The main reason the Skins lost to the Eagles?

vote and discuss

I dont see anything to vote on

I think it was the Defense this time. The loss of ST really hurt them and Philly took advantage of our misfortune.

Penalties directly led to a score that would have at least kept this game tied.

Personally I thought the penalties were the main culprit. Too many crucial penalties that extended drives for Philly. And then Cooley's killer false start down near the goal line that pushed us to 3rd and 7 instead of 3rd and 2.

Cooley's false start directly cost us 4 points (ARE was open in the flat... great designed play) and Fletcher's interference led to 7pts (and confidence) in the 1st quarter. Not to mention the 3 illegal contact penalties that kept Eagles drives alive.

I don't know, there are so many reasons. Smoot's penalty on 3rd down led to Philly eating up the clock and scoring 7 points. Suisham's missed extra point essentially cost us 3 points (1 missed Xp, 1 failed 2 point conversion, and Philly going for the 2 point conversion which they wouldn't have had we had the aforementioned extra 2 points). Those 10 points alone that we needlessly gave up cost us the game.

Then again, I love what the offense did, but they've got to score more points in the redzone. Two drives should not stall inside of the 10 yard line like that. It's good that the offense was moving the ball, but moving the ball doesn't matter too much if they're not scoring 7 points. Those 8 missed points cost us the game.

The Redskins' defense just totally fell apart in the 4th quarter. A lot of it had to do with players being in position to make plays and not making them (e.g., Godfrey dropping 2 INTs, Pierson being in position to break-up or intercept the pass to Reggie Brown and instead allowing a TD, missed tackles on Westbrook, etc.). Some of it had to do with playcalling (e.g., essentially playing the prevent zone all day).

I voted on playcalling but its a combination of all 3.Penalties killed us,I'm sick of these ticky tack illegal touches penalties,this is not the first game its bailed out a team we've played.The Cooley penalty on the goal line was a killer,it looked like Thrash would have been wide open for the td.The only problem I had with the def was the westbrook td,P.P. was in position on the long td,it was just a good catch.But now that I've thought about it,I want to change my vote to penalties instead of red zone playcalling,it was the other playcalling and clock manegement I had a problem with but that wasnt there to vote on.
I actually though the redzone playcalling was ok,we should have been able to punch it in and we couldnt,then when we didnt pass on 3rd down that was crit·i·cized,but if I'm remebering correctly it was 3rd down on the play before that was going to be a pass but Cooley was flagged and we repeated 3rd down and a draw was called,eagles looked like they were going to blitz,I was ok with that call.
I have more of a problem with the not knowing how to use timeouts,besides the one with the fg,everybody is forgetting about the one before halftime,with 2:08 they call timeout when the eagles are going to punt,then after they punt the 2 minute warning has already passed so they gained nothing,that was a terrible descision and it happens week after week,these are rookie mistakes,theres no excuse for them.
Then when we get the ball back with 3 minutes to play,were in fucking panic mode again,even though we had no timeouts,there was plenty of time to mix run with pass,which had been working great previously,but instead we come out with shotgun mode on every down,it just seemed to rushed and panicky

If it were ONLY this one game I would say the defensive penalties that extended drives for the Eagles which resulted in scores.

But that is only the surface issue. The real problem (and I hate to point this out) is dating back to last season it is something like 7 out of 9 last games where Washington had the lead at halftime, they ended up losing those games.

Is it halftime adjustments? Possibly. But there is a definite problem when you are leading at halftime of so many games and do not win those games.

As a caveat I would say the organization has to take a more proactive approach to conditioning as well. There are just way too many injuries for it to be "just bad luck". A player who is conditioned properly greatly reduces the risk of injury due to conditioning. I am not saying the team is out of shape. But with so many injuries, the conditioning program needs to be re-evaluated to see what can be done to reduce those nagging injuries that cost playing time.

I want to go with "Other". It all started with Sellers trying to launch his 284 lb body into orbit 6 miles behind the line of scrimmage and failing to pick up the first down. I'm pretty sure I saw those wavy, gravitional flux lines pulling at his heels when he left the turf.

Seriously, the first Eagles drive with all of those penalties was killer. Philly goes up 7 to start the game and achieves an overall high sense of offensive confidence.