As the losses and injuries have been piling up for the Giants, they were inevitably overmatched in a few key areas on Sunday as the Philadelphia Eagles took control in the second quarter and never looked back.
Former Giants star Saquon Barkley said during the week that he wasn’t viewing this as a revenge game, but he ended up putting together one of the best games of his career with 176 rushing yards and a touchdown. Barkley has only rushed for more yards in a game once, when he had 189 yards in a 2019 game, which he would have surpassed easily if Philadelphia didn’t rest him for the entire fourth quarter.
After a scoreless first quarter, Barkley broke a 55-yard run over the left side and then finished off the drive himself with a short touchdown run to make it 7-0 before AJ Brown doubled the Eagles’ lead on a 41-yard fourth down touchdown pass from Jalen Hurts.
Although Daniel Jones was an efficient 13-for-19 in the first half, the Giants couldn’t get anything going on offense, although they did successfully execute a two-minute drill to set up Greg Joseph’s field goal in the closing seconds of the half. Jones failed to surpass 100 passing yards before being replaced by Drew Lock in the fourth quarter, though.
Another long run by Barkley set up a one-yard touchdown run for Hurts and a 21-3 lead with seven minutes remaining in the third quarter and then Hurts scored again from a yard in the fourth quarter to make it 28-3 after which many of the starters from both teams were rested.
Here are the takeaways...
-The teams traded punts in a scoreless first quarter, which perhaps wasn’t all that surprising given the fact that this was Philadelphia’s seventh straight game with no points scored in the first. However, there were a few ominous signs for the Giants. First, Barkley started off the game running particularly hard and then Brown went to work with three first down catches against Deonte Banks. Despite struggling with Brown’s physicality, Banks was still the Giants’ best hope of stopping Brown, but it was Nick McCloud whom he beat for the Eagles’ second quarter touchdown. He ended up with five catches for 89 yards and a touchdown.
-It was predictable that the Giants’ offensive line would struggle without their best player -- Pro Bowl left tackle Andrew Thomas, whom the Giants ruled out for the rest of the season with a foot injury earlier this week. The Eagles sacked Jones five times in the first half with Thomas’ replacement Joshua Ezeudu badly beaten on a couple of those. Jones was sacked twice more before leaving the game, and pressured countless other times.
-It was frustrating for the Giants that the they had to settle for three at the end of the first half. Rookie tight end Theo Johnson, whom coach Brian Daboll has likened to Rob Gronkowski, looked to have caught his first career touchdown pass with time running down. However, he had pushed off on the defender and was called for offensive pass interference. Being able to use his size in this way and get away with it like Gronkowski regularly used to will probably be the next phase in Johnson’s development.
-Having been a coach who will gamble a lot on fourth down in recent weeks, it was also disappointing to see Daboll direct the Giants to kick a field goal on third-and-14 with nine seconds left rather than take a shot at the end zone.
-There weren’t many bright spots for the Giants in the first half, but they did record four sacks, including two by Dexter Lawrence, who is having an incredible season. Lawrence had his ninth sack of the season before halftime, already eclipsing his career high.
-The Giants signified their intent to reintegrate the returning Malik Nabers back into the offense by completing a first down pass to him on the very first snap of the game. However, that plan was derailed by the constant pressure on Jones and New York’s inability to sustain drives. He had a couple of catches late in the first half to end up with four for 41 yards at halftime, but was held without a reception in the second half.
Game MVP: Saquon Barkley
The former Giant tormented his old team in his old stadium and surely had fans scratching their heads as to why New York didn't re-sign him in the offseason.