Postgame Report: Eagles Overcome Offensive Struggles, Demolish Giants

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By Paul Bowman, Sports Talk Philly Editor

The Eagles entered the half with an embarrassing 3-3 tie.

It took the defense handing Jalen Hurts and the offense the ball at the Giants 20-yard line for the team to get any momentum.

That ended the game as the Eagle defense didn’t give up a first down until they put in all their backups. In fact, it seemed like almost every other play at that point was a potential turnover for the defense.

Meanwhile, the receivers bailed out Hurts on some deep passes and made incredible grabs to keep the momentum on their side and allow the clock to become their friend.

The end result was a beatdown that shouldn’t have needed the defense to get the offense going, but results in the Eagles landing squarely in playoff contention nonetheless.

Let’s give some love to the big man whose been holding down the right side of the line. He allowed no pressures in this game while also scoring a touchdown of his own.

Even though it probably should have been called a facemask, it was Avery’s pressure that turned the tides in this game. He forced Fromm to heave up a terrible pass that McLeod was all alone to intercept and return to the 20-yard line. It’s a question mark whether the Eagles offense ever gets a drive going without that momentum and that was all thanks to Avery. It turned a 3-3 snoozefest into an absolute drumming that got so bad that the Giants seemed to give up on the game by the time the fourth quarter came around.

• Darius Slay could have helped to turn this game around in the first half, but inexplicably dropped an easy interception.
• Speaking of the inability to catch: Dallas Goedert. Goedert could be an elite tight end but is just flat out dropping passes week after week. One of them today you can argue was a terrible pass by Hurts, but the other hit him right in the hands. Unless he cleans up that problem that seems to pop up every week, he cannot get to the peak of that potential.
• It’s quite possible the Eagles defense should have had a turnover on a fumble by Pharoh Cooper, but it was called incomplete and no replay was ever shown. That’s something to take a look at.
• After a week of what seemed like every “expert” coming out of the woodwork to say how elite Hurts is, he once again laid out what was largely a stinker of a performance. Dallas Goedert making a defensive play got an interception overturned. DeVonta Smith made a defensive play to prevent another. Watkins and Smith both bailed him out on terrible deep passes where they just made better plays on the ball to result in completions instead of interceptions. 85 of his yards came on those two plays and he got nothing going for half a game. That’s unacceptable against a good team let alone this awful Giants squad. The majority of his passing yards outside of that came in the fourth quarter after the Giants had given up on the game entirely. The commentators unknowingly summed it up on the broadcast: “IF YOU WIPE OUT THE FIRST HALF, you can see why he’s a Pro Bowl quarterback”. If you have to ignore half the game, that’s not a good sign.
• This was Jalen Hurts’ fourth game against the Giants and he recorded his first career touchdown against the team in the second half of this game.
• The Eagles started this game off with a fumble by Gainwell, an interception that got overturned and a fumble by Hurts. You could argue having a super short week to benefit Washington was a part of that, but it is unacceptable either way. This team is going nowhere if they show up like that each week – and let’s not forget how they showed up to the first quarter of that Washington contest on Tuesday.
• The Eagles defense did an excellent job of getting pressures and containing Saquon Barkley and taking him down behind the line.
• Despite the high score, the Eagles defense should get credit for at least 14 of those points. Again, a better rotation for the defensive line seemed to keep the pressure up the entire game.
• The Eagles lost Sanders and Howard to injury this week. It remains to be seen if and when they’ll return, but they are running low on options at the position once again.

New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles – December 26, 2021