Washington comes back from big deficit to defeat Eagles in Ron Rivera’s debut

By Nicki Jhabvala,

For nine months, Ron Rivera preached culture change. He was hired to right the ship and lead the Washington Football Team on a new course, trying to fix a franchise that had struggled both on and off the field for much of the last 20 years. He used slogans and four-letter words, along with a personable approach and military mind-set to inspire a team mired in disaster.

Yet perhaps one of the biggest missing pieces for Washington all these years was a menacing defense.

In an empty FedEx Field on Sunday, Washington won its first season opener in six years, rallying back from a 17-point deficit on the heels of its remade defense to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles, 27-17. Washington’s defensive line, stacked with five first-round draft picks, annihilated Philadelphia quarterback Carson Wentz, with eight sacks — one a strip-sack by rookie defensive end Chase Young — for a loss of 62 yards, to go with a pair of interceptions and two forced fumbles.

[Takeaways and highlights from Washington’s season-opening win over Philadelphia]

The bruising by the defense bought time for Washington’s young offense, which sputtered for much of the first half. Visions of years past returned, as it opened with a three-and-out and quarterback Dwayne Haskins, in his first Week 1 start, completed only three of his first 12 pass attempts. Five of the team’s first six drives resulted in punts. The sixth? A hooked 48-yard field goal attempt by Dustin Hopkins.

Before the two-minute warning late in the first half, Washington had run more plays that resulted in no gain or a loss of yardage than it had completions. All the while, the Eagles, with a tight ends corps that ranked atop the league last season in both catches and receiving yards per game, took advantage of mismatches in coverage.

Wentz, who had never lost a game to Washington before Sunday, quickly connected with Dallas Goedert and Zach Ertz for a total of 34 yards and a touchdown on Philadelphia’s opening drive. Washington’s defensive line had arrived with a vengeance, but struggled to rein in its jitters in the early going. Young was flagged for a critical neutral zone infraction, and his new sidekick, Montez Sweat, later followed with one of his own.

But it wasn’t long before Washington’s line wrecked the game. And Wentz.

In the span of six plays in the first quarter, Wentz was sacked three times, by Ryan Kerrigan, Matt Ionnaidis and Young. Sweat added one more before the secondary got involved.

The turning point of the game was Fabian Moreau’s interception with less than two minutes remaining in the first half. Moreau stepped in front of rookie receiver Jalen Reagor the grab the ball at Philadelphia’s 45-yard-line, giving Haskins and the offense another try to put up points before the break.

Haskins delivered, connecting with Terry McLaurin and Dontrelle Inman for 21- and 11-yard passes, respectively, before finding Logan Thomas — his favorite red-zone target in training camp — in the middle of the end zone.

Cornerback Jimmy Moreland picked off Wentz again early in the third quarter and tacked only 20 yards on the return to set up Haskins at Philadelphia’s 20. Again, the offense delivered, with a 1-yard touchdown run by Peyton Barber.

Five of Washington’s final eight drives led to scores for 27 unanswered points and the victory. Haskins, who mustered only 76 passing yards in the first half, completed 10-of-15 passes for 102 yards in the second half.

But it was the defense that led the way, with eight total sacks, three takeaways and a reason to believe maybe, just maybe, Rivera is on to something. Maybe Washington really is beginning to change.