Washington QB Kurk Cousins being interviewed in locker room after throwing four TD passes to lead the Redskins to a 38-24 win over the Eagles and the NFC East title. Photo by Al Thompson

The Eagles season has mercifully come to a close. The Eagles didn’t really lose to the Washington Redskins Saturday night; they screwed the game up a bit more than their opponent.

Washington (8-7) clinched the NFC East and thus advanced to the Super Bowl tournament as the No. 4 seed in the NFC where anything can and has happened.

The Redskins travel to Dallas for their final game which, regardless of the outcome, will have not baring on their seeding.

The Eagles (6-9) will travel to the Meadowlands next Sunday to face the Giants in a meaningless game for both teams.

Head coach Chip Kelly was asked, what went wrong this season?

Jay Gruden and Chip Kelly chat for a minute before their game at the Linc. Photo by T.J. Engler / contrastphotography.com

“There are a lot of things,” said Kelly, who is now 26-21 in his three years running the Birds. “I think there’s not — this isn’t the time for it. I’m not going to think back on the whole season. In this game, we didn’t play well enough to beat a good football team.”

Kelly was asked if he believed he still has a good football team. And if so, why are these mistakes continuing to happen?

“I wish I had the answer to that and we would stop it,” Kelly said. “But you know, obviously we’re not doing a good enough job coaching them.”

The Eagles lost the opening toss and Washington gave the Birds the ball first.

Quarterback Sam Bradford led the Eagles on a quicksilver drive that went 80 yards ending with a one-yard dive by Ryan Mathews.

The big plays in the drive included the opening play, a 17-yard completing to Nelson Agholor and a 23-yard pass interference penalty on Will Blackman trying to cover Josh Huff.

The Redskins looked pedestrian on their first drive – losing their serve if you will – going three-and-out.

The Eagles got the ball back and promptly lost all the mojo they had on their first drive and were forced to punt.

Worse, offensive tackle Jason Peters hobbled off the field during the short drive appearing to be holding his left arm. (reports have surfaced that Peters opted out of the game once the score became lopsided-Peters has yet to comment on the reports).

The Redskins started their next drive at their own 31-yard line. Washington drove 69 yards on just five plays ending with a 22-yard touchdown pass from Kurk Cousins to tight end Jordan Reed. The extra point was missed and the score was 7-6

The Eagles again were unable to move the ball and punted.

The Redskins, behind Cousins, got hot and moved his team on a 61-yard, seven-play drive that ended with Cousins connecting again with Reed for a 12-yard touchdown pass.

The Eagles would not see the lead in this game again.

The teams traded field goals in the second quarter. The Redskins had a golden opportunity to add points to their 16-10 lead but squandered the chance on what Redskins coach Jay Gruden referred to as a “debacle.”

QB Sam Bradford was 37 of 56 for 380 yards, one TD and no interceptions.
He was sacked five times. Photo by T.J. Engler / contrastphotography.com

When the Eagles failed to move the ball at the end of the first half and failed to manage the clock, they were forced to punt to Washington, giving the visitors the ball, first and 10 at their own 29-yard line with 29 seconds left on the clock. .

Cousins connected brilliantly twice on the first two plays of the hurry-up drive hitting former Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson for a 22-yard gain. Jackson was able to get out of bounds using up just six seconds of clock.

The Cousins hit Pierre Garcon with a 25-yard completion taking the ball to the Eagles 24-yard gain.

Again the Redskins receiver got out of bounds to stop the clock with 17 seconds left.

Then Cousins hit Reed over the middle for 11 more yards to the 11-yard line.

Since Washington was out of timeouts and Reed was tackled in the middle of the field, the Redskins wanted to set up and spike the ball. Only Walter Thurmond decided to flip the ball away from the referee and was called for delay of game.

The referees set the clock at six seconds and spotted the ball at the six-yard line.

Instead of kicking a field goal, Gruden for some reason had Cousins take a snap. Cousins apparently got confused and took a knee…only no Eagles player touched him and the half ended with Washington leading 16-10.

“Yeah, there was a lot of confusion with what the playcall was,” Cousins said. “For a lack of a better word, I just had a lapse in my decision-making and took a knee when I should have thrown the ball away to stop the clock. We were fortunate it didn’t end up hurting us.”

Cousins finished the game going 31 of 46 for 365 yards and four touchdown passes. He was not intercepted and was sacked twice – both times by Fletcher Cox.

The Eagles did not take advantage of the blunder in the second half, falling behind 23-10.

Just when Eagles fans saw a ray of hope, a major blunder took that away for good.

Bradford led the Birds on a six-play 54-yard drive that ended with DeMarco Murray taking the ball four yards for a touchdown to make the score 23-17.

The excitement at the Linc started to grow when the Eagles forced the Redskins go three-and-out.

The Eagles next drive started at their own 21-yard line. On the first play, Bradford fumbled but was able to recover the ball and throw it away.

The next play was an eight-yard gain by Murray. Looking OK, right?

Wrong…the next play was a short pitch to Murray who fumbled the ball, then center Jason Kelce, blocking on the play, accidentally kicked the ball away from a scrambling Murray right to safety DeAngelo Hall, who scooped up the ball and ran 17 yards untouched to the end zone.

Game – Set – Season.

Murray took the blame for the fumble.

“I just took my eyes off of it,” Murray said. “I was trying to get going too fast and I have to secure the ball. It was just a bad play by me.”

Murray finished with 27 yards on five carries and a touchdown. The rest of the ball carriers – four of them-combined for just 18 yards on 11 rushes.

Bradford finished 37 of 56 for 380 yards and a touchdown pass. He did not throw an interception but was sacked five times.

Linebacker DeMeco Ryans talked about the Eagles giving up all that yardage and four passing scores.

“We didn’t cover well,” Ryans said. “That was the end of it. They do a good job with the play-action, but that’s no excuse, it wasn’t good enough.”

The Redskins only rushed for a total 67 yards but with the exception of the two sacks gave Cousins plenty of time to pick the Eagles secondary apart.

Guard John Long and the rest of the Washington offensive line kept Fletcher Cox and the Eagles defensive line from having an impact on the game despite Fox’s two sacks. Photo by T.J. Engler / contrastphotography.com

Left offensive guard Spencer Long talked about how the line came in with a plan that obviously worked.

“We just stuck to our protection schemes and made sure we were all on the same page,” Long said in the jubilant Redskins locker room. “We were able to hold up today. That just comes from working hard. I’m so proud of these guys, the offensive line. We bust our ass every week. We put in the time and it translated on the field today. That’s all you can ask for, we just have to keep fighting.”

Long talked about the general feeling this team now has. A win next week in Dallas would be their fourth in a row and third on the road. At the beginning of the season, most predictions were for the Eagles and Giants to vie for the NFC East. Both of those teams will be watching the playoffs on TV.

“We’ve battled through a lot things, injuries…we just kept battling” Long said. “I’m so happy for this team. We’re ecstatic right now. We’re on cloud nine, this is what we came to do.”

Long said they will not take their foot off the gas anytime soon.

“At this time and point we just have to keep putting together W’s,” Long said. “It feels good to win three in a row and keep the ball rolling.”