My personal philosophy when it comes to the first game of the regular season is two fold. Firstly, the primary game of the season is a pace setting effort for the team that is playing in the game. If you win and you win big during the first game of the season it "could" go a long way to how you are going to do during the season. This doesn't mean that if you win the first game 35-0 you are automatically going to the Super Bowl. You could be extremely successful, but then you could completely bomb the rest of the season. Example of such lies with the 2020 Jacksonville Jaguars, a team that destroyed the Colts at home in week 1 and then went on to lose all the rest of the games on their schedule. In the current era of the NFL, I also see week 1 being a preseason game for the starters. In the modern day NFL, a lot of starters never see the field during the preseason because of the risk of getting injured. This makes the first game of the season a "get right" game for a lot of the guys who merely attended practices instead of playing in actual preseason action. Now don't get me wrong, you don't have to win the 1st game of the season, in fact the two teams that went to the Super Bowl in 2025 didn't win the first game of the season, but most times the teams with the most success during the season do win the first game of the season.
With all of this said, I expected a rough opening performance from the team. Not only did the Eagles not have any starters playing in the preseason, but they also were performing under a new offense, with a new offensive coordinator and a new quarterbacks coach and a new offensive line coach. In my right mind I had them winning this game by around a possession and I didn't expect a perfect game. What I also didn't expect was despite the Eagles and Commanders playing in the game of the week, that didn't mean that they were going to go straight to my game at 1:25 Eastern in my area. No, they instead showed the "completely important" overtime matchup between the Detroit Lions and the New Orleans Saints. While this annoyed me, it probably paled in comparison to all of the people that had Sunday Ticket and actually paid money to YouTube TV to NOT play their game. So suffice to say, I missed the first two drives. To add insult to injury, once the Lions and Saints game ended with a "no good" two point conversation, FOX took their sweet time, showing about five super slow commercials, thanks a lot for that!
The game started out really slow for the Eagles with the team allowing the Commanders to get to their side of the field and having rookie kicker, Drew Stevens, to kick a 55 yard field goal to put the Commanders up 3 - 0. Meanwhile, Jalen Hurts had a horrendous start to the game, going 1 for 3 for 5 yards on the team's first drive and then after going into negative yardage on a 5 yard loss to 1st round rookie, Makai Lemon, Hurts would suffer his first sack of the season by Frankie Luvu. Luckily the Eagles were able to do the work keeping Jayden Daniels and the Commanders offense down that they were able to get onto the board early in the second quarter. This happened after a deep pass to Dontayvion Wicks for 63 total yards and after going backwards because of a holding penalty by Center, Cam Jurgens, Jalen Hurts was able to hook up with his tight end, Dallas Goedert for a 17 yard touchdown to put the Eagles in the lead 7 - 3!
The next three drives for both teams netted 1 yard, then 4 yards, and then 3 yards, which led to punts. For the Commanders, it had to do with the fact that the Eagles were locking down their receivers and Jayden Daniels just wasn't able to pass the ball to save his own life. He was constantly pressing for an open receiver and most of his incomplete passes were either errant throws or balls purposefully thrown out of bounds. He was not completing a high percentage of his passes and the Commanders offense was faltering because of it. In fact, Eagles cornerback Quinyon Mitchell had allowed a total of 2 receptions on 3 targets for 15 yards and Riq Woolen was targeted 4 times for 0 receptions so the outside cornerbacks were really doing work.
For the Eagles on the other hand, the anchor for their team was former Pro Bowl Offensive Guard, Landon Dickerson. A guy that seemed to be completely injured pretty much all the 2025 season and who was apparently injured during this game too because he was a turn style. He was slow off the snap, he was letting defenders into the backfield to harass Jalen Hurts and even he admitted a day after the game that he was the reason why the offense played poorly. I for one, agree with him, he was very bad. Dickerson played so poorly that the Eagles recognized his injury, which apparently is a bone bruise and placed him on Injured Reserve. Personally, I believe that his decision to play the game was pure selfishness because if you aren't feeling good enough to play, you shouldn't play. It doesn't matter if fans and teammates are needing you to play, if your poor play due to injury, it is hampering your ability to do well and therefore you shouldn't be playing anyways. Needless to say, it was mostly on Landon Dickerson for why Saquon Barkley struggled almost all day while being hit almost the moment he got the ball.
With all of this said, the Eagles last drive of the half ended in success thanks to a 42 yard Saquon Barkley run to the Commanders 12 and then with a 9 yard to go to get to the end zone, Jalen Hurts would hit Dontaiyvion Wicks on a corner post route, beating Mike Sainristil. While the Eagles would have a fast hitting touchdown drive, the Commanders would end the half with a slow and methodical drive where Jayden Daniels would go "no huddle" to get the ball to the Eagles 32 on 4th and inches. Now they could have made the decision to kick the field goal, but instead they got serious and decided to go for it on a Jacory Croskey-Merritt first down. On 2nd and 10 in the red zone, Jayden Daniels would find an open Antonio Williams to the 1 yard line of the Eagles and then Croskey-Merritt would dive for the end zone to lessen the Eagles lead 14 - 10.
So let me get into the impact and disappointing players for the Eagles in the game. Let us start with a player that really surprised me in the game, that being Dontayvion Wicks. A guy who Eagles fans really hyped up and everyone else was like "Eagles fans are stupid". Well, Wicks ended the game with 2 receptions for 73 yards and a touchdown including a deep 63 yard pass from Hurts that set up a Dallas Goedert touchdown. Then in the second quarter he would catch a touchdown of his own after a big Saquon Barkley run. Of course the other main impact player of the game on offense was Dallas Goedert, who caught 2 of Jalen Hurts 3 touchdowns with the inclusion of 4 total catches. On defense the impact players included linebacker, Zack Baun who recorded 19 total combo tackles, including one for a loss and 2 pass defenses. Not to mention, Baun apparently played so well that he was one of the NFC defensive players of the week. It must also be shown that both starting cornerbacks, Riq Woolen and Quinyon Mitchell excelled in the game, with both allowing minimal catches and yardage in the game. Oh, and I forgot, special teams. Braden Mann really killed it as a punter against the Commanders. So much so that with his 7 punts, four of them landed inside the 10 to set the Commanders in bad field position. Chalk another one up for the brand!
And now for the players who I wished stayed home on Sunday. The first one being the completely obvious, Makai Lemon. This guy was such a disappointment, if I could rate this guy on a scale from Jalen Reagor to Terrell Owens, I would rate him as J.J. Arthega-Whiteside, who might be worse than Jalen Reagor. Makai was targeted on 3 passes for negative 5 yards. Which, yes, I and almost everyone else on the entire planet has better stats than Makai Lemon. One reason might be because they only tried to deal passes to him on screen routes, which immediately got blown up by the Commanders, the other reason is because he was open, Hurts just didn't throw the ball to him. On the first Goedert pass, he was open, but Hurts didn't throw to him, likely because he doesn't trust him and if you know anything about trust, Hurts has his favorites. Suffice to say it is his first game, but you gotta play better if you were a 1st rounder.
Next is Cooper DeJean, who was an All Pro Cornerback and had one of the greatest interceptions for a touchdowns in Super Bowl history against Patrick Mahomes. However, on Sunday against the Commanders, he just looked slow. He was getting beaten on big plays and even the touchdown catch by Stefon Diggs. Like I know Diggs is no slouch, but he looked really slow on that slant route and seemingly let him score. A lot of people have been saying he has slowed down because he is drinking and partying too much, some say he is dating too many cougars and Cowboys cheerleaders and finally that he is missing his buddy Reed Blankenship (who played like dirt himself as he got picked apart by Josh Allen). Regardless, I think he has an ab injury and might be questionable for the Eagles game on Sunday in Nashville against the Titans. On a scale from Michael Jaquet to... Cooper DeJean from 2024, I would rank him at Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. A guy who is able to be physical and make plays, but also a guy that gets burned way too much.
The final player I wish stayed home was pro bowl offensive guard from the University of Alabama, Landon Dickerson. Let me first of all say that Landon Dickerson is a freaking warrior. The way he was able to play in the NFL Championship Game injured against the Commanders two years ago at a position he didn't play was nothing short of amazing. He clearly put his body on the line and got the reward of winning the Super Bowl. With that said, his level of play in 2025 was really bad and his level of play week 1 was equally horrendous. The news, however came out and it said that he had a bone bruise in his right knee that he absorbed in training camp. This begs the question, if he had a bone bruise and it was that bad and he didn't play in any preseason games... then why did he even play? Like there is being a hero for your team and raising the level of play, but then there is going out there in a debilitating way, while being injured at the same time and almost costing your team the win. Dickerson and the Eagles obviously chose the option of Jalen Hurts getting immediate pressure and losing the opportunity of getting drives going and Saquon Barkley getting tackled in the backfield almost immediately. To me, that isn't heroic, that is being selfish and not being smart with your body.
Now to save the best for last, grading Jalen Hurts. On the scale from Mike McMahon to Nick Foles in Super Bowl 52, I would rank him at Carson Wentz in 2019. I think he played an okay game. Obviously he did very well throwing deep passes. On his three main deep passes or passes that went over 15 yards he completed a high amount of his passes. He also threw 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, so that is also great to see. He also made some major plays with his legs and was able to get the team to where they needed to be in order to win the football game. At the end of the day, that is what you want to see. Some criticisms though and I am not sure if this can be completely pegged down to Jalen Hurts, but the offense really struggled to methodically get down the field. I think the offensive line definitely played a factor with that, but when you don't get a single first down on first down, then your offense as a whole might be hampered. The Commanders certainly did a good job limiting Saquon Barkley, who got around half of his yards on one play, so a better running game could help the quarterback out. If I would describe Jalen Hurts in one phrase when it comes to this game it would be "hero ball". He came up hot when the team needed him the most, but when the team didn't need him, he and the offense were stagnant.
Before the game I actually did a bit of lurking on the bad place (twitter or X) or whatever you call it just to see what Commanders fans were saying about Jalen Hurts before the game. Most of them were saying that without AJ Brown he would suck, but in all actuality, he played about as well as he had when AJ Brown was in Philadelphia back in 2025. And even so, he played better than Jayden Daniels for most of the game, so I think that means that Jalen Hurts at least has to be "pretty good". It was tough to see that Jalen Hurts didn't start the game out very well, but I understand that with no preseason, you have to get up to the mark quickly during game one because you are probably relatively rusty. Oh well, hopefully I have good things to say about the team as they go to Nashville to play against the Tennessee Titans.
