10 quick thoughts from Week 15 as Washington can’t overcome roster shortages

Kam Curl was missed: Speaking of missing pieces in the secondary, boy, was Kamren Curl missed in this one. The second-year safety is widely perceived as the best pure tackler on the defense, but the work he does in coverage against opposing team’s tight ends was grossly missed, as Goedert ran rampant all game long.

Jeremy Reaves had a couple of nice moments — he almost came down with a ridiculous pass breakup on a deep ball to Goedert in the first half — but he proved to be no match for the newly-minted $57 million tight end, who finished the game with seven catches for 135 yards.

Ease up on Garrett Gilbert: No, we weren’t thrilled with Garrett Gilbert’s performance. The former Patriots practice squad quarterback was late on his reads, indecisive and panicky in the face of pressure and just lacked poise.

But what else did you expect? Regardless of his past experience with Rivera and Turner, he literally signed just days ago. If you want to knock the coaches for rolling with Gilbert instead of Kyle Shurmur, go ahead. We still feel like Gilbert was the right call over a QB who’s never attempted an NFL pass.

Give players and staff credit: We’re not generally in the business of handing out moral victories or participation trophies, but Washington deserves a pat on the back after tonight for keeping the game competitive for as long as they did.

The scoreboard and box score won’t look pretty, but the first 20-plus minutes were absolutely captivating. On a different night, with even just a handful’s worth of more players in the lineup, Washington wins this game.

Sure, it means nothing in the grand scheme of things, but the WFT had no business being in this game. It took the Eagles, whose fans should NOT be taking a victory lap right now, getting chewed out by their head coach at halftime to finally wake up and realize what they were about to choke away.

A win would’ve been great, but at least Washington lost with pride. In these types of circumstances, that’s all we could’ve asked for.