Eagles defeat Commanders in pivotal divisional game with 4th quarter surge

Nick Wright unveils his Week 11 Tiers alongside Chris Broussard, Kevin Wildes and Coach Eric Mangini. Watch as Nick addresses "massively underestimating" the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles and why the Buffalo Bills climb higher up the...

The Eagles scored 20 fourth-quarter points to defeat the Commanders and create some distance in their lead in the NFC East.

The Commanders were behind 12-10 when they were stopped on second- and third-and-1. Buoyed by an early-season hot streak, coach Dan Quinn called his rookie quarterback’s number on fourth-and-2 from the Eagles 26.

Jayden Daniels juggled the snap, scrambled to his right and was hammered out of bounds by linebacker Zack Baun.

The Eagles took over on downs. The defining win for the Commanders under Quinn and Daniels has to wait.

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Shortly after that misfire, Saquon Barkley rushed for the first of his two fourth-quarter touchdowns to give division-leading Philadelphia a two-score lead, and the Eagles (8-2) sent the Commanders (7-4) to their second straight loss, 26-18 on Thursday night.

"Bold call," Quinn said. "I’d also say we were prepared for that moment. Didn’t love the execution. But we’ve been an excellent fourth-down team. Going into it, we knew we’d have to take our shots against a tough division team on the road. We didn’t like the execution or the result. But we were prepared for that."

Plan B was the field goal.

Zane Gonzalez, promoted off the practice squad with Austin Seibert dealing with a hip injury, made a 45-yarder in the third quarter for a 10-3 lead. Quinn decided not to give him another shot from about 44 yards out for a 13-12 lead.

"To be the heavy hitters that we want to be, you’ve