point differential.

7, 11, 0: After a bad interception by Alex Smith on a high throw to J.D. McKissic, the Eagles had the ball at Washington’s 15-yard line. Washington’s defense came up big, giving up only 11 yards on seven plays and coming up with a huge stop on fourth down, to keep the Eagles off the board.

This essentially ended the game as the Eagles replaced Jalen Hurts with Nate Sudfield for the remainder of the game, and he was wholly inefficient.

32: For the first time this season, Washington scored on its first drive of the game, becoming the 32nd team to accomplish that feat this year, and avoiding becoming the first team of the century to not score on its opening drive.

This could have theoretically fallen under The Bad section, but hopefully, the early scoring production and getting off to a 10-0 lead is a step in the right direction for the playoffs.

72, 34: After coming in and replacing Carson Wentz, rookie Jalen Hurts had provided a spark for the Eagles, averaging 282.3 passing yards and 79.3 rushing yards in his three starts.

Despite giving up two rushing touchdowns to Hurts, overall Washington held Hurts in check, holding him to 7-for-20 72 passing yards, 1 interception, and only 34 rushing yards.

Washington held Hurts to 2-for-8 for seven passing yards and two rushes for seven yards in the second half before he was benched for Nate Sudfield.

14.6: When the Eagles did turn to Nate Sudfield, Washington’s defense held him to 5-for-12, 32 passing yards, 1 interception, and 1 fumble lost, for a 14.6 passer rating.

1, 1, 1, 3: Chase Young continued his menacing ways on defense, making key plays all over the field. He had one tackle for loss, one sack, one fumble recovery, and three QB hits. He has stepped up as one of the leaders of this young defense and was soaking in every second of the NFC East title after the game.

+1: Despite Alex Smith throwing two interceptions, Washington finished +1 in turnover differential with the defense interception Jalen Hurts and Nate Sudfield, and forcing a Sudfield fumble. When Washington wins the turnover differential, it has a 7-2 record. However, the team is yet to win a game when it has a negative turnover differential, going 0-7 in those games. This points to the importance of playing mistake-free football on offense.

2-for-2: Dustin Hopkins is back. After struggling beyond 40 yards earlier in the season, Hopkins has been much improved. He went 2-for-2 against the Eagles, hitting two 42-yarders. He also had all five kickoffs go for touchbacks, as he continues to have one of the top three highest touchback percentages in the entire NFL.

77: Coach Ron Rivera deserves a lot of credit for everything he has overcome this season. He becomes the first Washington coach in 77 years to win the division in his first season. With Washington winning the division, Rivera is leading his second team with a losing record into the playoffs.