Iggles Blitz

2025 Game Review – NYG 34, PHI 17

Posted October 15th, 2025 | 1 Comment »

If you want to sum up this game as simply as possible, the Giants made plays and the Eagles made mistakes. Both teams had chances. The Giants took advantage of  theirs.

This was supposed to be a “get-right game” for the Eagles. Oops. No one told the Giants about that. They showed up ready to battle and went toe to toe with the Eagles for a while. Then the Giants just took over the game. Philly led 17-13 before the Giants scored three unanswered TDs to win the game. The way they celebrated you would think they won the Super Bowl. Beating the Eagles in a prime time game meant that much to them. The Giants played with a purpose. The Eagles didn’t have the same urgency or physicality and it showed.

It was bizarre to watch the Giants run for 55 yards on their final possession and then kneel down to run out the clock. The Eagles are the team that is supposed to do that. Cam Skattebo and Jaxson Dart were real problems for the Eagles defense.

COACHING

Nick Sirianni is normally excellent at having his team ready to play on a short week. That wasn’t the case this time around. The Eagles had some chances, but looked a step slow too often. Sirianni and his assistants couldn’t figure out how to make the key plays on offense or get the critical stops on defense. There weren’t a lot of strategic decisions. The Eagles were 2 for 2 on fourth downs.

Kevin Patullo had another up and down game. The offense looked good for parts of the first half. The red zone calls were good. There was another deep pass play that should have been a TD, but the throw was off. The offense struggled in the third quarter and then had a couple of costly turnovers in the fourth quarter. The Eagles were 1 of 9 on third downs. There weren’t many favorable situations, but that is still brutal. The coaches need to fix this fast.

Vic Fangio’s defense was pretty good at times. But they struggled on third downs, allowing the Giants to go 11 for 16. That kept the chains moving and the Eagles offense sitting on the bench. The Eagles played the run well early. NY was 10-33 in the first half (RB carries). The defense wore down late. The defense had no answer for Jaxson Dart’s mobility. He was 13-58-1 on the ground. He also moved around and got off some key throws. It was torture to watch.

Michael Clay’s KOR unit had some issues. This group has been a problem too often this year. That must get fixed.

OFFENSE

One of the reasons the offense struggled after putting up 17 points was field position. 4 out of 6 drives started inside the 12 yard line. Three inside the 10. That’s just not going to result in points too often, unless you have explosive plays. Bad formula.

Jalen Hurts was up and down. His numbers look good, going 24-33-283 with a TD and an INT. He had two critical mistakes and another play that hurt. The biggest issue was him overthrowing a wide open DeVonta on what should have been a 90-yard TD. Just a bad throw. Ugh. Hurts later threw an INT in the red zone. Making matters worse, AJ was wide open over the middle for a TD. That would have made it a 3-point game. Ugh. The other mistake came at the end of the half. Hurts scrambled and slid with little time left and the clock ran out before the Eagles could run a final play. That wasn’t likely to turn into points, but it would have been nice to see.

Hurts made a terrific throw to AJ along the right sideline. He did a good job of working the middle of the field on some first half plays. There was a good throw to DG for a nice gain.

Saquon Barkley was 12-58 on the ground. He had 31 yards on his first two carries and then came out of the game. The Giants did a good job on him for the rest of the game. There just wasn’t room to run. AJ Dillon fumbled after catching a pass late in the game.

DeVonta was 4-49. It felt like he caught more passes than that. The long pass would have made those numbers look a lot better. AJ finished 6-80. His sideline catch for 30 yards was the highlight of the passing game. Both receivers drew flags on pass plays. Jahan Dotson was 1-17.

Dallas Goedert had a good game, going 9-110-1. That’s four straight games with a TD. We know at least one guy loves Patullo. Goedert blocked well on some plays. None of the other TEs were targeted. Calcaterra was out.

The OL had another disappointing game.

The line struggled to consistently get push. Jordan Mailata had some struggles, even in the run game. Tyler Steen did a poor job on a trap block. DE got to Saquon. You have to make that block and spring the RB for a big gain. Very frustrating performance by the guys up front.

Pass pro was a mixed bag. There were times against a base rush when the OL looked good and Hurts had plenty of time. The Eagles had issues on some blitzes and twists/stunts gave the OL fits. We’re almost at midseason. This group should be better on that stuff. Give the Giants DL credit. They executed those well.

DEFENSE

There were times when the defense looked good. But they couldn’t get off the field when they needed to. You would think Jaxson Dart was the first mobile QB they ever played. Instead he was the third in a row. Ugh.

The run defense fell apart late in the game. The Eagles looked like a beaten team, something we haven’t seen much in recent years.

Jalyx Hunt had 6 tackles and a QB hit. He hasn’t become a stud pass rusher, but is a good overall OLB. He can be good in coverage at times. He had a chance for an early INT, but dropped the ball. That would have been a key play. Za’Darius Smith had 1 tackle and looked slow at times in his final game. Azeez Ojulari had 3 tackles. Patrick Johnson got his first NFL sack. That was a hustle play after Ojomo forced Dart to move.

The Eagles had multiple chances for sacks/QB hits and failed to seal the deal. It was LBs, edge rushers and DL. So very frustrating. They got some pressure, but it didn’t result in enough negative plays. This team doesn’t finish well.

Jalen Carter missed the game with a heel injury and that hurt the defense. Jordan Davis had 6 tackles and a sack. He was solid against the run in the first half. Moro Ojomo had 4 tackles. There are plays when he is really disruptive. Byron Young was in on 4 tackles. Ty Robinson flashed on a couple of plays and batted down a pass on third down that forced a punt.

Zack Baun had 6 tackles, but didn’t make any big plays. He missed Dart on early scramble that went for a TD. Baun looked helpless on that. Dart beat him again later in the game. Baun was good against the inside run until late in the game. Jihad Campbell had 7 tackles and played pretty well. He is figuring things out each week and able to play faster.

Drew Mukuba missed a tackle and the receiver turned that into a 35-yd TD. Can’t have that. He broke up a pass in the end zone. Mukuba bailed off his receiver and knocked the ball away from the guy behind him. That was good. He had 7 tackles. His coverage needs to get better. Reed Blankenship had 6 solo tackles. He left the game with an injury and Marcus Epps replaced him. Epps was physical and had 2 tackles, but didn’t make any plays.

Quinyon Mitchell got hurt early and the CBs struggled. They are a big reason the Giants were so good on third downs. Kelee Ringo failed to break up pass on 3rd/long. He’s got to knock that ball down. What’s the point in being a big, long corner if you don’t know how to play the ball. He gave up completion on crossing route and then stood there without touching the receiver. That guy got up and started to run. That had me ticked off. Make sure the guy is down. Ringo gave up other completions and drew a couple of key flags. Not a good showing.

Adoree Jackson wasn’t great himself. He was in on 7 tackles and was credited with 2 PDs. He still got picked on more than you would want. What makes the struggles of Ringo and Jackson so frustrating is that the Giants were missing their top receivers. Not good.

Dart was smart enough not to target Cooper DeJean much. DeJean did have tight coverage on a deep ball that came his way.

ST

Tank Bigsby muffed a KOR and that put the team in terrible field position late in the half. The drive started at the 7. The Eagles got out near midfield before running out of time. If that drive starts at the 25, the Eagles would have had a chance at a FG to tie the game going into halftime. Ugh.

Braden Mann had a good day punting.

Jeremiah Trotter had a couple of tackles in coverage.

_


Finding Solutions

Posted October 13th, 2025 | 2 Comments »

If you needed a new drinking game, go watch Nick Sirianni’s press conference from Monday and take a drink every time he uses the phrase “finding solutions”. Just make sure you don’t need to be anywhere early the next day.

His point does have merit. Sitting around and blaming this player or that coach isn’t going to accomplish anything. It would make some fans happy and certainly WIP would love it, but it wouldn’t change anything. As Sirianni pointed out repeatedly, the key is finding solutions.

That said, part of finding solutions is identifying problems. And that does involve pointing fingers to a certain extent. You might need to point out to Kevin Patullo that he’s got to mix up formations better than he currently is. You might need to let the edge rushers know that sacks are a good thing. The OL could use a suggestion on actually playing well for a whole game. Heck, even three quarters would be a step in the right direction.

Playing on Thursday night means the coaches have had a few extra days to study tape and analyze data in their search for solutions. Let’s hope they found some. Sirianni wouldn’t go into details, as you would expect. Why would you announce to the world the solutions you figured out? Save them for the upcoming games.

Some of the problems seem pretty obvious so it would be highly disappointing if Sirianni and his staff were not able to find solutions. We’ll find out on Sunday when the Eagles go to play the Vikings.

*****

A new problem arose on Monday.

Mixed feelings on this. Smith had some good moments for the Birds. He had 1.5 sacks and 2 TFLs. There was a play in the Giants loss where Smith looked slow. Jaxson Dart is a good athlete, but Smith looked old and slow on the play. I wonder if he saw that or just started to feel that way.

As bad as the Eagles struggles feel to some, the team is 4-2. Guys don’t jump off that team. A two-game losing streak isn’t a big deal for most organizations. If the Eagles were falling apart like the 1-5 Ravens, that might be different. Smith missed Training Camp. He joined the Eagles after the opener. You wonder if he’s fully committed or realized that he was simply ready to walk away. Football isn’t an easy game. It isn’t a casual game. You might fool yourself into believing you still want to play. For now we can just speculate on Smith’s thinking.

This does leave the Eagles light at edge rusher.

Jalyx Hunt
Azeez Ojulari
Josh Uche
Patrick Johnson

Nolan Smith will come off IR after the bye, but the Eagles still could be looking for help. The edge rushers haven’t been good enough this season. We know Howie is an aggressive GM who likes to trade. We also have to remember that it takes two sides to deal. You can identify a good rusher on another team, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be available.

The most obvious choice is Trey Hendrickson. The Bengals have fallen apart. I would assume he will be available. The problem is that he could cost a lot for a rental. If multiple teams are bidding, how high do you go. The real key here is for Howie, Sirianni and Jeff Lurie to have an honest talk and figure out if they think this team truly is  a title contender. The Eagles don’t feel like one right now, but that could change in a week or a month. Would adding a good pass rusher make a significant difference?

You’ll hear a lot of rumors. The Eagles will get mentioned a lot, partially because of Howie’s nature. He isn’t afraid to take chances. Some rumors might be true, but many won’t be. Agents, media types and other teams will leak all kinds of info. Only a portion will be true.

Howie will talk to everyone to find out what is possible. That doesn’t mean he’ll make a move. Again, he’s got to figure out if the risk is worth the reward. Adding Golden Tate helped the Eagles win a wild card game. Adding Robert Quinn didn’t do squat.

It is also important to remember that Vic Fangio will have some say in this. He’s picky about who/what he wants. He and Howie need to be on the same page. You wouldn’t want another Bryce Huff situation.

_