Week 15 Key Numbers: Washington fails to overcome COVID-19 and Philly offense

If you were looking for a Christmas miracle, you didn’t find it on Tuesday as the Washington Football Team fell to the Eagles and all but ended any shot of making the playoffs in the 27-17 loss.

There was no storybook ending for Garrett Gilbert, who got his second career start, after being picked up by Washington last week after both starting quarterback Taylor Heinicke and backup Kyle Allen ended up on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

Gilbert played as well as any quarterback could for having joined the team less than a week ago, but the Eagles’ offense was too much for Washington’s defense to handle, despite getting the majority of its defensive line back in time for the game.

Early on, it looked like things were bouncing Washington’s way (literally), as a third-down pass that should have been a long reception bounced off Eagles TE Dallas Goedert’s foot and into Landon Collins’ hands.

The Washington Football Team was unable to take advantage of early momentum in its Week 15 loss.

After the interception, Washington drove down the field and capped it off with an Antonio Gibson touchdown. On the next Eagles’ possession, Washington’s defense forced a fumble with Philadelphia in the red zone, and once again Collins was there to scoop it up. Washington’s drive stalled in the red zone but it was able to come away with a field goal to take an early 10-0 lead.

However, once the Eagles settled down, it became a long game for Washington, which allowed 20 unanswered points as Philadelphia pulled away. The bend but don’t break defense that came up so big in the first quarter started struggling and Washington’s offense became anemic.

With seven assistant coaches missing the game due to COVID-19, the team was unable to make the necessary in-game adjustments to have a chance. The last gasp in the fourth quarter was too little, too late, and Washington was left asking, “What if”.

Let’s take a look at some key numbers from the Week 15 loss to the Eagles.