Survived

The Philadelphia Eagles survived another stressful outing against the divisional rival Washington Commanders with more domination from A.J. Brown on offense, but a struggling Eagles defense.

On the Week 8 edition of “Inside The Birds Postgame Live,” former Eagles tight end Clay Harbor joined Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher to discuss the highlights and lowlights from the 38-31 victory.

Despite some struggles, the Philadelphia Eagles swept the Washington Commanders thanks to another historic performance by WR A.J. Brown

Eagles Pass Rush

Adam Caplan: “They just could not get to (Sam) Howell. You saw in the first game where they got a lot more pressure, he just stands and delivers.”

Intermediate Matchups

Clay Harbor: “The Commanders did a good job of getting linebackers matched up on a wide receiver. Nakobe Dean did get beat a couple of teams. You are not going to be able to have a linebacker guard a wide receiver in space. (Reed) Blankenship got beat a couple of times but had that big interception. Sydney Brown didn’t look comfortable in that slot position. They were probably counting on some more pressure.”

Geoff Mosher: “If you are going to play big nickel because Washington came out with two tight ends, if you are going to have a slot defender, (Kevin) Byard has experience as a slot corner, Sydney Brown does not. That is not an ideal matchup as we saw.”

A.J. Brown

Mosher: “There seems to be a demoralizing way for the opponent that he catches touchdowns. He catches them with two people on them, when there is defensive pass interference on him, he catches touchdowns on balls that look like they probably shouldn’t find their way into his hands, and there he is plucking the ball. He is pretty special.”

Harbor: “You have the double team, you have the safety deep and the man pressing on you and you still catch a touchdown? You are not supposed to be able to do that in the NFL, that is incredible…You have people calling for MVP votes, I don’t think it’s that far off.”

Caplan: “You saw this in training camp how he was rocked up and you see it in this game how the defenders are draped over but they fall off because he is so strong. You don’t usually see receivers that physically strong. He outwills them too.”

Turnovers

Mosher: “The Eagles have just been different this year with ball security. Jalen Hurts has been different and the team in general has been different. And they don’t take away the ball nearly as much as they did last year. The Eagles work on this in practice as much as anybody, but I think this is illustrative that no matter how much they work on it, that is the way of the NFL.”

Harbor: “There is really no way to really fix that or work on it. You do all of the things in practice, focus and stress it.”

– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.