Carson Wentz has the Eagles in complete control of the NFC East

The Philadelphia Eagles hosted Washington on Monday Night Football and left little doubt as to who’s the team to beat in the NFC East. Carson Wentz had another sterling performance, recovering from a slow start to throw four touchdown passes in the 34-24 win.

Wentz wasn’t too hot in the early going, facing intense pressure from Washington’s front seven as the Eagles fell into a 10-3 deficit in the second quarter. But once he settled down and started getting clean pockets, he took over the game.

It all started with this 64-yard bomb that tied things up:

Wentz gave the Eagles the lead at the end of the half with his second touchdown, hitting Zach Ertz in the end zone to give Philly a 17-10 halftime lead. The Eagles never looked back.

In the fourth quarter, Wentz also showed off his scrambling by inexplicably escaping a sack here and running for the first down:

Six plays later, he hit Nelson Agholor to bury Washington and put the Eagles up, 31-17:

Wentz finished the game with four touchdowns and 268 yards on 17-of-25 passing. He’s now up to 17 touchdowns and only four interceptions in seven games, emerging as an MVP candidate in the process.

If there’s one dark cloud for the Eagles, it’s that they lost left tackle Jason Peters to a serious leg injury, possibly ending his season. It’s a huge loss that will require Doug Pederson to shuffle the offensive line, so that’s a situation to monitor closely in Philly. Otherwise, this was about as complete a performance as the Eagles could’ve hoped for.

This victory pushes the Eagles to 6-1, giving them a commanding lead in the division. In fact, it’s entirely possible that the NFC East title race is already over. They are now 2.5 games ahead of Washington and the Dallas Cowboys, both sitting at 3-3. They also own a 3-0 division record, having beaten all their rivals in the first half of the season.

Up next for the Eagles are home dates with the winless San Francisco 49ers and 3-3 Denver Broncos, whose offense has cratered in recent weeks. There’s a strong chance they head into the bye week at 8-1. Normally it’s not wise to call a playoff race in late October, but it would take a stunning collapse for the Eagles to lose first place in the NFC East. With Wentz taking major strides forward in his second season, it’s hard to imagine Philly fading away any time soon.