Game Review – PHI 48, NYG 22

The Eagles dominated the Giants. It’s as simple as that. They outscored the G-men 24-7 in the first half and then 24-7 in the second half. A garbage time TD made the final score 48-22.

The Eagles weren’t perfect, but they made big plays and ran up and down the field. The Giants didn’t have the players necessary to execute their strategy successfully. They blitzed, but couldn’t cover the Eagles receivers. They played a lot of DBs and those guys couldn’t stop the Eagles run game. The Giants OTs didn’t fare well in pass pro so Daniel Jones struggled to get the ball to receivers who struggled to get open. Not ideal for Big Blue.

The Eagles got up 21-0 and took control of the game. They only punted twice and had answers every time the Giants felt like momentum might be going their way. This series has had lots of memorable games. Aside from a couple of crazy punts, this game won’t mean much to general observers.

But is sure was fun for Eagles fans.

COACHING

Nick Sirianni had one interesting decision to make. The Eagles were up 7-0 in the early 2nd Qtr. They faced 4th and 7 from the Giants 41. That was too far for a FG in those conditions. But you sure don’t want to punt from there. Sirianni went for it and the Eagles scored on that play. The only other interesting decision was when to pull the starters.

Sirianni and the offensive coaches came up with the plan to throw early due to weather. The rain would be light early so the thinking was to throw and build a lead, then run the ball as the weather got worse. That’s exactly what happened and it worked well. There is only one play that sticks out as something to be critical of. When the Eagles faced 3rd down deep in their own territory, the play called involved deep routes. No one got open, Hurts was sacked and that led to the blocked punt. It would have been smart there to give Hurts a couple of shorter options.

Jonathan Gannon focused on stopping the run and his guys did just that. Gannon then got creative with his coverages. That forced Jones to hold the ball longer than he would have liked and gave time for the pass rushers to get home. Good day for Gannon and the defense.

OFFENSE

437 yards
6 of 11 on 3rd downs
1 of 1 on 4th downs
3 of 4 in the red zone
5 plays of 20 or more yards (2 of 40 or more)

QB

Stop me if you’ve head this before. Jalen Hurts had a good game. He was 21-31-217 with 2 TDs. Several of the incompletions were intermediate or downfield throws that were almost completions. Hurts threw the ball well. I thought his decision-making was superb. Facing the blitz can cause you to hurry and make sloppy decisions. Hurts wasn’t perfect, but he was right most of the time and burned the Giants on some key plays.

Hurts made a great throw on 3rd down to DeVonta on the opening drive. That showed timing, touch and accuracy. I thought Hurts used checkdown options well. He didn’t settle for short stuff too much though. He was willing to stand in the pocket and give his guys a chance to get open. Hurts made a great throw to Quez on 3rd down with someone coming right at him.

Jalen Hurts is a big reason why the #FlyEaglesFly have a Top 5 offense on third down.

Look at these completions!

✅ Poise
✅ Anticipation
✅ Ball Placement pic.twitter.com/CSmMW4Ou7t

— Fran Duffy (@EaglesXOs) December 12, 2022

He made a good throw to DeVonta for a long TD. He adjusted that play at the line after seeing what the coverage was. Hurts also hit AJ for a long TD.

Hurts also ran the ball really well in this game, going 7-77-1. Most of those were designed runs. He did have one good scramble.

RB

Miles Sanders had a great game, setting a new career high with 144 rushing yards. He was 17-144-2. Sanders speed and downhill running made him incredibly effective against the Giants defense. The Eagles ran wide and the blocking gave him the ability to get to the second level. Sanders had a good catch and run. He almost caught a deep ball. Hurts threw a deep pass down the right sideline. Sanders got his hands on the ball and went to the ground, but he couldn’t maintain total control of the ball. Would have been a gain of 37 yards.

Sanders had good blocks in pass pro and as a lead blocker for Hurts. He’s no longer just a runner. His versatility lets the coaches be creative. There was at least one play where he and Gainwell were in the backfield together.

Boston Scott is the Giant Killer and had another good game. He was 6-33-1 and also caught a pass.

Kenny Gainwell didn’t play much. He did catch one pass.

WR

AJ Brown was 4-70-1. His TD came when he got matched up on a safety. AJ ran a good route to get wide open for a 33-yard TD. He did have one drop when wide open over the middle.

DeVonta was 5-64-1. He scored his TD on 4th/7. Hurts put the ball up where DeVonta could go get it and he did just that. DeVonta didn’t get distracted by the safety coming over in coverage. When the safety went by him, DeVonta had an easy jog into the end zone. His best came was a 3rd down grab on the opening drive. He ran a good route and snatched the ball cleanly to move the chains. Later he had a good catch and run. There was one drop. The pass was a bit outside, but I think DeVonta would agree that’s a pass he should catch.

Quez Watkins was 4-19. He made a good 3rd down catch on the second drive.

Zach Pascal  caught one pass for 5 yds.

TE

The TEs blocked really well in this game. The Eagles played a lot of 12 personnel and the TEs were able to block effectively, giving Sanders and Hurts room to run. Over and over. Impressive performance.

Jack Stoll was 2-20 as a receiver. Had a good block on Sanders early TD run. Occupied Thibodeaux and kept him from making the tackle. Good catch and run for 14 yards. Was good as an in-line blocker and on the move.

Grant Calcaterra was 2-24 as a receiver. He slipped on first play, but still made the catch. His long catch and run went for 13 yards. The last two weeks he’s been used as a red zone target on multiple plays. That’s interesting. He did a lot of pulling and blocking on the move in this game and did a good job. He’s come a long way in a short time.

OL

The OL did a great job of run blocking. There were running lanes for Hurts, Sanders and Scott. Pass protection was mostly good, but the left side struggled at times.

Jordan had an up and down game. Pulled and got a big hit on an early run. Love to see him knock the crap out of defenders. Good down block opened the hole for Sanders on his early TD run. Beaten by Thibodeaux for sack on play before the blocked punt. He’s so tall and shorter pass rushers can give him fits. Had some terrific run blocks in the second half.

Landon was beaten by Lawrence and he got a big hit on Hurts. Landon froze his feet and reached, making it easy for Lawrence to fly by him. Landon had a couple of run blocks where he just leveled guys. Those are so much fun to watch. I’d trade the kill shots for more consistency in his pass pro.

Jason Kelce helped keep Dexter Lawrence under control for most of the game. Kelce had some outstanding blocks when pulling on outside runs.

Isaac Seumalo was cleanly beaten in pass pro on the play where Hurts was sacked at the 2. The DE got there first, but really both guys got to Hurts. Mostly played a good game.

Lane was outstanding.

#FlyEaglesFly ran versions of 'Counter Read' a TON in Sunday's win over the #Giants @BoobieMilesXXIV took it to the house once and broke off a number of other explosives with it – and Jalen Hurts got in on the action as well! Love this concept! pic.twitter.com/mJfcIjAQhw

— Fran Duffy (@EaglesXOs) December 12, 2022

#FlyEaglesFly ran a handful of nifty designed QB runs vs the #Giants

Love the variety in this run scheme every week

– Basic Run Concept
– Run from diff groups / formations
– Add QB run version
– Add read-action
– Throw RPO / screen on top pic.twitter.com/GQhwhaAeES

— Fran Duffy (@EaglesXOs) December 13, 2022

Good running, but that blocking is impressive.

DEFENSE

304 yards
4 of 13 on 3rd downs
2 of 4 on 4th downs
3 of 4 in the red zone
2 plays of 20 or more yards (both more than 30…not ideal)
1 takeaway
7 sacks, 12 QB hits
10 TFLs

Saquon Barkley was 9-28. He wasn’t 100 percent, but the Eagles didn’t give him any room to run. Daniel Jones was 4-26 as a runner. The Eagles only let him get loose once.

The Eagles gave up 3 TDs. The first came on a 15-yard drive after a blocked punt. The last one came against the backups at the end of the game.

DL

Josh Sweat had a sack and a couple of QB hits. Blew by the LT to get an early sack and disrupt the opening drive.

Fletcher Cox played well. He’s been better since the vet DTs were added and his playing time went down. Cox had 4 tackles, a sack and 2 QB hits. Got a sack late in the half. Reddick forced Jones to move up in the pocket and Cox was there to make the play. Just missed another sack, but forced Jones to get rid of the ball quickly. Pushed his blocker back on run and pass plays. Disruptive. Good to see him playing well.

Javon Hargrave was actually a bit quiet. Didn’t have any tackles or sacks. Did get one QB hit.

Linval Joseph had a good game. Clogged the middle and got some push on pass plays. Was in on a couple of tackles.

Ndamukong Suh didn’t make the stat sheet, but he was disruptive at times, especially late in the game.

Brandon Graham came off the bench and was the star with 3 sacks. How cool is that? He was good vs the run as well. Got around pulling blocker and got TFL on run play. Got a FF with one of his sacks and the Eagles recovered. Two of the sacks did come against backup OTs, but BG beat them cleanly. All counts the same in the stats.

Milton Williams played well. Used a hard inside move to get penetration and blow up a run play. He got a sack late in the game. Disruptive and showed a really good motor. Got one good hit on Jones when he looped around and hit him from behind. Finished with a sack and a couple of TFLs.

Jordan Davis played RDT. He got penetration and chased the QB out wide on one play. That was good to see. Still trying to work his way back from the ankle injury.

LB

Haason Reddick was disruptive. The stat sheet shows 1 sack, 1 TFL, 1 QB hit. He was more impactful than that. Reddick beat RT Evan Neal multiple times and forced Jones to move. One of those became a sack for Cox. Reddick’s sack on third down and ended a drive.

TJ Edwards had 6 tackles, a TFL and PD. Got a TFL when he tackled WR for short loss. Had a chance for an INT, but wasn’t able to make the grab. Did a good job of jumping the route. Played the run well. Helped stuff inside runs. Also chased plays out wide. There was one pass to Barkley on the sideline where TJ missed, but that was Barkley’s lone highlight for the game.

Kyzir White had a couple of tackles and a QB hit. He was around the ball a lot.

SAF

Marcus Epps played well. He led the team with 8 tackles and had a TFL. Epps was excellent in run support. Came up into the box and did his part. Sometimes that was making the play. Other times that was filling a gap and taking on a blocker. Made key tackle when Brightwell got loose up the middle. Almost broke that for a huge gain, but Epps tripped him up. Had a big hit on the TE in the flat. The guy took a minute to get up. Had another big hit in the end zone. Drew a flag for that. Nothing dirty. Epps is trying to make guys pay for catching the ball in the end zone. Rules now make that tough.

Reed Blankenship had a couple of tackles before getting hurt. Blitzed, flushed Jones and tackled him after short gain. Tackled well. Was playing well. Came up in run support and his knee got caught in the turf. Luckily nothing is torn.

K’Von Wallace took over for Reed. Up and down game. Was caught looking in the backfield and Jones hit the TE in the flat to set up the Giants first TD. Gave up a big completion in the second half. I’m not sure what happened there. On other plays, he showed some potential. Played faster than I remembered. When he saw a runner or receiver, took off and flew to the ball. Mostly tackled well. Finished with 5 solo tackles. You can see potential, but the coverage breakdowns are a real concern.

Josiah Scott played some S and NB. Had good downfield coverage on a deep throw. Lined up in the box and then went back right at the snap. Was able to get enough depth to keep the receiver from catching the pass. That was impressive. Had a couple of tackles.

CB

James Bradberry played well against his old team. Had 3 solo tackles. Covered well and the Giants didn’t test him much.

Darius Slay was a bit sloppy. Gave up a short TD to Hodgins. Jones ran to buy time, but Slay should be able to stick with Hodgins. Let Jones get outside of him on QB run that went for 17 yards. Was in on 4 tackles and did break up a couple of passes.

Avonte Maddox came back from injury and played well. Had 7 tackles. Good vs the run. He’s not afraid to mix it up. Gave up a couple of completions.

ST

Arryn Siposs only punted once and that got deflected. The Eagles didn’t have the normal 14 yards of space so the rusher had an easier time of getting there. Rick Lovato didn’t make a clean block on the guy so Siposs had no chance. Amazingly, Siposs picked up the ball and almost ran for the first down. He did get hurt on the play and is now on IR.

https://twitter.com/Eaglesfans9/status/1602018694489669633

With Siposs out, Jake Elliott took over as the punter. The offense was so good that he only had to punt once. That went for 35 yards and got the job done. Elliott hit all of his kicks, which isn’t easy with a new holder.

Britain Covey took over that job. You would think a QB might, but Covey was the backup holder at Utah and has practiced there with the Eagles. He was perfect with his holds, which is crazy on a cold, rainy day. Kudos to him for doing that so well. He also did a good job as the PR. He had to make guys miss on the first couple. Covey didn’t gain a lot of yards, but he was very elusive. He did get room on a later punt and took that up the middle for 16 yards. He’s showing potential.

Boston Scott had KORs of 66 and 35 yards. The long return was helped by good blocking and a wrinkle put in by Michael Clay. He wouldn’t explain, but the wrinkle worked.

Zach Pascal has been excellent on STs the last couple of weeks. He had some outstanding blocks and was key on Scott’s long return.

Christian Elliss played on STs for the second week in a row and made a difference for the second week in a row. He had 2 tackles (again) and has really given this unit a boost. He’s got to be added to the roster in the near future.

The Giants had a punt disaster of their own.

https://twitter.com/Eaglesfans9/status/1602013177444794375

I’ve never heard of an illegal punt. The Eagles took advantage of that and scored a TD on the next play.

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