We've been kind of spoiled, I guess, by the Thursday night shootouts between the Falcons and Bucs and Bengals and Ravens in recent weeks. More commonly in the past, it's been offenses looking out of sync on the short week. That's what we got last night.

I don't want to discredit the defenses. Whoever was doing the pregame speeches for Washington deserves a raise, because Commanders defenders were flying all over the field (not literally) from the get-go, delivering punishing hits, throwing receivers around, looking like they were going to impose their will on things. The Eagles looked flustered and shaky early, and a pair of field goal misses and the booing home crowd didn't help. It was 7-3 at the half. But that's why they play four quarters -- it was all Eagles after the break. Let's get to it.

QUARTERBACKS

Just before halftime, Jalen Hurts was in the blue tent being evaluated for a concussion. It made sense, because he played the first half like he was in a fog. Skipping balls at receivers' feet, holding it too long, even his scrambles looked labored. There was a bad-looking trick play attempt that resulted in a 13-yard sack. Just before that field goal in the final two minutes he got tackled from behind and his face mashed into the turf. If you had Hurts (or even if you didn't), you were reasonably worried whether we were going to see Kenny Pickett after halftime. He just didn't look comfortable, and the Washington pass rush deserves some credit.

But things got better. They were rolling him out with some success, and he made a couple of accurate short-range throws. And oh yeah, his running back took over. But in general he salvaged things, with another 1-yard touchdown too. (Which was lucky; kind of looked like Barkley got in on the previous play, but the officials just hate to give running backs those touchdowns for some reason unless they're lying flat on their backs in the end zone.)

Jayden Daniels, well, he had a rough night. Credit also to the Eagles defense, which got a lot of pressure on him. Mentioned in the Weekly that the otherworldly play from Daniels the first month to six weeks has gone away, pretty much since the rib injury against Carolina. I don't know if he's still hurting, or it's just affected him mentally, or it's just a case of facing some tougher defenses. But Daniels had a bad night throwing the ball, especially to the sides of the field, and none of his runs went anywhere either. Bad day at the office.

The Commanders basically lost this game midway through the fourth quarter. Trailing 12-10, they had maybe their only good drive of the night, picking up a first down on a pass to Terry McLaurin and then 9 yards on a similar play the next play. Then they got stuffed on three straight badly blocked runs and a awkward-looking quarterback scramble, turning it over on downs. Eagles got a couple big plays and a touchdown, Daniels threw a bad pick, and that was it. Fair to wonder how the game might have gone had they picked up that first down, but they didn't and things snowballed from there. A home game against Dallas next week should help, at least.

RUNNING BACKS

It's a rough time to be a Giants fan. The quarterback they chose to give a big new contract to instead of Saquon Barkley is going to be benched; because of that contract he might never play another snap for New York. They don't give MVP awards to running backs, but if they did, Barkley would be the guy -- is any player really that much more important to his team's record than Barkley? A huge night, which would have been even bigger but for the Tush Push, but no one who started him is really complaining. We're seeing greatness at the running back position, too bad he'll come in fourth or fifth in the MVP voting behind quarterbacks.

Brian Robinson is one of those guys I have everywhere and he seems pretty underrated to me. Scored an early touchdown last night (looked like he had to score it twice, but they didn't give us a review of the first one), probably would have scored a couple the last two weeks he missed if healthy. Averaging 4.5 yards per attempt and saving those of us who didn't draft running backs early, or have been riddled with injuries.

Austin Ekeler is also underrated. One poor season for the Chargers, maybe while dealing with injury, and everyone acted like he was washed up. (I'm not excluding myself from "everyone," I also had written the guy off.) He had a Chargers-esque game last night, rushing for only 7 yards but catching 8 for 89. Washington used both backs on a lot of plays last night, which was interesting but considering the offense scored only 1 touchdown until the final seconds it's hard to call it successful. But nice for those who started either back. Rough game overall against a good defense, but I will definitely be starting Robinson and Ekeler (or would if I had him) next week against the Cowboys.

WIDE RECEIVERS

I thought about skipping this positional section, since the teams themselves certainly did. Jahan Dotson caught an 8-yard pass on the game's opening play, having me briefly wondering if I'd overlooked the revenge game angle with Dotson against the team that traded him away to a division rival. Uh nope, that was his only catch all night. A.J. Brown had 8 targets, including an end-zone look, but you're fortunate to get 5 for 65, Hurts didn't seem to have a good feel for those throws. Devonta Smith was even worse (4 for 29), answering the question of whether he'd make a big impact on his birthday with a resounding no. Smith did get an end-zone target right before the half that was broken up on a good defensive play, at least. Some credit can be given to the Washington secondary, which has played better since a rough opening month and will at some point add Marshon Lattimore to the gameday active roster, but a lot of it was just Hurts struggling to make those outside throws.

Terry McLaurin is having a great year, but that's an ugly game to be looking at in fantasy lineups for the next three days. What can you do? He can't throw the ball to himself, and Daniels didn't throw a pass outside the hash marks the entire first half. Just two targets for wide receivers in that 30 minutes. McLaurin's only catch was a diving grab to open the fourth quarter. Painful. Give the defense some credit, particularly Eagles rookie corner Quinyon Mitchell, but either the game plan or the quarterback's mindset had no interest in even attempting those passes. No point even talking about Noah Brown, whose most noteworthy play was being the target of the interception that basically ended the game. Moving on.

TIGHT ENDS

Score one for Revenge Game fans, with Zach Ertz catching 6 passes for 47 yards and a touchdown in front of the team that drafted him, with a truly amazing 2-point conversion that the official staring right at it ruled incomplete presumably because he couldn't believe an elderly 34-year-old could possibly make such a grab (he did). Ertz didn't catch pass No. 2 until the fourth quarter, so most of that production was of the meaningless variety, but not to those of us who put him in the lineup.

Dallas Goedert also had a nice game; as usual when he has a good game, you wonder a little why he gets forgotten about some weeks. There was a late fumble that could have been costly, but it was a great defensive play to punch the ball out, not many players are hanging onto that one. Goedert can be in lineups at least until he gets hurt again.

SPECIAL TEAMS

I've written some about Nick Siranni costing the Eagles some points in recent weeks by passing up field goals. Maybe Sirianni knows what he's doing, because Jake Elliott was down bad last night. He missed 44- and 51-yard field goals that weren't particularly close. He missed one extra point and was fortunate to sneak another just inside the upright. Elliott has made some clutch kicks over the years but I have to think the Eagles are at least flipping through the Rolodex for alternatives.

MISCELLANEOUS

I don't know any Commanders fans. Do people like Dan Quinn? No one can complain about his emotion and investment in the proceedings, celebrating defensive stops and missed field goals like the birth of his child. With his beard and body type he looks like a jolly Santa Claus on the sidelines, they really need to think about dressing him in red for December home games. Rough game last night, but with the next three against Dallas, Tennessee and New Orleans, I'm pretty comfortable this 7-4 team is going to playoffs. (I will note however that that's a really bad run defense -- even Kenneth Gainwell looked good with his spot duty last night, so I'll be interested in Rico Dowdle, Tony Pollard and Alvin Kamara in those games.)

Quinn did have kind of a strange use of a timeout shortly before halftime. Eagles were driving and had a first and 10 at the Washington 20 with 58 seconds left. They had a 2-yard run to set up a 2nd and 8 with 53 seconds left and Washington burned a timeout. I understand the concept of saving time for yourself, but that was goofy: it was second down. It only helped the Eagles. There's been plenty of talk about the inane sideline moves Siranni makes, so equal time for Quinn here.

But looks good for the Eagles winning the NFC East. They've got the better defense, and they've got the league MVP. If that award ever went to a non-quarterback again.