PHILADELPHIA — By the time you read this, the chances are good that Jake Elliott will have driven home from Lincoln Financial Field, fired up the film from the Eagles' 26-18 win over Washington on Thursday night, and pored over what was, by just about any standard, the worst game of his NFL career.

For the first time in his eight seasons, he missed three kicks — two field goals and an extra point — in one game, and it looked for a time like that wide-left trifecta might cost the Eagles first place in the NFC East. It was the saddest moment for an Elliott since E.T.'s heartlight dimmed.

"Frustrating," he said. "The adjectives are kind of endless: pathetic, uncharacteristic."

These are not words any member or fan of a team that has championship aspirations wants associated with that team's kicker. The position and the people who occupy it can be as fragile and fickle as any in pro sports, and in that regard, the Eagles have been living in the lap of luxury ever since September 2017, when Elliott drilled that game-winning 61-yarder against the New York Giants in his home debut.

He's had one genuinely poor season: 2020, which was a genuinely poor season for the entire franchise. The Eagles went 4-11-1, and Elliott made just 14 of his 19 field-goal attempts — just like he has through 10 games this season. Only this time, the Eagles are 8-2 and riding a six-game winning streak, and every kick now promises to matter more than it did then. A division title, a higher seed in the postseason tournament, or even a Super Bowl might be riding on each one.

He's made plenty of those kinds of kicks before, pressure kicks: his 46-yarder late in Super Bowl LII, a 59-yarder with 25 seconds left to tie a game last season against the Buffalo Bills, and more. He'll look at his misses from Thursday night for a common thread, though each one felt good off his foot, he said. And he'll rewatch those important makes from earlier years.

"You know what you're feeling during those times," he said. "I've played this game for a long time and have a lot of those I can go back on, and I still have a lot of confidence in myself and in this room."

It sounds crazy to say, but the belief that the Eagles' coaches and teammates have in him might have been too much for him to tolerate Thursday. He hooked that first one early on, a 44-yarder. Then a 51-yarder, same thing.

Hey, they happen. But missing the extra point, with the Eagles up 12-10 and with 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter, really burned him; it kept the Commanders within a field goal of taking the lead. So one teammate came over to console him. And another. And coach Nick Sirianni told him, We believe in you. You're going to have to make a kick to help us win this football game, because that is what a coach is supposed to say in those situations, and because few coaches in the NFL emote and sympathize like Sirianni does.

"You can really build connections through tough times," he said. "He's going through a tough time, but this team believes so much in Jake Elliott because of his track record and who he is and the teammate he is and the captain he is."

Except Elliott wasn't burying his head in his hands and disappearing into any sort of woe-is-me cocoon. At one point, he asked injured return man Britain Covey to hold nothing back in telling him how terrible he was. The incessant pats on the back and reassuring words, in Elliott's mind, can get to be a little patronizing after a while.

"I'm not a guy who needs a bunch of positivity around me," he said. "'You can do this!' I don't need that. I also need people coming over to me to tell me I [stink] and need to fix it right now. So I take that on myself. I'm my hardest critic, and I'm going to figure it out."

You want reassuring? That's reassuring. Yes, most kickers come and go, and one lousy night can lead to a packed suitcase and a hasty goodbye. But the Eagles aren't cutting Elliott. His contract, valued at a reported $24 million, is the second-highest of any kicker in the league, behind just the Kansas City Chiefs' Harrison Butker.

He is too valuable — in the financial sense and the intangible sense — has done too much, and split the uprights too many times in moments that mattered for anyone to wonder whether he'll be out of a job. Just make the next one, Jake. Make the next one, and put everyone else's mind at ease.

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