Welcome to the command Center Podcast. I'm Brand Whitstein. With nine weeks in the books, we've reached the midway point of the season, and up next for the Commanders a Monday night matchup with the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles. London Fletcher and Logan Paul to join me to preview this primetime matchup. I think all of us kind of agreed in the summer that the Eagles are probably the team to beat in the NFC East eight. No, might be a little
ahead of where anybody thought they would be. What's been the key to their success? I think the key has been really the play of Jalen Hurts. When you look at the Philadelphia Eagles coming to the season, Jalen Hurts was still a question mark, but the way he's played, the way he's matured as if quarterback. You look at the completion percent, it's nearly seventy percent completions. But also his ability to make plays off schedules and the offense
is Taylor made for his skill set. They really put you in a vibe defensively on what you're gonna do and how you're going to defend this offense. Logan, Yeah, I mean I totally agree Jalen hurts it's been a huge factor for them. But I think of the thing that separates the team from eighty other team in the NFL and every other team in the division is their ability to beat you in multiple ways. When they have
to run the football, they can run the football. They need to win with defense, they can win with defense. If they need a big play, they can throw the football downfield to a J. Brown and all their explosive playmakers. I think that multi factorial skill set makes them a super dangerous team and makes them the classes of the NFL at the moment. You think their offensive always changed since we saw them in Week three, right, I do. I think it's changed a little bit, kind of de
fletch this one. I think they've found a way to really speak to what Jalen Hurst does well. They do the ton of RPO stuff. They find ways to get him touches that he can kind of maximize right, short intermediate passing game, using the run game, using his legs. All that stuff is excellent and well, what they do a great job is on first and second down. They get a lot of positive plays, yes, and they're in a lot of third and shorts third and three or less, and when they run at RPO there they have a
situation where Jalen Hurst has three different opposers. He can head it off to the running back, he can throw it to the flat, or he can keep in and run it himself. And as a defense is hard for you to defend all three fats those play, especially when it's third and two, third three type situations. They get all of the publicity. Their defense has been very good. It's ranked in the top three, just as they've gotten
a j Brown really right on the offensive end. The addition to James Bradberry's worked out, they just picked up Robert Quinn. Their defense is for real, isn't it. Yeah? I think really the thing that separates them from other defenses in the division of the NFL is they have two excellent cover corners and a passport so that can support them. They just seem to be very married at the moment in terms of Russian coverage, and that makes an excellent defense. And the thing that defense does is
take the football away. They're number one in the National Football League. They're plus fifteen, and they take in a turnover margin, they take it away and they don't turn the football over. That's the reason also that they're ain't no. So what are we gonna do? How does Washington get scoring point? Well coming get a premium for this? To protect the football in some way, somehow, figure out a way for us to create some takeaways. Things like that.
We've been able to create takeaways and during the three game win a streak, we were getting takeaways. We have to protect the football, protect the court of back. We can't allow Taylor Heinike to get sacked like Carson did the first time we played in Eagles. I think a huge variable is getting more efficient in the run game and Fletcher are going to talk about this later in
the show. But tweaking some of that stuff to put you in a better position so Taylor doesn't have to carry the whole thing, get some plays from your defense, and you never know how that football falls. For all your news and analysis, be sure to tune into Command Center weeknights at five thirty and ten pm on NBC Sports Washington, and you could also stream on YouTube at Commanders dot com.