The Washington Post - USA (2021-12-22)

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D5

1234 FINAL

Washington 10 00 717

Eagles 01010727

Washington drives

Time received

How ball obtained

Drive began

Number of plays

Net yards

Last snap

Drive result 11 5:00 KickoffWAS 25 42 6PHI 49 Punt 21 1:29 Interception PHI 26 72 6PHI 1Touchdown 34 :25 Fumble WAS 47 54 9PHI 4Field goal 41 3:15 Punt WAS 20 38 WAS 28 Punt 58 :07KickoffWAS 25 38 WAS 33 Punt 61 :29 KickoffWAS 30 51 2PHI 48 End of half 71 2:26 KickoffWAS 25 3-1WAS 24 Punt 88 :35 Punt WAS 10 59 WAS 19 Punt 90 :18 KickoffWAS 31 76 9PHI 1Touchdown 10 7:46 KickoffWAS 25 12 26 PHI 39 Downs 11 0:19 Downs WAS 20 11 3WAS 20 End of game

FIRST QUARTER

Washington: Gibson 1 run (B.Johnson kick), 8:15. Washington: FG B.Johnson 22, 2:47. SECOND QUARTER Philadelphia: FG Elliott 20, 8:07. Philadelphia: Hurts 1 run (Elliott kick), 1:29. THIRD QUARTER Philadelphia: Hurts 1 run (Elliott kick), 12:26. Philadelphia: FG Elliott 37, :18. FOURTH QUARTER Washington: Patterson 1 run (B.Johnson kick), 11:44. Philadelphia: Ward 19 pass from Hurts (Elliott kick), 7:46. WAS PHI First Downs .......................................... 1423 Rushing ................................................... 5 11 Passing .................................................... 8 12 Penalty .................................................... 1 0 Third Down Eff .................................. 6-13 7-13 Fourth Down Eff ................................. 0-1 0-1 Total Net Yards ................................... 237 519 Total Plays ............................................ 5470 Avg Gain ............................................... 4.4 7.4 Net Yards Rushing ................................ 63238 Rushes .................................................. 2141 Avg Per Rush ....................................... 3.0 5.8 Net Yards Passing .............................. 174 281 Sacked-Yds Lost ............................... 2-20 3-15 Gross-Yds Passing .............................. 194 296 Completed-Att. ............................... 20-31 20-26 Had Intercepted ...................................... 0 1 Yards-Pass Play ................................... 5.3 9.7 Kickoffs-Endzone-Tb ....................... 4-2-1 6-4-4 Punts-Avg. ..................................... 5-48.0 2-37.5 Punts Blocked ......................................... 0 0 Fgs-Pats Blocked ................................ 0-0 0-0 Total Return Yardage ........................... 6793 Punt Returns ....................................... 0-0 3-22 Kickoff Returns ................................. 2-67 3-71 Interceptions ...................................... 1-0 0-0 Penalties-Yds ................................... 2-25 4-48 Fumbles-Lost ...................................... 2-0 2-1 Time Of Possession ......................... 24:43 35:17 RUSHING Washington: Gibson 15-26, Patterson 4-20, Carter 1-12, Williams 1-5. Philadelphia: Sanders 18-131, Howard 15-69, Hurts 8-38. PASSING Washington: Gilbert 20-31-0-194. Philadelphia: Hurts 20-26-1-296. RECEIVING Washington: Gibson 6-39, Seals-Jones 4-29, Humphries 3-23, McLaurin 2-51, Carter 2-12, Bates 1-29, Sims 1-13, Milne 1-(minus 2). Philadelphia: Goedert 7-135, Reagor 3-57, Smith 3-40, Ward 2-28, Sanders 2-15, Watkins 2-14, Stoll 1-7. PUNT RETURNS Washington: None. Philadelphia: Reagor 3-22. KICKOFF RETURNS Washington: Carter 2-67. Philadelphia: Gainwell 3-71. TACKLES-ASSISTS-SACKS Washington: Reaves 9-3-0, Holcomb 6-4-0, Davis 5-4-0, J.Allen 5-2-1, Collins 4-2-0, Ioannidis 3-1-0, D.Johnson 3-1-0, McCain 3-1-0, Payne 3-1-0, Rotimi 2-2-1, Sweat 2-2-1, Jackson 2-1-0, Roberts 1-2-0, Toohill 0-5-0, Spence 0-1-0. Philadelphia: Singleton 4-4-0, Edwards 4-2-0, Maddox 4-0-0, Slay 4-0-0, McLeod 3-1-0, Epps 3-0-0, Ta.Jackson 3-0-0, Barnett 2-1-0, Nelson 2-1-0, Hargrave 1-3-.5, Cox 1-2-1.5, Sweat 1-1-0, M.Williams 1-1-0, Avery 1-0-0, Reagor 1-0-0, Ridgeway 1-0-0. INTERCEPTIONS Washington: Collins 1-0. Philadelphia: None. MISSED FIELD GOALS None.

NFL WEEK 15

SEPT. 12

L

LAC

20-16

SEPT. 16

W

NYG

30 -29

SEPT. 26

L

@ BUF

43 -21

OCT. 3

W

@ ATL

34-30

OCT. 10

L

NO

33 -22

OCT. 17

L

KC

31- 13

OCT. 24

L

@ GB

24 -10

OCT. 31

L

@ DEN

17-10

NOV.

7

BYE

NOV. 14

W

TB

29 -19

NOV. 21

W

@ CAR

27-2 1

NOV. 29

W

SEA

17-15

DEC. 5

W

@ LV

17-15

DEC. 12

L

DAL

27-20

DEC. 21

L

@ PHI

27-1 7

DEC.

26

@ DAL

8:20, NBC

JAN.

2

PHI

1, Fox

JAN.

9

@ NYG

1, Fox

Washington’s schedule

Philadelphia drives

Time received

How ball obtained

Drive began

Number of plays

Net yards

Last snap

Drive result 11 2:40 Punt PHI 13 39 PHI 22 Interception 28 :15 KickoffPHI 31 74 5WAS 16 Fumble 32 :47KickoffPHI 29 73 0WAS 41 Punt 41 1:30 Punt PHI 23 87 5WAS 2Field goal 56 :19 Punt PHI 23 11 77 WAS 1Touchdown 61 5:00 KickoffPHI 25 67 5WAS 1Touchdown 71 1:31 Punt PHI 31 52 5WAS 44 Punt 86 :11 Punt PHI 37 10 44 WAS 19 Field goal 91 1:44 KickoffPHI 20 88 0WAS 19 Touchdown 10 2:29 Downs PHI 49 73 1WAS 24 Downs

RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST

Washington running back Antonio Gibson takes the high road, opening the scoring with a one-yard leap into the end zone.

SCORING

Excerpted from
washingtonpost.com/sports

D epleted Washington

runs out of gas late

With Taylor Heinicke and Kyle
Allen on the covid-19 reserve list
and unable to test out of the NFL’s
protocols before Tuesday’s 4 p.m.
deadline, 30-year-old journeyman
Garrett Gilbert became the third
quarterback to start for
Washington this season and the
10th over the past four years.
Gilbert completed 20 of 31 passes
for 194 yards in his second career
start, and he played about as well
as could be expected from
someone who was signed off the
New England Patriots’ practice
squad late last week.
Roughly two dozen players
joined Heinicke and Allen on the
covid list over the past two weeks,
and while several returned in
time for Tuesday’s postponed
game, Washington was still
missing key starters on both sides
of the ball. Those circumstances,
coupled with injuries suffered
during the game, were too much
for Coach Ron Rivera’s squad to
overcome against a healthier and
more experienced Eagles team
that was well rested coming off a
bye.

Cashing in on miscues

Washington was always going to
need a few breaks to go its way to
spring an upset, and it got them
in the first quarter. On
Philadelphia’s opening drive, a
dropped third-down pass by
Dallas Goedert deflected off the
tight end’s heel and into the
arms of Washington’s Landon
Collins at the Eagles’ 26-yard
line. Seven plays later, Antonio
Gibson’s one-yard touchdown
run gave Washington the lead.
Montez Sweat, who returned
to the lineup for the first time
since fracturing his jaw against
Denver in Week 8, ended
Philadelphia’s second possession

TAKEAWAYS

BY GREG BEACHAM

inglewood, calif. — Cooper Kupp caught two touchdown passes from Matthew Stafford in the second half, and the Los Ange- les Rams held off the Seattle Sea- hawks, 20-10, on Tuesday night in a rescheduled game between c oronavirus-depleted teams. Kupp broke Isaac Bruce’s s ingle-season Rams receptions record in the third quarter with a six-yard touchdown grab that was also the 120th catch of his spectac- ular year. The NFL’s receiving leader then scored a tiebreaking 29-yard touchdown with 10:48 to play on a picture-perfect throw over the middle from Stafford to cap an 88-yard drive. Stafford passed for 244 yards and Sony Michel rushed for 92 for the Rams (10-4) in a game postponed from Sunday, while Kupp had nine catches for 136 yards in the third straight victory for Los Angeles after a w inless November. With its third victory over Seat- tle in the calendar year, Los Ange- les pulled even with Arizona atop the NFC West with three games to play, although the Cardinals hold the tiebreaker on division record. DeeJay Dallas rushed for a touchdown for the Seahawks (5-9), w hose streak o f nine consecutive winning seasons under Coach Pete Carroll ended. Seattle is still mathematically alive for its ninth playoff appearance in those 10 seasons but will regret losing a winnable game at SoFi Stadium. Both defenses excelled in a meeting of teams with significant coronavirus-related absences. The Rams were without starting right tackle Rob Havenstein, leading tackler Jordan Fuller, tight end Tyler H igbee and a host of b ackups

after 10 days of roster turmoil, while the Seahawks were without leading receiver Tyler Lockett, starting cornerback D.J. Reed and leading rusher Alex Collins. Carlos Dunlap had three of the Seahawks’ four sacks of Stafford, who didn’t get comfortable behind a r econfigured o ffensive line. Seattle just couldn’t get enough late stops or big p lays from Russell Wilson, who finished 17 for 31 for 156 yards and underthrew DK Metcalf on a key play in the fourth quarter, allowing Jalen Ramsey to break it up. After Kupp’s second score, Los Angeles stopped Seattle on downs at midfield with 3:21 to play when Greg Gaines forced Wilson to throw quickly and officials didn’t call possible pass interference committed a gainst Dallas by rook- ie Rams linebacker Ernest Jones. Matt Gay made his second field goal for Los Angeles with 1:51 left, and Taylor Rapp sealed it with an interception i n the end zone i n the final seconds. The Rams hung o n in a frustrat- ing game with big performances from their remarkable quarterback-receiver combo. Kupp had his 10th consecutive game with at least 90 receiving yards, a first in the N FL in the past 70 years. Earlier, Stafford became the fastest quarterback in NFL history to rack up 50,0 00 passing yards when playoff totals are in- cluded. Neither team reached the end zone in the first half, with the Rams scoring only three points despite possessing the ball for 21 minutes and driving into S eattle’s end four times. While the Seahawks got to Stafford four t imes, Von Miller got his first sack with the R ams during the first half, while Aaron Donald sacked Wilson in the second for his 17 th sack in their 17 games against each other. — Associated Press

Kupp sets mark as Rams

catch Cardinals in West

RAMS 20,

SEAHAWKS 10

with a strip-sack of Jalen Hurts that Collins recovered and returned to midfield. Brian Johnson capped Washington’s ensuing drive with a 22-yard field goal to give the visitors a 1 0-0 lead. The score was 10-10 at halftime despite Philadelphia outgaining Washington 261 -139 in the first two quarters.

Eagles’ offense rolls When the Eagles weren’t hurting themselves with dropped passes, turnovers and penalties, they moved the ball against Washington’s decimated defense with a mix of runs and passes. Hurts, the second-year quarterback who missed Philadelphia’s Week 13 win over the New York Jets with a sprained ankle, recovered enough during the bye week to return to the

lineup. He completed 20 of 26 passes for 296 yards, his most since Week 4, and had two rushing touchdowns. The Eagles, who came in averaging 210 rushing yards over their previous six contests, eclipsed that total by the end of the third quarter and finished with 238 against a tired Washington defense that had limited five of its previous seven opponents to fewer than 100 yards on the ground. Miles Sanders led the way with 18 carries for 131 yards, including a 38-yard burst on Philadelphia’s six-play touchdown drive to open the third quarter. The Eagles enjoyed a more than 10-minute advantage in time of possession.

Postseason hopes hurt Tuesday’s loss dealt a serious

blow to Washington’s postseason chances, which were hovering around 50 percent before the team’s Week 14 loss to the Cowboys. At 6-8, Washington is one game behind the New Orleans Saints, Minnesota Vikings and Eagles in the race for the seventh and final NFC playoff spot with three games remaining. The Atlanta Falcons are also 6-8. According to FiveThirtyEight’s projections, Washington’s playoff chances dropped from 20 percent to less than 10 percent after its second straight loss. Washington will play the Cowboys at AT&T Field on short rest Sunday night before a rematch with the Eagles at FedEx Field the following week. Washington closes the season at the New York Giants. — Scott Allen

RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST

Jalen Hurts, center, rushed for two touchdowns as the Eagles finished with 238 yards on the ground.

TOTAL NET

Y ARDS

x

WASH PHI 237519 54 plays 70 plays 4.4 avg.7.4 avg.

NET PASSING

YARDS

x

x WASH PHI 174281 31 att.26 att. 5.3 avg.9.7 avg.

NET RUSHING

YARDS

x

x WASH PHI 63 238 21 att.41 att. 3.0 avg.5.8 avg.

TIME OF

POSSESSION

x x WASH PHI 24:43 35:17