The New York Giants could not pull off the improbable sweep of the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, losing 38-20. This was an ugly slog of a game on a lot of fronts. Here are the initial ‘Kudos & Wet Willies.’
Kudos to …
Jaxson Dart — The rookie quarterback’s stat line — 14 of 24, 193 yards, 1 passing TD, 1 rushing TD — isn’t great. It would have looked a lot better, though, with some help from Theo Johnson, Darius Slayton, and the officiating.
Dart did everything he could on Sunday. It was just never going to be enough. Tom Brady was impressed. That’s good enough for me.
Graham Gano — The Giants’ placekicker made it through the game healthy after spending four weeks on Injured Reserve with a groin injury. He made field goals of 47 and 34 yards, and a pair of extra points.
Brian Burns — Burns had his 10th sack, just 2.5 off his career-best, after just eight games. He is having an extraordinary season as a pass rusher.
Abdul Carter — Carter will get his first full NFL sack — some day. He continues to make an impact without one. He had three pressures on Sunday, drew a holding penalty, and made five tackles.
Kayvon Thibodeaux — Thibodeaux made a game-changing play, stripping Jalen Hurts of the ball on a Tush Push. He, and the Giants, just didn’t get rewarded for it. Thibodeaux had a quarterback hit, a pass defensed and five tackles.
After the game, Thibodeaux didn’t hide his feelings about the fumble that wasn’t.
Wet Willies to …
Run defense — Embarrassing. That’s the only way to describe it.
The Giants gave up a 65-yard touchdown run to Saquon Barkley on the Eagles’ second offensive play of the game. They ended up giving 278 yards rushing, surrendering more than 9 yards per rush.
Barkley had 150 yards rushing on 14 carries (10.7 per carry). Tank Bigsby had 104 yards on just nine carries, 11.6 yards per attempt.
By the end of the game, would-be Giants tacklers were barely offering any resistance.
Just terrible.
Kickoff coverage — The Giants entered the game third in the league, surrendering just 21.3 yards per kickoff return. Will Shipley of Philadelphia had three returns for 99 yards, a 33.0-yard average, including 41 and 32-yard returns. The Giants also gave up a 17-yard punt return to Xavier Gipson, who was briefly a Giant earlier in the season.
Theo Johnson — When you are a 6-foot-6, 264-pound tight end, your job is to make contested catches in traffic. You cannot drop a ball that would give you a first down at around the 10-yard line, taking four potential points off the board. Even if there are two defenders there. Johnson dropped a ball he had both hands on before he was even hit. Too many passes get away from Johnson, who entered the game with a 10.5% career drop rate.
Injury Gods — Why can’t the Giants have nice things? First, Malik Nabers is lost for the season with a torn ACL. Now, exciting rookie running back Cam Skattebo has a dislocated ankle after his foot got turned sideways trying to catch a pass.
Officiating — Things got so bad in the fourth quarter that the officials were laughing at themselves. Only, the performance by referee Brad Rogers and his crew was anything but funny.
I have rarely given officials a ‘WW’ in the 18 years I have been running this site. I do not like venturing into discussing officiating, and try to avoid it. The officials did not decide the game, but this was still an embarrassingly officiated game at the highest level of the sport.
The Kayvon Thibodeaux Tush Push play should have been a fumble recovery for the Giants. Instead, the Eagles end up with a touchdown. Darius Slayton lost a touchdown on a horrid offensive pass interference call. Kayvon Thibodeaux was called offside on a clear Jordan Mailata false start. A block in the back on Wan’Dale Robinson with the defender already falling down and moving away from him. Korie Black with hit with defensive pass interference when the wide receiver basically tossed him away.
There were many, many more moments of ridiculousness that impacted both teams. Nope, not funny. Not even a little bit.
Darius Muasau — Maybe I will be proven wrong, but it sure looked like Muasau didn’t fill his gap on Barkley’s 65-yard touchdown run. Oh, and in the early, unofficial Pro Football Focus analysis he finished with a defense-worst 31.0 grade and four missed tackles.
Kwillies to …
Darius Slayton — Two catches for 26 yards, and he was robbed of what should have been a 68-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter on a phantom offensive pass interference call. Slayton, though, missed two catches that should have been made. One was a clear drop. The other a deep ball in the second quarter that led to a punt when the Giants could have been in scoring position.
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