Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\nWith Jayden Daniels shut down and Marcus Mariota dealing with a leg injury, the Commanders (5-12) started Johnson, their 39-year-old third-stringer. Johnson rallied the Commanders from a 17-10 hole with a 2-yard touchdown pass to John Bates and then scored on a 1-yard run with 2:32 left.<\/p>\n
Even with the No. 2 seed at stake and the possibility of two home playoff games that would come with it, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni decided to sit his starters, saying: \u201cIt\u2019s not a guarantee that we can get the 2 seed, but I can rest the starters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hurts, Barkley, wide receiver A.J. Brown and tight end Dallas Goedert sat out.<\/p>\n
The Eagles had to watch and root \u2014 for the Lions, too \u2014 like everyone else.<\/p>\n
Eagles fans cheered when each Detroit score against Chicago was shown on the videoboard. Sirianni said during the week he also would be scoreboard-watching, though he kept the cheering to his team\u2019s own plays, such as Tanner McKee\u2019s 15-yard TD pass to Grant Calcaterra for a 7-0 lead in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
The Commanders, also playing backups in a forgettable season a year after they faced the Eagles in the NFC championship game, refused to roll over and twisted the stomachs of Eagles fans into knots \u2014 and got them ready to light up talk radio this week.<\/p>\n
McKee had been impressive in limited action as Hurts\u2019 backup over the last two seasons but did little to improve his stock in the finale.<\/p>\n
He was 21 of 40 for 241 yards with an interception and was sacked on the final drive.<\/p>\n
Jake Moody sent Washington into halftime with a 10-7 lead on a 56-yard field goal.<\/p>\n
The Eagles pounced on a fumble in the third quarter and Tank Bigbsy, the sure-handed backup to Barkley, scored for a 14-10 lead. Jake Elliott kicked a 39-yarder for a 17-10 lead.<\/p>\n
The Eagles\u2019 shot at the 2 seed was upended when Kelee Ringo \u2014 yes, a backup \u2014 was flagged for pass interference to set up Johnson\u2019s go-ahead rushing TD.<\/p>\n
1,000 yards for DeVonta Smith<\/p>\n
Smith was one of the Eagles regulars who earned snaps, and he topped 1,000 yards receiving for the third time in his career.<\/p>\n
Smith entered the game 44 yards shy and exceeded 1,000 yards before the end of the first quarter. He had three catches for 52 yards \u2014 including a 27-yarder on his final reception that gave him a team-high 1,008 yards.<\/p>\n
Smith was immediately pulled from the game.<\/p>\n
Brown didn\u2019t need to play because he already had 1,003 yards.<\/p>\n
Injuries<\/p>\n
Eagles: Calcaterra left with an ankle\/knee injury. Offensive lineman Brandon Toth was evaluated for a concussion.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
The Commanders are set to have a top-10 pick in the NFL draft.<\/p>\n
The Eagles could play two road games if they want to return to the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
Jadeveon Clowney\u2019s strong finish to season with Cowboys may have increased his price tag<\/a>Tim Cowlishaw\u2019s Cowboys-Giants report card: Dallas fails the final exam<\/a><\/p>\nFind more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 The Eagles\u2019 backup plan backfired, and the Super Bowl champions will start their postseason defense of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1165,4990,6537,303,1418,69,71,70,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-77927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-cowboys","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","15":"tag-philadelphia-news","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}