Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury met with the media on Thursday to preview this Sunday’s rematch against the Philadelphia Eagles.
The two NFC East rivals met just five weeks ago, with the Eagles coming away with a 26-18 victory. The Commanders actually led this game heading into the fourth quarter. But Philadelphia running back Saquon Barkley took over in the fourth quarter, rushing for two touchdowns and finishing with 198 yards of total offense.
In the first meeting, the Commanders, a top-five NFL offense all season, managed only 264 total yards against the top-ranked Philly defense. Kingsbury singled out one player from the Week 11 meeting who “wrecked” the Commanders.
“It starts, I think, with coach [Eagles DC Vic] Fangio, they’re very well coached,” Kingsbury said. “They don’t give up anything easy. You gotta defeat them, not a lot of big plays. And then creating havoc up front, 98 [Philadelphia Eagles DT Jalen Carter] is as good a player as there is in the NFL right now. He wrecked us the first game, and they have some really good rushers.”
Philadelphia has several talented defenders at every level of the defense. But Carter is unique. Carter, the No. 9 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft, was widely considered the best player in his class, but an off-field incident dropped him, and the Eagles happily pounced.
Carter has 4.5 sacks this season, but his dominance doesn’t always appear on the stat sheet. His impact does, though, as Philly’s defense is ranked No. 1 in scoring defense, pass defense and total defense. The Eagles are ranked seventh against the run.
Kingsbury explained why the Eagles are so difficult to run against.
“The two guys inside there have done a great job of even if they empty the box out, really making the run game difficult,” he said. “Not many people have been able to establish it. Baltimore is one of the best teams and running the football and it was kind of tough sledding for them.”
Washington’s offensive line struggled with Philadelphia’s defensive line, specifically the interior five weeks ago. Kingsbury must have an answer for that front or it could be another long day for the Commanders on offense.