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Washington Post (paywall)
Commanders might finally have an answer to their A.J. Brown problem
Cornerback Marshon Lattimore will face Brown for the fourth time in his career on Sunday at Northwest Stadium.
Since 2022, no player has collected more receiving yards against the Commanders than Philadelphia Eagles wideout A.J. Brown, who has 462 yards along with five touchdowns in his five meetings with Washington. The bulk of those yards came in 2023, when Brown taught a rookie cornerback a few lessons in coverage.
Marshon Lattimore, the four-time Pro Bowl cornerback acquired in a trade with the New Orleans Saints last month, was inactive and recovering from a hamstring injury when the Commanders lost to the Eagles in Week 11. His first game back from the injury was last week against his former team, which didn’t target him once in his 35 coverage snaps, according to Next Gen Stats.
Joe Whitt Jr. said Thursday. “I don’t foresee that being the case moving forward because people are at some point going to have to throw the ball at him.”
Lattimore has faced Brown in particular three times in his career. The first was in Week 16 of the 2019 season, when Brown was a rookie receiver for the Tennessee Titans. Lattimore traveled during the game, but Brown finished with one catch for 34 yards, which was against Lattimore in coverage.
Then in 2021, Brown was held to one catch on four targets for 16 yards in a Titans win over the Saints.
When they met again, in 2022, Brown’s first season with the Eagles, he had 97 yards on four catches, one of which was a 78-yard touchdown. He beat Paulson Adebo, not Lattimore, on the catch-and-run. Lattimore sealed the Saints’ victory with a fourth-quarter pick-six.
Washington Post (paywall)
Congress passes RFK bill in surprise move, giving D.C. control of stadium site
Passage of the legislation, which transfers the land to D.C. at no cost, is a tremendous win for Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who has long sought to redevelop the site.
Congress has passed legislation giving D.C. control of RFK Stadium and allowing the city to redevelop more than 170 acres of federal property surrounding it, a political miracle that came in the twilight hours of the year’s congressional session and after almost every avenue for the legislation appeared exhausted.
The U.S. Senate passed the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act by unanimous consent at about 1:15 a.m. Saturday — a Hail Mary action that required the support of all senators present without objection.
Passage of the legislation, which transfers control of the land to D.C. at no cost, is a tremendous win for Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who for years has sought to turn the property surrounding the decaying football stadium into a major new attraction and possibly bring the Washington Commanders back to their old home. The bill, which must still be signed by the president, will allow Bowser to formally negotiate with the Commanders — a possibility sure to excite the city’s football fans, who have not seen a home game in Washington since 1996.
Unanimous consent in the Senate — in which all senators present agree to let a bill pass, unless one objects — was also long seen as impossible: Maryland senators had objected to the RFK legislation because it could allow Bowser to lure the Commanders out of Northwest Stadium in Landover, which could be a major economic loss for the state, and because D.C. did not have to pay for the land.
But neither Maryland senator objected. Nor did Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the bill’s chief Republican opponent, who also long argued that D.C. should have to pay for the federal land. It was not immediately clear why or how the senators agreed to let the bill pass.
Any deal Bowser offers the team involving public funds would require approval from the D.C. Council, where lawmakers are split on the use of taxpayer dollars for a football stadium. That debate, along with questions about how the land surrounding the stadium should be used, is likely to dominate debate among council members in 2025.
Right now, the stadium is a rusty bowl surrounded by cracked parking lots that have little use.
Commanders.com
Three keys to Washington beating Philadelphia in the rematch
Offense needs to stay on the field in the second half.
There are two obvious reasons why the Commanders would want to sustain offensive drives in the second half.
For starters, it keeps any momentum they have squarely in their corner. That was something they struggled with in their first matchup with Philadelphia. They had just two drives that lasted longer than four minutes in the third and fourth quarters, one of which ended with a turnover on down while the other did end with a touchdown but came when the outcome was basically in the Eagles’ favor.
The Eagles didn’t hold the ball for long, either, but most of that was because they scored so quickly in the fourth quarter. Their longest drive, which took 11 plays and bled more than five minutes off the clock, ended with the touchdown that finally gave them the lead to start the fourth quarter.
That leads to the other reason why Washington must sustain drives in the second half: they must keep Barkley off the field. Nearly 1,100 of his 1,688 rushing yards have come in the second half, and as the Commanders can attest, he thrives on putting away games with his legs. It seems that the best way to contain Barkley is to keep the ball away from him. The only way to do that is by putting together long possessions that take time off the clock and, most importantly, end with points.
Commanders.com
Game Status | Jeremy Chinn, Zach Ertz questionable vs. Eagles
Tight end Zach Ertz and safety Jeremy Chinn are questionable for the Washington Commanders’ division matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday.
Both Ertz and Chinn left last weekend’s game against the New Orleans Saints with concussions. Ertz headed to the locker room after his head hit the turf on a one-handed, 19-yard reception in the second quarter, while Chinn went down following a collision on a 25-yard catch by Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Chinn was back at practice on Wednesday wearing a black “no contact” jersey and was listed as limited on the injury report. Ertz returned after taking Wednesday off and also wore the black jersey. Both players were full participants on Friday.
The Commanders are prepared for the possibility of one or both players being out for Sunday’s game, but Chinn and Ertz provide each side of the ball with a unique skill set that is hard to replace. Chinn has been a physical player for the Commanders’ defense and played in all of the team’s defensive snaps in the previous five games.
Kicker Zane Gonzalez will be available for the Commanders after being ruled out against the Saints. Gonzalez missed practice on Wednesday for personal reasons but was a full participant on Thursday and Friday.
Both guard Sam Cosmi and tight end John Bates missed practice at various points this week while recovering from an illness but will be available for Sunday’s game.
Defensive tackle Jonathan Allen is the only player who has been ruled out against the Eagles, head coach Dan Quinn confirmed in his Friday press conference.
Upcoming opponent
Bleeding Green Nation
Eagles opposing player to stop, Week 16 edition
Can Vic Fangio stifle the Commanders’ promising rookie quarterback once again?
Washington Commanders’ rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels certainly wants another crack at the No. 1 defense in the NFL after Daniels and the Commanders fell to the Eagles, 26-18, on November 15.
Washington carries a…two-game winning streak into the game.
Daniels said this week to the Washington media, “No matter who we play, everything starts up front. They got good football players over there, we got good football players here, so it’s more so about the will and the want to up-front between everybody and just the whole team want to go out there, who wants it more. The team with the more want to will prevail in this game.”