Grayson's Grades: Eagles vs. Commanders

PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Eagles extended their winning streak to six games with a 26-18 win over the Washington Commanders. It was a dominating performance in the second half that helped lead to the victory.

The defense once again held the opponent in check and kept the highly-touted rookie Quarterback for the Commanders in check. They held Jayden Daniels to under 200 yards passing and just 18 yards rushing. The Eagles also intercepted one of his passes.

The Eagles offense was once again led by Saquon Barkley who had another monster second half to put away the opponent. Barkley rushed for 146 yards with two touchdowns and even added 52 yards receiving.

This was a big win. It helped the Eagles improve to 8-2 overall. They are 3-0 in the NFC East and more importantly now have a 1.5 game lead over the Commanders.

Here is the latest edition of Grayson's Grades:

Saquon Barkley - Barkley went over 100 total yards for the ninth time in his ten games as an Eagle. He also crossed over the 1,000 yard rushing mark for the season. The Commanders did a pretty good job of keeping him from breaking a big running play. Barkley did however have a huge catch that went 43 yards. Barkley carried it 26 times for 146 yards. He added two receptions for 52 yards.

AJ Brown - Brown did about as much as he could with the opportunities he had. He had beat his man a few times but Hurts did not see him in time so there were some bigger plays left on the field. Brown still caught five passes for 65 yards with his longest reception going for 25 yards.

Dallas Goedert - Goedert was once again a reliable target for Jalen Hurts. He has great hands for a big tight end and used them well in this game. Goedert's longest reception went for 32 yards. He caught five passes for 61 yards.

Zack Baun - Baun continues to be one of the Howie Roseman's greatest moves this offseason. Obviously getting Saquon Barkley was the biggest. Baun is consistent and does a great job of always being around the ball. He does a great job of wrapping up and getting his man to the ground. Baun led the team with 15 tackles including one tackle for a loss and one pass successfully defended.

Reed Blankenship - Blankenship came up with one of the biggest plays by this defense. After the Eagles scored a touchdown to take a 19-10 lead he picked off a pass on the Commanders' first play after the touchdown. The Eagles scored another touchdown two plays later. Blankenship is doing a great job of securing the backend of the defense along with CJ Gardner-Johnson. Blankenship was tied for second on the team with 10 tackles including one pass successfully defended.

Jalen Carter - One of the most impressive individual efforts by a defensive player was turned in by Jalen Carter and it did not show up in the box score. But he absolutely blew up a Commanders offensive lineman and went literally right through him to chase Jayden Daniels out of the pocket and into the arms of Josh Sweat for a sack. Carter is playing more consistent than he did a year ago and being the player the Eagles expected him to be when they drafted him. Carter racked up seven tackles including one nice tackle for a loss.

Brandon Graham - The ageless wonder had another solid game. He got in the backfield multiple times and affected several plays. Graham even recorded a sack helping him close in on third in franchise history in sacks. The next one will put him into sole possession of third. Graham had four tackles including that sack, two tackles for a loss and one quarterback hit.

Josh Sweat - Sweat is becoming a consistent pass rusher for this team. He had one sack in this game and now has six sacks in his last seven games. Sweat also seems to be earning more snaps with his solid play. I talked to Sweat after the game and he was quick to give credit to the secondary for their coverage forcing opposing quarterbacks to have to hold the ball a little longer. Sweat finished with three tackles, one sack, one tackle for a loss and one quarterback hit.

Nick Sirianni - Sirianni deserves a lot of credit for this six game win streak. He always seems to have his guys ready to play. It can be hard to get a team up for a game four days after playing a division rival. I saw on social media a bunch of criticism of the people in the "take the points" camp. However, those field goal attempts that Jake Elliott missed were no-brainers. Now, I have no problem criticizing some of the play calls that led to the Field Goal attempts. For example, the trick play they tried to run seemed to be forced at a bad time in the game. It didn't feel like the right time to try that or the right spot on the field. That play cost the Eagles 13 yards and nearly cost them Jalen Hurts as it was that hit that eventually sent him into the injury tent to be evaluated for a concussion. Overall, Sirianni finds ways to win. He may not always do it the way the fans want, but he is 42-19 and has his team sitting alone atop the division once again.

Vic Fangio - Fangio's defense is a lot of fun to watch. In my opinion, they have been the biggest reason for this winning streak. They forced another turnover and added another three sacks to their total. They took a highly-touted young quarterback and kept him in check. The Eagles also did a good job of not letting him beat them with his legs. He completed 22 of 32 passes for 191 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He also carried it seven times for 18 yards. Fangio has this defense rolling and seems to have them all playing on the same page and as one unit.

Kellen Moore - I know plenty of fans might be frustrated with how sluggish this offense seems to be early in games. But I am starting to become more convinced that Moore uses the first half to try different things and get the opponent to show him how they intend to defend different formations and plays. He then uses that information to help him make adjustments at halftime. I have facts to back that up too. During this six game win streak the Eagles have scored 106 second half points. That comes out to an average of 17 points per game. I would rather have a team that can finish strong than one that starts fast and stalls out. As rough as it looked at times, the offense ran 70 plays, racked up 434 yards, scored 26 points and was nine of 16 on third-down.

Jalen Hurts - Hurts never really got into a good rhythm in this game. He also took quite a few hits. At times he did a good job of finding some room to run. When he delivered passes on time at the end of his drop he typically did well. But he held the ball again and missed some open receivers due to that. It was not a pretty game by the Eagles offense due in large part to Hurts' inability to get on a roll. He completed 18 of 28 passes for 221 yards. He also carried it 10 times for 39 yards and a touchdown.

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Jake Elliott - Rarely does Elliott miss a Field Goal let alone two of them in one game. Those misses from 51 yards and 44 yards out. He also missed an extra point early in the fourth quarter. Those misses made it harder on the Eagles to win this game. He did nail two field goals from 21 and 31 yards out to help put points on the board.