PHILADELPHIA — There are no moral victories in the National Football League.
That cliché was the message from the Washington Football team after its 27-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Tuesday.
“In the NFL, you get paid to handle adversity. We could b—— and moan about COVID, but nobody cares,” said star defensive lineman Jonathan Allen. “It really doesn’t matter. If we do our job, we win the game today. We didn’t do our job, and we got embarrassed.”
But while an actual victory would have been preferable — especially for Washington’s shrinking playoff chances — it’s inarguable that the team’s COVID-19 situation played a heavy factor in the loss.
Washington was one of three NFL teams, in addition to the Cleveland Browns and the Los Angeles Rams, to have severe COVID-19 outbreaks last week, prompting the NFL to postpone its game in Philadelphia from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday night. Throughout last week, more than two dozen Washington players were placed on the COVID-19 list, including several starters and quarterbacks Taylor Heinicke and Kyle Allen. A few of the starters and role players returned in time for Tuesday’s game, but most of them — including the quarterbacks — did not.
The COVID-19 outbreak started right before the team’s Week 14 game against Dallas — after a four-game winning streak and in the midst of a playoff push. Washington was an NFC wild card team entering each of the last two weekends, but now at 6-8, Ron Rivera’s squad is one loss away from seeing its playoff aspirations fade away.
“It is frustrating because of the timing,” Rivera admitted about the team’s COVID-19 outbreak. “But that’s the nature of the game. You have to be able to handle tough circumstances. I would’ve liked to have handled these last couple of weeks better than we did.”
The situation led to Rivera starting a quarterback who wasn’t on the team six days prior. Garrett Gilbert, who the team signed off New England’s practice squad on Friday, started his second career game and did enough to nearly cover the team’s 9.5-point underdog spread, but not nearly enough to win the game. He was 20-for-31 passing for 194 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.
In total, Washington had 13 players and seven assistant coaches on the COVID-19 list as of kickoff — and three more who came off the list Tuesday but were still inactive. The most notable players in quarantine were Heinicke, center Tyler Larsen, All-Pro right guard Brandon Scherff, No. 1 corner Kendall Fuller and starting safety Kam Curl.
And if the COVID-19 absences weren’t enough, the overall discombobulation of having an outbreak — virtual meetings, less practice time and the looming virus that could cause more havoc any day — was an added distraction with which the team had to contend.
But Rivera and his players maintained they weren’t going to blame the coronavirus for the loss. Instead, Allen put the brunt of the fault on the defensive line, which got bulldozed by Philadelphia to the tune of 238 yards on 41 rushes (5.8 yards per carry) by Jalen Hurts (two touchdowns) and running backs Miles Sanders (131 yards) and Jordan Howard (69 yards). It was the worst run-stopping performance of Washington’s season — 144 more yards allowed than its fourth-ranked average entering the game and 75 more than its previous high of 163 against the Giants in Week 2.
“Put this game on the [defensive] line,” Allen said. “… I don’t think we did anything well enough today when you give up however many yards we gave up on the ground. We got our ass kicked. They were just the better team today.”
What exacerbated Washington’s poor run defense was its equally bad pass defense. Hurts, who entered the game as a career 57% passer, picked apart Washington’s banged-up secondary — without Fuller and Curl due to COVID-19 as well as William Jackson, who injured his ankle in the second quarter and didn’t return. Hurts finished the game 20-of-26 passing for 296 yards and a touchdown.
It wasn’t all bad for Washington. The game started about as well as possible for the Burgundy and Gold.
Two Landon Collins turnovers — one wacky interception that bounced off Dallas Goedert’s foot and a fumble recovery after a Montez Sweat strip sack — set up two scoring drives for the Gilbert-led offense, including a 1-yard Antonio Gibson touchdown run. But the momentum of a 10-0 first-quarter lead was fleeting, as the Eagles scored the game’s next 20 points, drove 80 yards downfield after Jaret Patterson pulled Washington within three points with a 1-yard plunge and then sacked Gilbert on fourth down to seal the victory.
“We had some momentum early on, but we couldn’t capitalize on the momentum,” Rivera said. “You can’t let good teams stay around. If you have an opportunity, you have to make plays.”
