LANDOVER, Md. — The Eagles want to be physical, they want to be tough, they want to play with fire, especially in chippy games.
But they don’t want to be undisciplined.
“If you ask me, we went a little bit too far over the line as soon as we started getting penalties to start affecting drives and things like that,” middle linebacker Nakobe Dean said.
“The thing is, we know it’s chippy. It’s a division game, it’s a top-of-the-division game, being this year late in December. We know it was going to get chippy, we knew what kid of game it was going to be. We just have to kind of keep our composure as a team and as players.”
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The Eagles lost 36-33 to the Commanders on Sunday at Northwest Stadium in a strange game that had a little bit of everything. There were plenty of reasons they lost this game but their own mistakes rank high on that list.
One big turning point on Sunday came when C.J. Gardner-Johnson picked up his second unsportsmanlike penalty to get disqualified from the game early in the third quarter. The Eagles then had to play Tristin McCollum in his place and clearly missed Gardner-Johnson.
It seemed unclear exactly why Gardner-Johnson was tossed, but here’s what NFL referee Shawn Smith said to a pool reporter after the game:
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“He's basically taunting the opponent on the second foul. He already had a first one earlier in the game that we had announced as his first towards disqualification. So, this became his second. He was taunting the player so that's a disqualification by rule."
As Gardner-Johnson left the field, he gave Washington fans the old double-bird salute as he went into the tunnel. He then went on social media and said he got “kicked out for nothing.”
Respectfully got kicked out for nothing, I play with passion and fire!! Guys was chirping all day what u expect !!
— C.J. Gardner-Johnson (@CGJXXIII) December 22, 2024
His fellow safety Reed Blankenship agreed.
“I’m gonna have his back,” Blankenship said. “He didn’t say anything at all. I mean, was right there. But, you know, when you’re on the hotspot, things happen. But at the end of the day, I have my dude’s back. Next man up, whatever happens.”
Of course, Gardner-Johnson has earned his reputation in the NFL and after picking up a first unsportsmanlike penalty, you would think he’d be careful enough to not get another one.
In addition to both of Gardner-Johnson’s unsportsmanlike penalties, the Eagles were also flagged for unnecessary roughness twice: Jeremiah Trotter Jr. was called on a punt in the first quarter and Jalen Carter was called for one after a sack in the second quarter.
“I guess they said that it’s a very intense game so they just decided to call that,” Carter said. “I can’t do nothing, I can’t reverse time or nothing. I just gotta go on to the next play.”
This was Carter’s second unnecessary roughness penalty is as many weeks.
The Eagles love that Carter plays with so much fire but they have to make sure they harness it. How does Carter know how far he can take things?
“When that flag goes in the air, that’s how you know how far you can take it,” Carter said. “That flag go in there air, that means you probably went overboard and the ref believes that was a flag right there. You just gotta calm it down. You can’t get another one. That’s pretty much it.”
There were a total of 16 penalties handed out in Sunday’s game and the Eagles ended up with 10 penalties for 91 yards. That’s the most penalties and penalty yards for the Eagles in any game this season.
And that total doesn’t even include a defensive too-man-men penalty that was declined in the fourth quarter after Jayden Daniels hit Olamide Zaccheaus on a 49-yard touchdown. On that play, there was a miscommunication as Darius Slay tried to get back on the field after an injury. The Eagles were in dime and when Slay realized he was the 12th man, he tried to race off the field and left a void in the defense.
“I think at the end of the day, I have to be able to watch the game and tell you everything that happened,” head coach Nick Sirianni said. “But just sloppy, sloppy with penalties, sloppy with too many men on the field, sloppy with our fundamentals. And when you play a good football team like we played today and you’re sloppy, regardless of how many turnovers you force, it’s going to be tough to win.”
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