4 differences between the Eagles and the Commanders from Week 11 to Week 16

There is one last thing the Philadelphia Eagles have to do in the regular season: beat teams twice. They get their first chance to do that in Week 16 against the Washington Commanders. If they do, they’ll clinch the NFC East.

The last time these teams played was five weeks ago in Week 11. Things have changed since then. Before, the Commanders were supposed to have an offense that could break the Eagles' defense. It didn’t and Washington got exposed as frauds.

Since then, the Commanders lost to the Cowboys, slaughtered the Titans, and squeaked out a win over the Saints … but most importantly, they had their bye week in Week 14. That team has changed a little bit with their season outlook, their players, and how they’re using some of the good ones.

The Eagles aren’t seeing the same Commanders as before

It’s not like the Commanders had a huge game in Week 11. Jayden Daniels only threw for 191 yards, Austin Ekeler was the leading receiver, and Terry McLaurin was held to one catch for 10 yards. There are a few noticeable differences in who’s going to be on the field and how they’re using their pass catchers, so let’s start with their best player, Terry McLaurin.

Terry McLaurin is moving around

The caveat with this is that the Commanders have had just one game since the bye week and they were playing a terrible Saints team. Maybe some of these changes are made because they self-scouted, or maybe it’s just the way they decided to attack a team whose season fell off the face of the planet. Time will tell.

Regardless, going into Week 11, the Commanders’ best wide receiver Terry McLaurin lined up on the left side of the ball 75.8% of the time. That put him on Quinyon Mitchell and he had a predictably terrible time. I should note that his one catch was when he was lined up in the slot on the right.

Unfortunately, it seems like the offense is learning. In Week 15 McLaurin was targeted on just as many routes when he was lined up on the left side of the field as he was on the right side of the field. Looking at these charts, you can see that it’s a pretty big change from what had been going on every other week. 

He was also in motion a lot against the Saints. It felt like most of the time it was to send him from the right side to the left side, but they did throw the ball at him three out of the four times he ran a route out of motion. 

The point of all this is that it looked like offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury was actually trying to get Terry open instead of just throwing him on one side of the field hoping for the best. That’s a bummer because, in Week 15, he also had his highest target rate (29.4%) since Week 8 when he had 35.3%. You’d prefer for a team with a perpetually bad offense to stay that way, rather than try to make their star wide receiver’s life easier so they can throw at him more.

Marshon Lattimore will play

One of the biggest moves at the trade deadline was when the Commanders traded for four-time Pro-Bowler Marshon Lattimore. The oft-injured cornerback was dealing with a hamstring injury and didn’t play in the Week 11 game. Lattimore is healthy this time. 

Now, this shouldn’t necessarily be a big issue because the wide receivers that we’re talking about here are A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. It’s not like either of these guys is going to be shut down by anyone, but Lattimore is a good cornerback and he’s definitely better than Benjamin St-Juste who saw a lot of playing time in Week 11.

Lattimore is probably going to shadow A.J. Brown most of the time, which will be fun. The last time he did that was Week 17 of the 2022 season. That was a game where Gardner Minshew was the quarterback and A.J. had four catches for 97 yards and a touchdown. 

If the Eagles’ passing offense looks as good as it did against the Steelers, it’s going to be very funny to see the mental breakdown that Commanders’ fans will have on Twitter. For some reason, they think Lattimore is the guy who can shut down the most dominant and physical wide receiver in the NFL. 

It’s bizarre and sad.

Austin Ekeler is out

In Week 11, Austin Ekeler was the Commanders’ leading pass catcher. The running back had 89 receiving yards off of eight catches. They were all screens and check-downs and the yards came after the catch. He’s actually the Commanders’ fourth-highest pass catcher with 33 catches for 346 yards.

Well, Ekeler got concussed in Week 12 and went to the IR, which stinks for him. The IR-worthy concussions are the scary ones. He’s not going to be eligible to come off the IR until Week 18 so we won’t be seeing him on Sunday.

That’ll be pretty detrimental for Jayden Daniels to not have a relatively sure-handed running back to throw the ball to when his wide receivers and tight ends are covered downfield. If Jayden wants to hit a running back it’ll have to be Brian Robinson Jr. who only has 15 catches for 127 yards or Jeremy McNichols who has three catches for seven yards. 

Zach Ertz might be out

Zach Ertz was the only Commanders’ pass catcher to make it into the end zone in Week 11, and that happened in the most garbagey of garbage time. Unfortunately, the former Philadelphia Eagle Great might not play in Week 16. He left the Week 15 game early with a concussion and never made it back onto the field. 

Facts are Facts: Zach Ertz is OUR guy and it’s a bummer seeing him play some of the last games of his career for a division rival. He’s also 34 years old and in his 13th season in the NFL. Hopefully, he takes care of himself and doesn’t play. 

Sure, it’d be more competitive if he did play and that’d be fun, but the guy is a Super Bowl hero and no one wants to see an older player play hurt, especially if the part that is hurt is his brain. We don’t want to see his brain get turned into hummus by Zach Baun or Cooper DeJean; that’d be terrible.

Those are just the key/bigger/impact players who are going to either be out or potentially playing differently. Safety Jeremy Chinn is in concussion protocol and kicker Zane Gonzalez is dealing with a foot thing.  

Without Ertz or Ekeler, the Commanders are going to have to get weird with their usage of McLaurin. Luckily, ‘weird’ for the Commanders just means not having the guy line up in the same spot every play.  That’s called ‘normal’ for just about every other team in the NFL.