Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Game Review – PHI 38, NYG 20

Posted October 31st, 2025 | 2 Comments »

Welcome to the 2025 season, Philadelphia Eagles. I know it’s Week 8, but it sure feels like this is the first time the real Eagles showed up. Nice of them to join us.

The Eagles got bullied in their Week 6 loss to the Giants. That didn’t happen on Sunday. As Michael Scott would say “How the turntables have turned”. The Eagles won the line of scrimmage on both offense and defense as they got revenge against their division rivals. The 38-20 win means another season without being swept by the Giants. That’s now 19 in a row.

There was some talk after the Giants earlier win that they could get hot and be a team to watch. Oops. They melted down in Denver and then got pushed around in Philly. The Giants are now 2-6 and looking ahead to next year. Again. Making matters worse, rookie RB Cam Skattebo suffered a nasty injury and is done for the year. QB Jaxson Dart looks like the real deal. The rest of the team needs a lot of work.

Back to the guys in green (kelly green this week). While they played well and stayed in total control of the game, there is still plenty to be worked on. The good news is that the Eagles players now have a bye and can get some extra rest. The coaches can study the first half of the season and look for ways to improve. And they can do that after a 6-2 start to the season. x

COACHING

Nick Sirianni pushed the right buttons to get the Eagles ready for this game. There weren’t a lot of key strategic decisions in the game. The Eagles went for it on fourth down twice, converting both. They came on the same drive, which resulted in a TD.

Kevin Patullo has had a tough year. His offense has not played nearly as well as expected. But he also has had to deal with the worst OL play since the disastrous 2020 season. Patullo has been like a chef who doesn’t have all the ingredients he needs to make the dish everyone is expecting. On Sunday he got those ingredients and the results were pretty great. I’m assuming he made pork chop casserole.

The Eagles offense is built on the OL. The run game and pass game need to complement each other. The OL played their best game and Patullo called the right plays to take advantage of that. Great job by everyone.

Vic Fangio saw his defense get run over up in NY and didn’t want a repeat of that. The Eagles played much better run defense this time around. They also were much better at containing Jaxson Dart. He was sacked 5 times and limited to 17 rushing yards on 6 attempts. I thought the Eagles coverage was the group that really stood out. Fangio played more zone in this game. That made Dart hold the ball as he tried to read the defense. It also helped to negate Dart’s running since defenders were watching him.

Michael Clay’s had multiple good returns. That helped with field position, which made things easier on the offense. Only one drive started inside the 24-yard line.

OFFENSE

Jalen Hurts didn’t have AJ Brown, but the passing game was still outstanding. Hurts was 15-20-179 with 4 TDs. That is efficient. Hurts made good decisions and good throws. There was a TD pass to Saquon that came vs the blitz. The rusher was unblocked. Hurts read it quickly and got the ball to the right guy for an easy TD. The fun play was the second TD to Goedert.

Great call, great execution.

Hurts was 4-22 as a runner. He did take a terrible sack that lost 16 yards. That could have been costly. Hurts “fumbled” on the only Tush Push, but the refs called forward progress and saved him on that play.

Saquon Barkley had his best game of the season. He ran for a 65-yard TD on the second play of the game. The Giants ran for 68 yards in the whole game. Barkley finished 14-150-1 and didn’t play the fourth quarter. He injured his groin on his final play, a 22-yard scamper to the right side. Barkley showed good speed and ran decisively. He was 4-24-1 as a receiver.

Tank Bigsby had his breakout game, going 9-104. That was the second best game of his career. Bigsby showed real juice. His burst to the outside caught defenders off guard multiple times. He also ran hard on inside runs and was tough to tackle.

Giants had trouble getting him on the ground. There were multiple plays where they had to settle for getting him out of bounds. There was a run late in the game where he pushed the pile, reminding us of what Skattebo did to the Eagles two weeks ago. Bigsby was fun to watch. He definitely earned more playing time.

DeVonta Smith was 6-84. He was open for most of the game and could have posted huge numbers if the Eagles threw more. Jahan Dotson only caught one pass, but it was a 40-yard TD. He had to go up over the CB to make the grab. Great effort. It was funny to watch Smitty on that play. He ran such a great route that the CB fell and he was wide open for an easy TD. Hurts went to the other side, but still got the big play. Darius Cooper drew a PI call and did well as a blocker.

Dallas Goedert had a good game, as a receiver and blocker. He only caught 3 passes, but 2 were for TDs. He continues to be a force in the red zone. Grant Calcaterra didn’t catch a pass, but had some good moments as a blocker. That surprised me. Fred Johnson played 14 snaps. The Eagles are using him as a 6th OL or 3rd TE. He did a good job as a blocker.

The OL played its best game of the year. This was a strong showing. Brett Toth has caught plenty of flak this year. He struggled mightily this summer and didn’t play well as the center against MIN. Expectations weren’t great for this game, but I’m happy to report that he played well. The coaches had him on the move and he did a good job of that. There weren’t as many reach blocks, which he struggled with in the Vikings game.

Toth was good on the move and in space. He had a terrific block on a screen pass. I thought Toth really battled at the LOS. He worked hard to sustain blocks. Strong performance from him.

Landon Dickerson is one of the best guards in the league…when he’s healthy. He hasn’t been healthy this season and he’s struggled because of that. Sunday was his best game. Maybe the extra rest from the mini-bye helped him. Whatever it was, it helped Dickerson to play well. When he’s good, the run game is good. It was no accident that Dickerson’s best game coincided with the Eagles breakout running game. If he can play like this the rest of the year, the run game will be good. Dickerson blocked three guys on Barkley’s 65-yd TD.

Dickerson gave up a sack when he just quit blocking 93. Must have been expecting Toth to get the guy.

Lane Johnson fell down on the first play. Even great players have goofy moments. He had a holding call wipe out a good gain to Smitty. Overall, another outstanding performance. The Eagles had good success running to his side. Tyler Steen had a really good downfield block on early screen. Called for false start that led to missed FG. Another good game for him. Jordan Mailata also played well.

More of this, please.

DEFENSE

The Eagles finished with 5 sacks and 6 QB hits, but the pass rush wasn’t as good as you might have thought. The coverage was good and Dart had to hold the ball at times, which allowed the rushers to get home. I do think the Eagles style of rushing has to be factored in. The edge rushers engaged OTs and drove them back, seemingly trying to box in Dart.

Jalyx Hunt just finished the best two game stretch of his young career. He had the pick-six in Minny and then had his first sack of the season against the G-men. Hunt tackled Dart from behind on the third play of the game, showing that this wasn’t going to be a repeat of the first game when the Eagles had no answer for Dart’s legs.

Josh Uche had a couple of good pressures when he looped to the inside. He just missed a strip sack. Replay ruled Dart’s arm had just started going forward and that wiped out his play. Patrick Johnson got burned by Skattebo on early TD pass. Great job by the rookie. Used his hands to get inside and free to the end zone. Johnson had a great rush off the edge that forced Dart to step up into a sack. Johnson also covered a screen pass and forced Dart to throw the ball into the ground.

Jalen Carter was up and down. He got double-teamed a lot and that limited his production. He had 2 tackles and a sack. That was a coverage sack where Dart held the ball. Jordan Davis played well. He was good against the run and added a sack. Moro Ojomo had 3 tackles and a sack. He was disruptive on multiple plays, taking advantage of the fact Carter was double-teamed.

Nakobe Dean had 5 tackles and played the run well. Some people thought he was held on the early TD. I did watching live. The replay showed Dean tripped over an OL’s ankle and fell. The blocker didn’t pull him down. Good no-call. He was burned on a pass play for a good gain, but actually had pretty good coverage. The throw and catch were just better. Dean’s physicality helped against the run.

Zack Baun led the team with 6 tackles. He also had a sack and 2 PDs. The big moment came when he hit Skattebo in coverage. That led to Skattebo’s injury. Not pretty to see a foot pointing the wrong direction. Baun had one coverage play when he didn’t keep enough depth and Dart lofted a throw over him. Good game overall. Jihaad Campbell played on the edge and at ILB. His snaps were limited because he’s learning a new role in the nickel defense. He finished with 2 tackles.

Reed Blankenship finished with 5 solo tackles. He played the run well, coming down to the LOS aggressively. He had some good moments in coverage as well. Drew Mukuba had a quiet game. He had 2 tackles. He stayed back a lot. He did cover well, which is an area he’s needed to work on.

Cooper DeJean blitzed and forced Dart to move up in the pocket, which led to a sack for Davis. He also came off the edge and had a TFL vs the run. He finished with 5 tackles. DeJean did get beaten on one pass play. He leaned to much to the inside and the receiver went outside.

Kelee Ringo actually played pretty well. More than anything, I thought he played smart. He only had 1 tackle, but that’s because the ball didn’t come his way very often. Encouraging performance. Quinyon Mitchell had a good game. He had good coverage on a deep ball down the right side. That was incomplete. Dart tried Q again later on a similar route. That was initially a TD, but got wiped out by an OPI call.

ST

Will Shipley was 3-99 as a KOR. He had a long return of 41 yards.

Xavier Gipson had a 17-yard PR.

Braden Mann had a 57-yard punt, his only kick of the game.

Jake Elliott missed a 58-yd FG. That’s two weeks in a row with misses.

Cam Latu got good pressure on two punts.

OFFICIATING 

The officiating in this game was bad. There were missed calls on both sides. That said, the Eagles got the benefit of more big calls. There was a potential fumble on the Tush Push that got wiped out. Brian Daboll tried to challenge that even when they told him he couldn’t. Daboll hated the OPI call that wiped out the TD pass. There was a false start on Mailata that got called on the Giants. That came in the red zone. There was a bad spot on a sack of Hurts that gave the Eagles 5 extra yards. There was a block in the back that was a bad call and cost the Giants 10 yards.

The Eagles had some bad breaks as well, but not as many as the Giants.

To be clear, the Eagles were the better team and won the game. The bad calls just made it a bit easier.

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