Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Game Preview – NYG at PHI

Posted October 25th, 2025 | No Comments »

Both the Eagles and Giants will have a chip on their shoulder when the teams meet on Sunday at The Linc. The Giants blew a 19-0 lead and suffered an embarrassing 33-32 loss to the Broncos last week. The Eagles lost 34-17 to the Giants when the teams played two weeks ago. Those are tough losses. The Eagles bounced back last week against the Vikings, but they haven’t forgotten the Giants game.

The Eagles won’t be at full strength for the game.

You never want to see AJ Brown out. He hasn’t practiced all week due to a hamstring injury. There was hope that he could get right for Sunday, but it just didn’t heal quickly enough. The Eagles have a bye next week so let him rest and get ready for the second half of the season.

We knew BG wouldn’t play. He needs more practice. Jurgens missed most of last week so he’s no surprise either. We’ll get to see Brett Toth start at center. Not ideal. Ojulari being out means the Eagles will be light at edge rusher. Jackson being out means we’ll get another start from Kelee Ringo. As frustrating as it is to go into this game beaten up, the Eagles still have plenty of talent and should win this game.

Brown’s injury is especially frustrating with the Eagles coming off their best passing game of the year. They won’t be able to build on that, at least not in the way they wanted. The Giants will focus their coverage on DeVonta Smith. That means Jahan Dotson will have a chance to step up and do his part. John Metchie and Xavier Gipson will get more opportunities as well. This is why you trade for Dotson and Metchie.

The key to the passing game last week was the play of Jalen Hurts. He made some terrific throws. If you think back to the first Giants game, Hurts missed some key throws. He will need to hit on those passes this time out, unless the run game finally decides to get going.

Toth starting at center will not help the run game. He struggled with Vikings DTs last week and they don’t have anyone nearly as good as Dexter Lawrence. The Giants DL can give Toth real problems. Jeff Stoutland will try to figure out how limit any issues. I still don’t understand why Stout is so high on Toth, but he sees something so that’s his guy. I’d love to see rookie Drew Kendall get a chance, He impressed me over the summer.

The Giants are 25th in rushing yards allowed so maybe the Eagles can win that battle. The Vikings didn’t have a good run defense and they still shut down Saquon so who knows. One of these weeks Saquon will have a breakout game. It has to happen.

NY played more zone than usual in the first meeting. Hurts can struggle against zone coverage, but he will be expecting that this time and should be better prepared for how to attack. If the Giants decide to go with man coverage, Hurts will be fine with that. He’s more comfortable against man and it makes his scrambling more of a weapon.

The real key to this game will be the Eagles defense. The Giants are averaging 25 points per game with Jaxson Dart as the starting QB. They are averaging 33 ppg over the past two weeks. The Eagles don’t want to get into a shootout. They know Dart will make some plays, but they must play better than they did in the first game.

Dart has proven to be a good dual-threat QB.

Dart didn’t have to face Jalen Carter or Quinyon Mitchell in the first game. Q played a few snaps, but then got hurt and Dart was able to take advantage of the Eagles CBs.  With Carter bringing pressure up the middle and Q in coverage, the defense should be much better. It’s no accident that the Eagles gave up their most points of the year in that game.

With Nakobe Dean back and only three healthy edge rushers, I would expect to see more of Jihaad Campbell in that role. I’m sure he’ll be mixed in at ILB as well.

The Eagles losses to the Broncos and Giants were their only two games of the year without a takeaway. It would certainly help if the defense can make a big play or two to help the offense out.

Dart’s mobility was a major issue in the first game. The Eagles got pressure, but couldn’t either sack him or contain him. They must be better against him this time out. Mobile QBs have been a problem all year long. We’ll see if Fangio can come up with a plan since this is the first time the Eagles are playing a second game against an opponent.

Dart isn’t the only runner to worry about. Skattebo gave the Eagles fits in the first game. He ran hard and fought for every possible yard. Eagles defenders must tackle better and rally to the ball. Skattebo isn’t a guy you bring down one-on-one all the time. You need to get multiple tacklers to the ball. This has to be a team effort.

Field position was a problem in the first meeting. It would sure help if the Eagles did a better job in this area. The offense is much less likely to score when the drive starts inside your own 20.

This will be an interesting game. The Eagles are missing some key guys, which makes things challenging. But they are at home and the team should be fired up to beat the Giants. They’ll have a better idea of what the Giants want to do schematically. The thought of getting swept by the Giants is hard to imagine, but that will happen if the Eagles are sloppy and don’t take care of business.

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