LANDOVER, Md. -- The Washington Redskins suffered a 37-27 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday afternoon.
A back-and-forth affair was all but decided when Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz connected with Greg Ward Jr. for a four-yard touchdown with 26 seconds to play in the Week 15 showdown.
The Redskins drove past midfield but did not have enough time to mount a game-winning drive. Attempting to avoid a sack on the last play, quarterback Dwayne Haskins Jr. flipped the ball that an Eagles defender recovered and returned for a touchdown as time expired.
The loss is Washington's sixth straight to Philadelphia and eighth consecutive against NFC East opponents.
"We played our hearts out, but they made the plays we didn't make," said interim head coach Bill Callahan. "We just didn't make the plays at the end that we needed to make to finish off and top off the game."
The loss overshadowed career performances from Haskins and fellow rookie Terry McLaurin. In his sixth NFL start, Haskins threw for a career-high 261 yards to go along with two touchdowns and zero interceptions.
Gobbling up most of these yards was McLaurin, Haskins' teammate at Ohio State. The third-round speedster eclipsed the 100-yard receiving mark for the third time this season, recording five catches for 130 yards and a 75-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
Haskins' second touchdown was a five-yard toss to undrafted rookie Steven Sims Jr. in the second quarter that gave the Redskins a 14-10 lead. The on-target throw capped a seven-play, 75-yard drive for Haskins, who looked as comfortable Sunday as he has in any of his prior NFL appearances.
Even so, the 15th overall pick was not satisfied with his performance, especially in a defeat.
"I'm nowhere close to where I want to be," Haskins said. "That should be an average game for me. I'm going to continue to work on it and get better."
A typically slow-starting offensive unit came out firing on Sunday, scoring touchdowns on two of its first three possessions. Meanwhile, the Redskins' defense settled down after another slow start; the Eagles amassed 163 yards and scored 10 points on their first two drives before gaining just 32 yards on their next two possessions.
With a productive offense and a stout defense, the Redskins entered halftime with a 14-10 advantage.
The Redskins continued to move the ball downfield over the final two quarters, but so did the NFC-East leading Eagles, who relied heavily on quarterback Carson Wentz (30 of 43 passing, 266 yards, three touchdowns) and running back Miles Sanders (172 total yards, two touchdowns). Pro Bowl tight end Zach Ertz also found the end zone and finished with five receptions for 61 yards.
Sanders helped the Eagles regain the lead midway in the third quarter, only to have Adrian Peterson counter with a dazzling 10-yard touchdown run early in the fourth.
Peterson's score was one of four lead changes that occurred throughout a drama-filled fourth quarter during which both teams seemed to have the upper hand. Ertz put the Eagles ahead, 24-21, with about 10 minutes to play, but then kicker Dustin Hopkins tied the game with a 53-yard field goal. On the ensuing possession, Redskins edge rusher Ryan Anderson forced his third fumble of the game. The Redskins finally recovered one of them, leading to another Hopkins conversion that gave the hosts a 27-24 advantage.
"It was going back and fourth, back and fourth," Peterson said. "That last drive, when we kicked the field goal, it was like 'Ugh.' I was a little uneasy because we really wanted to get seven, just really put some pressure on those guys. They just came out and were able to get the final blow in."
Philadelphia marched 75 yards in 11 plays and took up almost the entirety of the game clock before landing the final blow with 26 seconds to play. Wentz surveyed the field, backpedaled and then lofted a pass towards the left side that Ward came down with for the winning score.
"We've got to get a stop," Anderson said. "We kept shooting ourselves in the foot. Our coach dialed up some good calls to execute and we just didn't execute -- some mental errors that cost us.
"We really had that team. We didn't execute the plan all the way through. Just frustrating when you give guys stuff like that and allow it to end like this in a game that we wanted so bad. It's frustrating."
