Flashback to When Washington Ruined Another Perfect Season

Story by Yinzer Crazy Contributor Jayson Erwin. Follow him on Twitter @JaysonErwin2002

Sometimes you can only bully the little guy so much before he snaps. In this case, the Commanders are the little guy and the Eagles and Steelers are the bullies. In the past 3 years, the Commanders have faced two teams with an 8-0 record or better. The first was in 2020, in a week 13 matchup against the 11-0 Steelers -- and Pittsburgh had about a 72% chance to win against a struggling 4-7 Washington team. And the second time was last night in Philadelphia, when the Commanders faced an 8-0 Eagles team with about an 85% chance to win. Two so-far undefeated Pennsylvania teams looking to give the '72 Dolphins a run for their money and win it all going up against struggling Washington teams. Both Keystone State teams have a really good chance to win. What could go wrong...?

So if you look at the 2020 Steelers and 2022 Eagles from a midseason perspective they are very different but very similar teams. The Steelers had a veteran QB, an accomplished leader in Ben Roethlisberger, while the Eagles have a young rising star in Jalen Hurts. But both have talented receiving corps with the Steelers having Juju Smith Schuster and Diontae Johnson and the Eagles having AJ Brown and Devonta Smith. Both were ridiculed because some say they haven't faced "real" teams at the height of their popularity. I believe this is a ludicrous statement because every team is different and every scheme will either be better or worse than other teams no matter how good or bad the other teams are. But if we must go by records at the time, the Steelers beat 3 teams over .500 by 8-0, 4 by 11-0. The Eagles beat 2 over .500 teams by 8-0. But no matter how you put it, both teams have a lot of talent and if you beat them, that's a lot of momentum for you.

The Eagles and Steelers had a lot of confidence going into their home matchups vs. Washington. Both fanbases can see a Lombardi trophy in their futures with still a long way to go. A lot of fans were saying "Hey, this should be an easy one. At home, against an under .500 team, and the team is mostly healthy? I thought we only got one bye week, here we go!". Let's rundown how both games went starting with the Steelers.

The Steelers started firing in the second quarter and had a 14-0 lead until Washington got a last-second field goal to end the 2nd quarter. Fun fact! Before this game, the Steelers in Heinz Field were 78-1-1 when up by 14+ points. In the 3rd quarter, the Washington defense held the Steelers offense down, giving up zero points that quarter and scoring a touchdown. The score was now 14-10. Fourth quarter time! Steelers would kick a field goal and go up 17-10 as the quarter started. Later on, with less than 10 minutes to go, Washington would score a touchdown and tie 17-17. Now around the 2-minute mark, the Commanders would get a field goal and be up 20-17. The Steelers would get the ball back with more than enough time to put a game-winning drive together. First play...intercepted by former Steeler Jon Bostic. With that, Washington chewed the clock down and got a field goal to go up 23-17 with only 17 seconds left. Washington scored a huge upset against the no longer undefeated Steelers. Washington would go on to make the playoffs finishing 7-9 after starting 2-7 and winning 5 of their last 7 games in the season against a struggling NFC East division.

The Steelers would only win 1 game after their first loss of the season, finish 12-4, and win the division but get embarrassed by their rival, the Cleveland Browns, in the playoffs. A very depressing time, indeed.

Now onto Philadelphia! The Eagles were riding a lot of momentum going into their matchup versus the Commanders on Monday night. The Eagles right now have the best odds to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Earlier in the year, the Eagles beat the Commanders 24-8 so this should be a comfortable game for Philly. But the Commanders made the game interesting early on up 20-14 at the start of the second half. Not a lot of action in the 3rd quarter but a field goal by Washington's Joey Slye put them up in a two-score advantage 23-14 vs. Philly.

Fortunately for Philly, Jalen Hurts threw a touchdown to DeVonta Smith to get them back within a score, and now it's 23-21. Another Commanders field goal puts them up 26-21 and gives Philly a chance to put the Commanders away. The first drive after the field goal ends with a fumble recovery for the Commanders after a big 50-yard catch gets by Quez Watkins gets knocked out. The Eagles defense comes up clutch though and forces the Commanders to punt. Less than 3:30 left in the game and the Eagles need a touchdown to win. 3rd down and a huge sack by Montez Sweat forces the Eagles to punt again with less than 2 minutes to go. But they have all 3 timeouts.

The Commanders get stopped on 3rd down with a sack...or it seemed. A flag is on the field for unnecessary roughness on Philadelphia's Brandon Graham after he hits Taylor Heinicke on a play where the Commanders QB appeared to give himself up. WOW! And that gets the Commanders a first down. Commanders take a knee and punt. That was a wrap on the undefeated season in Philly. Seem familiar?

Some lessons are taught in history, and history has repeated itself in these two games. We'll see if the Eagles make or break based off this game. The Steelers had a lot of confidence but it was all destroyed after losing a few games late, and the naysayers were out in full throat. The Eagles have no time to rest though. The Cowboys and Giants are right behind them. But what is the moral of the story? That would be hope you don't face Washington if you're undefeated and based in Pennsylvania. You'll have a bad day.