Eagles Stock Report: The Eight-Game Winning Streak Ends Against Commanders

Uncharacteristic was the word of the day in the Eagles' locker room

PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles are finally like everyone else in the NFL. The league's last undefeated fell to Washington on Monday night, 32-21,  in a disastrous performance which was in an odd way the polar opposite of the team's 8-0 start.

Philadelphia was so well-rounded in its eight-game run to start the season and all three phases contributed to an ugly loss to a team that was not well-equipped to end the winning streak if the Eagles had brought their C-game never mind their A-Game.

Needless to say, the bears greatly outnumbered the bulls during the game.

"The three turnovers lost us the game," coach Nick Sirianni said. "The time of possession losses you the game. We lost it together: offense, defense, special teams, we lost it together. That’s what lost us the game."

THE BULLS

MILES SANDERS - When Sanders was given an opportunity to run the football in the second half he did so effectively. The issue was he had one carry in the first half.

JALEN HURTS - Hurts wasn't great when measured against his own standard but he still generated three touchdowns and had Philadelphia in a position to steal the game with a little more help.

THE BEARS

RUST - The Eagles were in a competitive situation for just the third game in 29 days and it showed with the team failing to build on a quick start and turning completely lackadaisical for most of the first half. A second-half comeback attempt was derailed by poor attention to detail and uncharacteristically dumb football coupled with ball-security issues.

THIRD-DOWN DEFENSE - The Eagles third-down defense really struggled with Washington in way too many third-and-manageables. The Commanders were 9-of-12 in the first half before things slowed a bit in the second half.

COMMUNICATION ON BACK END - When Washington was forced to throw the football, it was usually to Terry McLaurin, and "Scary Terry" was running loose far too often with the Eagles' default zone coverages failing to pass him off properly.

RELIANCE ON TEMPO - Chip Kelly should have taught you that tempo is a valuable tool but you also need to put it in your back pocket at times if the time of possession is getting out of whack and Sirianni was a Iittle too slow realizing that.

RUN DEFENSE WITHOUT JORDAN DAVIS - The big man in the middle was missed again as Washington went with a 3.7 yards and a cloud of dust offense. Philadelphia has no man in the middle that can define the line of scrimmage right now and until they start controlling the A-gaps again, defense is going to be much tougher.

THE OFFICIALS - A blatant missed faced mask on the end of a tight end screen resulted in a Dallas Goedert fumble and a second Joey Slye long field goal. You can't correct egregious missed calls like that with replay, however.

QUEZ WATKINS - Watkins gave the Eagles the big explosive play they needed in the fourth quarter with a 50-yard splash play. From there he promptly got up and fumbled the football when Benjamin St-Juste punched it out from behind. On a week where  Sirianni went overboard on how good the Eagles were with ball security, karma got the coach.

"Honestly, I was just trying to make a play," Watkins said. "I know I didn’t get touched and I knew I had left him behind, so I just wanted to get up and get some extra yards.

"... I didn’t have good ball security. It is always taught and I didn’t have it and it cost us.”

BRANDON GRAHAM - A 13-year veteran Graham sealed the Eagles' fate when he inexplicably tackle Taylor Heinicke with 1:38 left after the quarterback had clearly given himself up. Had Graham simply stayed away, the Philadelphia offense would have gotten one last opportunity.

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen