Coming into Sunday’s game, the New York Giants had not won at the Linc in Philadephia since 2013. Not many other teams had won there recently, either – the Philadelphia Eagles were 25-7 at home since the start of the 2022 season. This time, though, there was a kind of nervous anticipation among Giants fans – a sense that maybe, just maybe, today would be the day to break the curse. Precocious rookies Jaxson Dart, Cam Skattebo, and Abdul Carter had given the team new hope with a convincing victory over the Eagles at Met Life just a couple of weeks ago…yet this team has also frustrated, as only the Giants can do, with gut-wrenching last-second losses to Dallas and Denver this season.
Many thought Sunday might be the validation that this season is different – or it might be the beginning of the end for Brian Daboll as Giants head coach. In the end…maybe it was neither. What did we learn from the Giants’ 38-20 loss to the Eagles?
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the show?
The Giants haven’t had a productive offense in years. Now they have two weapons, Malik Nabers and Cam Skattebo, that probably most if not all NFL teams would love to have. Nabers went down early in the season with a torn ACL, and today Skattebo went down with a dislocated ankle for which he was to go undergo surgery on Sunday night. The recovery time can vary from a couple of months to the better part of a year, from what I could gather from a quick search, and we don’t know what other damage if any there may be. It’s safe to say, though, that Skattebo’s season is over.
I don’t know about you, but once Skattebo went down, I lost some of my interest in the game because I can’t imagine the Giants offense functioning at any level of competence with both of them out (barring a trade for a premier receiver like Chris Olave, Brian Thomas Jr., etc.). Still, it’s a 53-man game, and frankly the Giants stayed competitive for a while, so we soldier on.
NFL offciating has reached ridiculous levels
Have we ever seen a game with more egregious calls by the officials – all of them that went the Eagles’ way – than today? The worst call was, of course, on the tush push on which the officia;ls blew the whistle before the play was over and Kayvon Thibodeaux was in the process of stripping the ball from Jalen Hurts. That was followed shortly after by a Hurts to Saquon Barkley TD pass that gave the Eagles a 14-7 lead that they would not relinquish. The only good that can come from this would be if it spurred changes in the tush push rule or led to it being outlawed.
Early in the third quarter, poor Korie Black, pressed into service just after joining the Giants with Cor’Dale Flott having gone off with a possible concussion, found himself hand fighting with Eagles receiver Darius Cooper on third-and-11 deep in Giants territory. It looked like Cooper pushed off on him, but Black was flagged, and shortly after, the Eagles kicked a field goal to go up two scores.
Finally, late in the game, Darius Slayton appeared to beat Eagles’ CB1 Quinyon Mitchell for a long touchdown. It looked like both players were fighting for an advantage, but Slayton was the one flagged. A score there would have narrowed the gap to 31-20 and at least left a sliver of hope that the Giants could come all the way back.
Yes, I’m a Giants fan, but Tom Brady and Kevin Burkhardt, the Fox pre-/post-game studio crew, and a bevy of professional NFL analysts on X all agreed that the referees were awful Sunday…and in a one-sided way.
The run defense continues to be atrocious
The Giants unofficially had seven missed tackles today on rushing plays. Linebacker Darius Muasau had four of them, and only one tackle, on running plays. This was his second consecutive bad game after a couple of really good performances earlier in the season.
Two more of the missed tackles were by strong safety Tyler Nubin. The first happened for all to see, with Saquon Barkley taking the second play 65 yards to give the Eagles a 7-0 lead. Muasau failed to set the left edge on the play, allowing Barkley to get upfield. Once he got through the hole, Nubin was lined up in good position to make the play, but Barkley made one move to the left, Nubin didn’t get within two yards of him, and after that , Barkley accelerated past him as if he was a parked car. Nubin continues to show that he has neither the speed nor the instincts to make plays. He was OK in coverage, giving up only one completion in two targets for 6 yards, and on a day when the Giants’ top cornerback and safety were both out with injuries, there was pressure on the secondary players who were out there. In addition, Micah McFadden, a better run defender, has been out most of the season.
Still, when a team rushes on you for 276 yards, with two different running backs going for more than 100 yards (Tank Bigsby was the other), something is seriously wrong. Part of the credit has to go to the Eagles’ superior offensive line, which neutralized a lot of the Giants’ defensive line in the run game. That’s when the second level players have to step up, though, and Sunday they didn’t.
Jaxson Dart continues to look like the real thing
This wasn’t as impressive as his first game against the Eagles. He went 14 for 24 with only one touchdown and 193 yards, though he was not intercepted at all. He was sacked five times and pressured on almost half his dropbacks, as the interior offensive line didn’t have its best game and even Andrew Thomas was beaten a couple of times.
Nonethless, Dart must be getting a reputation as an absolute pain in the neck for opposing pass rushers. He does a tremendous job avoiding rushers while keeping his eyes downfield. His passing stats don’t show the beautiful deep ball to Darius Slayton that Slayton could not catch when the score was only 14-7. They don’t show the beautiful pass (Brady called it a “10 out of 10” pass) to tight end Theo Johnson that Johnson could not catch, forcing a Graham Gano field goal (hey, at least something to be grateful for). And of course they don’t show the Slayton pushing off call that negated a 68-yard touchdown play. If those three plays go the Giants’ way, Dart finishes with (at least) 2 TDs and close to 300 passing yards.
At 2-6, it’s now pretty unlikely that the Giants can get into the playoff hunt. I don’t know what that means for Brian Daboll’s job; we’ll have to see how the team plays the rest of the season to evaluate that. With Skattebo out, that only intensifies the pressure on GM Joe Schoen to find Dart another receiver.
What we can say, though, is that Dart seems to be one helluva player. Once you have that at the quarterback position, you’re not that far off. With Skattebo and Carter, who also had a good game, this is turning out to be some draft.
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