Commanders hit with major blow less than a day ahead of NFC title game against Eagles
The Washington Commanders are on the cusp of its NFC Championship Game matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles, but were hit with unfortunate injury news less than a day before kickoff.Per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, the Commanders will be without former Pro Bowl defensive lineman Daron Payne on Sunday. Payne is easily one of the best […]
The Washington Commanders are on the cusp of its NFC Championship Game matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles, but were hit with unfortunate injury news less than a day before kickoff.
Per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, the Commanders will be without former Pro Bowl defensive lineman Daron Payne on Sunday. Payne is easily one of the best players on Washington's defense. The news comes after the seventh-year veteran missed practice all week long with knee and finger injuries – the same finger he dislocated in the Wild Card win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He missed the Divisional Round win over the Detroit Lions, last week.
This obviously isn't ideal for a defense that's about to take on Saquon Barkley and the Eagles' heralded rushing attack. Per Next Gen Stats, the Eagles led the NFL in the regular season with 80.0 rushing yards per game when running the ball inside against opposing defenses. Their 4.5 yards per carry are tied for 10th-best and their +0.11 EPA/rush is tied for second-best. They're also 10th in success rate (46.5%), tied for sixth in rushing yards over expected per play (+0.5), seventh in yards before contact (1.62), and first in rushing touchdowns (21) when attacking inside.
It's not all about Barkley, either. The Eagles obviously run Jalen Hurts a lot, especially on the famous Brotherly Shove, or Tush Push, whichever you want to call it. Missing Payne on the inside during those plays will not help at all, especially in a game where both teams are expected to go for it on fourth down whenever it's reasonable.
The Eagles haven't been as successful through two postseason games, so at least there's that trend going in the Commanders' favor, but at the same time, it's clear that not having Payne on the field is going to be yet another challenge the team has to overcome on Sunday afternoon.
However, we all know how resilient this team is – if there's any NFL roster that overcome something like this, the Commanders are certainly at the top.
