NFL Power rankings: Are the Eagles still No. 1 after Week 10 loss to the Commanders?

It was fun while it lasted. The Eagles may not be perfect, but they are still a formidable team that can either outgun opposing offenses or squelch them with their defense. Their tiebreaker over the Vikings from earlier in the season may play key down the stretch.

The Eagles had just three turnovers entering Week 10, four fewer than any other team in the NFL. They were bound for regression and got it all at once on Monday Night Football. Philadelphia matched its season total in turnovers with three against the Commanders, including a Dallas Goedert fumble on a play during which he was clearly grabbed by the face mask. Officials did not throw a flag—and the face mask was not reviewable. Monday also marked the first time the Eagles trailed in the second half at any point this season. I’m not dropping the Eagles from this spot after their first loss, but they can’t afford many more of these messy games if they want to hold on to the top spot in the NFC standings.

“It’s a little unsettling to see a team play so flatly coming off a bye,” he said. “But if the Eagles went into Monday night a little complacent, they didn’t come out that way. Philadelphia wasn’t going to run the table, and sometimes getting your butt kicked can help a team refocus. If the Eagles look like this again against the Colts, then you can worry. But they are still deserving of the top spot in these rankings since they beat the brakes off the league’s only other one-loss team.”

The Eagles made a few dumb mistakes in their loss to the Commanders. The offense can still show out, but the miscues will need to be toned down.

With Hurts eligible for a contract extension after the season and the Eagles holding two first-round picks in April’s quarterback-rich draft, this was widely viewed as a prove-it year for Hurts — and he definitely has so far. He is squarely in the MVP discussion thanks in large part to his passing improvements. Entering Monday’s game against the Commanders, Hurts’ completion rate sat at 68.2% — sixth best in the NFL and up nearly seven points from last year’s mark (61.3%). — Tim McManus

1. Eagles (1): Unsurprisingly, they’re mortal and will pose no threat to the still-unbeaten 1972 Dolphins. But amid a season that feels high on drama but low on greatness, they retain top spot almost by default – especially since the University of Georgia is ineligible for these rankings. Yet Monday’s setback to Washington did seem a touch fluky, Philadelphia turning the ball over four times after entering Week 10 with three giveaways on the season while also getting victimized by some shaky officiating. And a keepaway strategy and domination of time of possession almost always works … even when you average 4.1 yards per play, as the Commanders did while holding the ball for more than 40 minutes.

After winning the turnover battle in each of their first eight games, everything finally went against Philadelphia in its surprising Monday night loss. A costly fumble on an uncalled face mask penalty, another after a 50-yard completion to Quez Watkins that looked like it might set up the game-winning score, and a borderline unnecessary roughness penalty on Brandon Graham after Taylor Heinicke gave himself up late that was either genius or cheap, depending on your perspective. Those were bad breaks bound to happen at some point, even if Nick Sirianni insisted last week that “luck has nothing to do with” their turnover fortune. Of greatest concern is the passive run defense the Eagles have rolled out since rookie nose tackle Jordan Davis went on injured reserve. They have surrendered 320 combined rushing yards over the past two games.

The Eagles were overdue for a bad game, which is a fair classification of Monday night’s 32-21 stumble to the Commanders at the Linc. Philly’s first loss of the season included four turnovers and a crushing late-hit penalty against Brandon Graham, however unsatisfying the call might have been. The Eagles lost because they couldn’t keep the Commanders’ offense off the field: Washington ran 34 more plays than Philly and possessed the ball for more than 40 minutes of game time. The defense held its own despite all those extra snaps, but the offense wasn’t sharp enough when its opportunities arrived. A frustrating loss, for sure, but the Eagles remain the top team in the NFC with an inside track to the No. 1 seed.

Philadelphia is a better team than the Washington Commanders, and they were the better team on Monday Night Football. But a few wacky turnovers kept the Eagles’ offense from scoring a few times, and untimely penalties ultimately cost them the game.

This was Philadelphia’s first stumble against a “lesser” opponent since 2020. They handled business a season ago and had all season up to this point. They have proven themselves the best team in the NFL thus far, but they do have some legitimate issues defensively that need to solve.

This is going to be a massive blessing in disguise for the Eagles, who, yes, lose a football game but now avoid all the additional stressors that come from a legitimate run at an undefeated season. They also seem to have gotten all of their strangely timed fumbles out of the way. They turned the ball over more times against the Commanders than they did all season previously.

If they don’t fix the run defense, they will have more losses the rest of the way. You can’t play defense that way and win in the playoffs.

Two penalties — one on special teams and one on defense — killed the Eagles’ comeback chances from a late five-point deficit in an eventual 32-21 loss to the Commanders. The offense wasn’t blameless, either, with four turnovers. And the play calling was a throwback to the old Andy Reid-coached Eagles, when he used to forget to run the ball in big games.