It is Eagles week — again — for the New York Giants. Just 17 days after a stunning 34-17 upset of the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium that got the attention of the football world, the Giants and Eagles are set to do it again. This time, the Giants will trek down the New Jersey Turnpike to the not-so-friendly confines of Lincoln Financial Field.
With the teams set for a rematch that is more interesting than many thought it might be, we again turn to Brandon Lee Gowton of Bleeding Green Nation, SB Nation’s always well-mannered Eagles website, for Round 2 of our ‘5 questions’ series.
Ed: Did the Eagles take the Giants for granted two weeks ago? Did that game change your perception of the Giants?
BLG: That sure seemed to be the case. And it was weird to see since the Eagles have rarely come out looking unprepared to play in the Nick Sirianni era. The Giants clearly wanted to win more than the Eagles did.
Yeah, that was absolutely an eye-opening performance. Felt like the most meaningful win the Giants have had in some time. Not only did they beat the Eagles … they outright bullied them. It was like Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo got together to say, ‘Hey, no more of this long standing trend of the Eagles owning this team. It’s a new era of Giants football.’ Had to be pretty fun for you guys.
The Giants are no longer the totally unserious team they’ve been for years and years. They’re still flawed (among other things, need a new head coach) and I don’t think they’ll end up with a very good record at the end of this season. But they could finish in a position where they’re primed to take a step forward in 2026.
2) Did Philly figure some things out offensively vs. the Vikings? That was their best offensive output of the year.
BLG: I think there’s more hope that the Eagles figured some things out offensively than there is true belief they figured some things out offensively. Need to see more proof of concept to feel confident about it.
There were certainly some encouraging signs. Many have been calling for the Eagles to utilize under center play-action more than almost literally not at all for some time now. The Eagles trusted Jalen Hurts to throw at the end of the game instead of trying to lean into an ineffective running game. That was also good to see. The coaching staff really needs to lean into trusting their quarterback more, especially as it relates to being aggressive and taking shots down the field. Hurts is a strong deep ball passer and A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith are obviously capable of making big plays. Last year, the Eagles were so obsessed with ball protection above all else that they played a conservative brand of football. That 2024 style isn’t the model for success right now in 2025.
One concern about the Eagles’ offensive performance against the Vikings is that a lot of their success came out of structure. Hurts running around and making plays isn’t necessarily sustainable offense. But that might be OK as long as they’re big play hunting and hitting on some of those shots.
3) What’s going on with Saquon? He’s averaging 2.5 yards LESS per carry than he did a year ago. Is he not healthy?
BLG: Totally understandable question when you look at his stats but he looks totally fine by the eye test. There are plays each week where it’s clear he hasn’t lost a step physically. Case in point: with the Eagles facing a 2nd-and-2 last week, he spun out of being dead to rights for a TFL to pick up three yards for a first down. One of the more impressive three-yard runs you’ll ever see.
The biggest problem is that the Eagles just haven’t been able to provide him with adequate blocking. Believe it or not, his 1.8 yards before contact this season is the lowest mark of his entire career. Hard to believe considering he played behind some pretty shoddy offensive lines with the Giants. Barkley was at 3.8 yards before contact in 2024.
Back in the offseason, there was a lot of talk about Barkley being primed to regress after such a historic workload. I wasn’t ready to buy that, though, since he looked really good in training camp. But the thing I do regret not considering is the toll that last year took on the Eagles’ offensive line. A few weeks ago, Jordan Mailata talked about how the 2025 offseason was the most difficult of his career. He said it took him much longer to recover and feel OK physically than it did after every other season of his career. Mailata was also hampered in training camp. Landon Dickerson has been dealing with nagging issues since training camp. Cam Jurgens had offseason back surgery and seems poised to miss this weekend’s game against the Giants. Lane Johnson has missed time this season. Tyler Steen has been the Eagles’ healthiest offensive lineman … and he didn’t play much last year since he was a backup.
I’m much more worried about the offensive line than Barkley.
4) Why is Brandon Graham coming back? What do the Eagles hope to get from him?
BLG: Brandon Lee Graham (a fellow BLG) is coming back because the Eagles need him, quite frankly.
With the Eagles signing Za’Darius Smith one day after their Week 1 win, they entered Week 2 with seven (!) edge rushers on their roster:
Nolan Smith
Jalyx Hunt
Za’Darius Smith
Joshua Uche
Patrick Johnson
Ogbo Okoronkwo
Azeez Ojulari
Those numbers quickly dwindled.
Nolan Smith suffered a triceps injury that landed him on injured reserve, though he could return after the Week 9 bye.
Okoronkwo then also suffered a triceps injury, this one of a season-ending variety.
Za’Darius Smith retired ahead of the Eagles’ Week 7 game.
Ojulari suffered a hamstring injury last Sunday.
And so the Eagles were down to just three healthy edge rushers:
Jalyx Hunt
Joshua Uche
Patrick Johnson
Relative to his age, Graham was playing a pretty high level prior to suffering a triceps injury last year. He was Pro Football Focus’s 19th-highest graded edge rusher (two spots ahead of Brian Burns). He ranked 30th out of 120 players by PFF’s Pass Rush Productivity stat.
It remains to be seen where he’s at conditioning wise but I feel confident that BG can help this team as a rotational edge defender. He should help them be more stout in run defense in addition to being able to help out as pass rusher.
Signing BG doesn’t preclude the Eagles from seeking more edge rusher help ahead of the NFL trade deadline.
5) How does the presence of Jalen Carter change the Philly defense?
BLG: Carter hasn’t quite had the season the Eagles were hoping to see from him thus far. It’s fair to wonder how much he’s been impacted by last year’s massive workload. Including the playoffs, Carter played the most snaps of any NFL defensive lineman. And those were really labor-intensive snaps considering he was often double-teamed.
But while the consistency that the Eagles would like to see hasn’t been there, the high-impact potential is still present. Look no further than how he instantly beat the Vikings’ center to help force Carson Wentz into a pick-six last week. Carter blocked a field goal attempt in Week 3.
Carter has been playing through some nagging issues this year, so, he could probably really use the bye week. If he’s able to get going, that’ll be a massive development for the Eagles’ defense.
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