Eagles' defense comes up short on third-and-long

LANDOVER, Md. - Even though his defense already had been on the field for 35 of the game's previous 54 minutes, even though his defensive line and inside linebacking corps had been gutted by injuries and his $63 million cornerback went down with a quad injury on the third play of the game, Bill Davis still liked his odds yesterday when the Redskins took over at their own 10-yard line with 6:05 left in a game the Eagles were winning, 20-16.

"I'll take that scenario every time where we have to get out there and we have to make the play," the Eagles' defensive coordinator said after his unit failed to do exactly that and allowed the Redskins to drive 90 yards and pull out a three-point win.

"Tonight we didn't do it. But we're not going to hang our heads. We're going to keep fighting and keep getting better.

"We've got to come up and we've got to make the play to win the game and get us out of it. Credit to them tonight. They made the plays on that last drive to get them in the end zone."

Davis' defense was on the field for a season-high 41-plus minutes and a season-high 79 snaps yesterday. It would be easy to put all of the blame for that insane workload on Chip Kelly's offense, which had just two drives of six plays or more and managed a season-low 14 first downs.

But while the offense couldn't stay on the field, Davis' defense couldn't get off of it. The defense came into the game ranked ninth in the league in third-down defense. But it allowed the Redskins to convert nine of 17 third-down opportunities, including a third-and-19 and a third-and-13.

"Third down was bad tonight," Davis said. "We have to be better on third down than we were tonight. It's a combination of things. I've got to call it better. We have to execute it better.

"That big draw on the first drive (a 42-yard run by Chris Thompson on a third-and-19 draw play) was sickening. There's no way that should've got out there. I could've had a better call for us. We could've played it better. All the normal things when they hit those third-and-longs."

Rookie cornerback Eric Rowe, who replaced injured Byron Maxwell in the first quarter, also was called for a pass interference in the end zone on a third-and-8 in the second quarter that gift-wrapped a Redskins' touchdown that gave them a 13-0 lead at the time.

With Maxwell out with a quad injury and linebacker Mychal Kendricks reinjuring his hamstring early in the game and defensive end Brandon Bair, who had replaced Taylor Hart who had replaced Cedric Thornton, injuring his groin, the Redskins managed to gain 417 yards against the Eagles and notch 25 first downs. Quarterback Kirk Cousins threw for 290 yards.

But until that last fateful drive, the Eagles had managed to allow the Redskins access to the end zone just once, making them settle for three Dustin Hopkins field goals.

Did they finally just run out of gas? Absolutely not, Davis said.

"We were out there the same amount of time (as the Redskins' offense)," he said. "There are no excuses here. None. Our defense was not gassed. We were out there fighting and they made more plays than us.

But 79 snaps, Bill?

"It doesn't matter," he insisted. "It's irrelevant. We are on the field and in control of it. The offense is not on the field when we're out there. We have to get ourselves off. We're not making any excuses. We'll give the credit to them."

His players weren't making any excuses either.

"We were on the field for 40-some minutes, so naturally you're going to get a little tired," safety Walter Thurmond said. "But as far as being sloppy tired, we weren't that at all.

"We had penalties that let them move down the field, which you can't have. They came up with some big third-down plays. We can't allow that. We have to get off the field on third down. That's the biggest issue in this game. Making third downs on offense, and stopping them and getting off the field on defense."

Said defensive lineman Bennie Logan: "We weren't tired. We needed to get a stop and win the game. We weren't tired or nothing. We just need to execute better."

The Eagles came into the game as the league's best run defense, holding their first three opponents to 3.1 yards per carry. They held the Redskins to 4.0 yards per carry, which was .6 under their average. But they had some costly breakdowns.

One was that 42-yard third-and-19 run by Thompson that led to a Hopkins field goal.

The others came on Washington's game-winning drive. They gave up a 16-yard run by Alfred Morris on the first play which kick-started the drive. A little later, Morris picked up another 13 on a cutback run.

Those two runs shattered the Eagles' equilibrium and had them playing on their heels.

"We were expecting shots (down the field)," cornerback Nolan Carroll said. "I guess they wanted to take the conservative approach and put it in Morris' hands and not put it in Cousins' hands until they really needed to. They did a good job."

On third-and-6 at the Philadelphia 30, Cousins hit Pierre Garcon for a 14-yard gain just before Thurmond got to him.

"I was surprised he hung on to the ball," Thurmond said. "I lost Cousins inside the pocket and didn't get the best jump that I wanted to on that particular route. I kind of felt that route was coming on that third-down situation. I was just a little too high in my drop and got there a tad too late."

Four plays later, Garcon stuck the dagger in the Eagles' heart when he ran an outside breaking route at the goal line and made a nice diving catch for a 4-yard touchdown with 31 seconds left.

"They went to an empty set and we went to our blitz," Davis said. "And we knew that we'd have an unblocked player. We actually trapped the coverage over there.

"They threw it right into where we wanted them to throw it. It was a bang-bang play. We hit him instantly. You've got to give Pierre a lot of credit. That's a great catch he made down there as he was getting hit."

Thurmond hit him and so did Rowe. But Garcon hung on.

"He made a helluva play" Rowe said. "(He has) strong hands. Walt got a hand in. I came up and tried to get an extra punch at it. But he still held on. That's a credit to him."

It was a tough day for Rowe. A week earlier in the Eagles' win over the Jets, he was used as the sixth DB in the Eagles' dime packages and had an interception in the end zone and broke up another deep pass.

Against the Redskins, he had to play nearly 70 snaps after Maxwell went down and the results weren't nearly as positive. Washington attacked him underneath with hitches and crossing routes.

"Those freaking hitch routes keep getting me," Rowe said. "I need to keep working on that and work on my technique and keep getting better.

"I just have to keep my eyes down on those hitch routes. I kept going high thinking he was going to try to beat me deep and he would break me down."

On the game-winning touchdown pass to Garcon, if Rowe had played a little tighter coverage, he probably would have been able to break up the pass.

"It's a learning experience, man," cornerback Carroll said. "We still trust him. We're still with him. We can't turn our back on him. It's just one of those things that you've got to experience. I've gone through it. He's gone through it now. You just have to stick with him."

Said Thurmond: "The coverage (by Rowe on the touchdown catch) could've been a little tighter. But he's still growing, still getting experience.

"I think he wasn't ready for that situation that necessarily happened with Max going down so early in the game. It probably caught him a little off-guard. But in the long run, I think the experience will be good for him.

"Being out there for pretty much the whole game and going against some world-class athletes out there and competing and trusting himself that he can play in this league. That's the biggest thing for rookies, having that belief that you can play in this league. I think he'll make the necessary corrections this week and get better."

BY THE NUMBERS

-- Redskins quarterback completed 10 of 13 third-down passes against the Eagles for 91 yards and seven first downs. The Eagles had given up just nine third-down passing first downs in their first three games.

-- With one sack against the Redskins, the Eagles have just six sacks in their first four games. They had only seven after four games last year.

-- Twenty of the Redskins' 32 rushing attempts gained just 2 yards or less.

-- Chris Thompson's 42-yard run in the first quarter was the longest run against the Eagles this season. The Eagles gave up three double-digit-yard runs to the Redskins. They had allowed just four in their first three games.

-- Eighteen of the Redskins' 25 first downs against the Eagles came through the air. Four were rushing. Three more were via penalty.

-- Sam Bradford had three touchdown passes and no interceptions against the Redskins. It was just the fourth time in his career that he has thrown three or more touchdown passes in a game with no interceptions.

-- Bradford was 4-for-8 for 37 yards and a touchdown on third down. Two of his five sacks also came on third down. Bradford is averaging just 3.7 yards per attempt on third down in the first four games.

-- Nelson Agholor, Riley Cooper, Miles Austin and Brent Celek combined for eight catches, 197 yards and three TDs yesterday. In the Eagles' first four games, they had combined for 10 catches, 89 yards and no TDs.

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