The Eagles wrap up the regular season on Sunday when they take on the Giants. There have been some amazing games and moments in this long rivalry. Sunday won’t likely be joining that list. The field will be full of backups for both teams.
Tanner McKee will get the start for the Eagles. I’m excited to see what McKee can do, but we need to be realistic as well. He won’t have the starting OL blocking for him. He won’t be handing the ball to Saquon Barkley. He won’t be throwing to AJ and DeVonta. On the flip side, the Giants defense stinks. They have given up at least 33 points in each of the last three games.
McKee has played well in the preseason when he’s surrounded by second and third string players so there is a chance he’ll still play well. He is a smart, calm QB. He’s got a good arm and isn’t scared to make tough throws and take chances. McKee should make the players around him better.
I’m curious to see how the WRs do. We’ll see a lot of Jahan Dotson, Johnny Wilson and Ainias Smith. All three have done very little this season in the passing game. McKee won’t go into the game expecting to feed the ball to a specific player. He’ll find the open guy and get him the ball. That means all three have a chance to make plays.
It will be good to get a look at some backup OL. We’ve seen Fred Johnson and Tyler Steen. We could see Trevor Keegan and/or Darrian Kinnard on Sunday. There will be ups and downs, but the experience can be helpful for players who have been watching instead of playing this season.
I hope Bryce Huff gets a good amount of reps on Sunday. He needs to shake off some rust. Huff could be a helpful backup in the playoffs. It will be good to see Jeremiah Trotter play for a whole game. Kelee Ringo will get a good test when he covers Malik Nabers. I hope Eli Ricks gets a chance to play. He’s barely been on the field this year after showing some promise last season.
The Eagles activated TE Dallas Goedert from IR.
They elevated LB Dallas Gant and DE Charles Harris for the game, too.
Are you ready to see Charles Harris play a lot? The Eagles will use Jalyx Hunt, but need him for the playoffs so Harris should play a lot of snaps. Gant will likely play a lot on STs.
The Giants had lost 10 games in a row going into last week. They ended that misery with a 45-33 win over the Colts. QB Drew Lock put up some amazing numbers and was lights out. Was that an anomaly? Were the Giants inspired to win to save Brian Daboll’s job? Did they get special help from the drones in NJ?
The season finale can be a weird game, for all teams. Teams heading into the postseason aren’t always focused on the game. Eliminated teams can either be fired up to finish the season on a good note or they can already have one foot out the door and play bad football. I have no idea what to expect from this Giants team.
The Eagles backups have to be excited about getting to play. That enthusiasm will help the young guys. At the same time, they haven’t played together in a meaningful game so there are going to be some bad moments. Let’s hope they stay healthy and give us some fun moments.
*****
If you do need a bad, but still fun Eagles-Giants moment, you can always go back a couple of decades.
Chris Berman is hilarous on those highlights. He and Tom Jackson made for a great highlight show. I miss watching those guys. Berman still does highlights, but it isn’t the same as NFL Prime Time when it was on live and everyone tuned in. That was must-see TV on Sunday nights.
With all of the college bowl games this week, I’m a bit behind schedule. I still re-watched the Cowboys game from Sunday to see what stood out. The final score was 41-7, but the game felt very different early on. After the Eagles scored on a pick-six, Dallas marched down for a TD to tie the game at 7-7. The Eagles ran three pass plays and punted. After getting the ball back, the Eagles had three running plays and punted. There wasn’t a great vibe.
The Eagles woke up and dominated the rest of the game. It is funny how a single play can have that kind of effect. I listed to former Eagles scout Bryan Broaddus on a Cowboys podcast and he said the same thing. That play really changed the game.
Both teams had backup QBs playing. The diffence is that the Eagles had a bunch of top talent around theirs. Dallas still has some stars, but way too many mediocre guys in the lineup. They had some good moments, but made way too many mistakes.
COACHING
There weren’t a many strategic decisions for Nick Sirianni. He punted on an early fourth down near midfield. With Jalen Hurts in the game, he almost certainly goes for it. With Kenny Pickett, he punted. Sirianni had an interesting decision late in the 1st half. The Eagles led 17-7 and were at the 1-yard line with 2 seconds left. Sirianni could have played it safe and kicked, but went with the Brotherly Shove. Pickett scored and the Eagles led 24-7 at the half. The game was basically over at that point.
I thought Kellen Moore did a solid job with the offense and Pickett. Moore didn’t try to be too conservative. Pickett threw 14 passes in the first half and Saquon had 13 carries. Moore let him throw downfield. I liked what Moore did in the run game, getting creative and trying different things. They mixed in some toss plays that worked well. They used Tyler Steen as an extra TE. Solid plan.
Fangio and the defense dared Cooper Rush to beat them. He couldn’t. Nothing too complicated on that side of the ball.
*****
Since this was a blowout and several days ago, I didn’t want to do the normal format. I wanted to focus on a theme that stood out to me while watching live and the replay. Redemption.
A week ago the Eagles lost an incredibly frustrating game in Washington. Mistake after mistake ended up costing them the game. The Eagles are so good that they still should have won, but just couldn’t make the key play to seal the deal.
Sunday’s win over the Cowboys provided redemption for several of the players who made costly mistakes in the loss. DeVonta Smith dropped the pass that could have sealed the game last week. On Sunday he was 6-120-2 and just missed a third TD. He was tackled just short of the end zone. Smith had a favorable matchup against a bad CB and got the best of him over and over.
CJGJ got ejected in Washington. He picked off 2 passes against Dallas and scored the first points for the Eagles.
CJGJ is so important to the Eagles defense. Knew he was gone as soon as he caught it. pic.twitter.com/fWategu9a2
He now has 6 INTs for the season. Top defenses need playmakers at safety. CJGJ and Reed Blankenship have combined for 10 picks this season. That’s what you want when you play a lot of 2-high. CJGJ knows he hurt the team with the ejection. He played more under control against Dallas. Be emotional, but not too emotional. Sirianni joked about seeing CJGJ play peacemaker a couple of times in the game.
Kenny Pickett was okay against the Commanders. He played better in his first start for the Eagles. Pickett left the game with the Eagles up 27-7 in the third quarter. He threw for 143 yards and a TD. He also scored a TD on the push play. Dallas came in as a hot defense, but Pickett played well against them. He does need to protect the ball better. He had the ball stripped on a pass play, but a penalty wiped that out. He threw a pass over the middle that should have been picked, but got dropped. He got lucky, but needs to be careful in future games.
The Eagles defense gave up 36 points to Washington. That still blows my mind. I got a bit worried when Dallas moved the ball on the first two series. They tied the game up after the pick-six. Vic Fangio’s defense clamped down after that and didn’t let the Cowboys score another point. That took pressure off the backup QBs and made things easier for them. The defense had 4 takeaways so they were still making plays. They didn’t get burned by chunk plays the way they did in Washington.
The OL didn’t have their best game in last week’s loss. They played much better against Dallas. The OL opened enough holes that Saquon Barkley was able to run for 167 yards. The OL didn’t give up a sack. Pickett did get knocked out of the game on a hit by Micah Parsons. Pickett had moved out of the pocket on that and made himself vulnerable. There was also an earlier play that involved a big shot, but that came on a late hit and did draw a flag.
Grant Calcaterra was awful as an in-line blocker against the Commanders. He might have had his best game as a blocker against Dallas. It wasn’t great, but there was good effort and he won his share of battles. Calcaterra only caught one pass. It was an important one, though. As I mentioned above, that play changed the game.
The Eagles STs did not play well in Washington. KOs were short and the coverage was bad. Jake Elliott handled the KOs on Sunday and 5 of 7 were touchbacks. Good weather helped that a lot. When KaVontae Turpin did return two of them, he got a total of 48 yards. Dallas didn’t have a single drive start beyond the 30-yard line. Huge difference from last week.
MISC
Saquon Barkley was 31-167. He started a bit slow, but really got going in the second half. His long run was “only” 23 yards, but he still had some impressive moments. He caught a short pass in the flat and somehow the defender went over him and Barkley didn’t go down. He only added a few yards there, but that was impressive.
Barkley and Kenny Gainwell both had some good blitz pickups. Both RBs can be good blockers.
Tanner McKee made his NFL debut and went 3-4 for 54 yards and 2 TDs. Both TDs were good throws. The most impressive thing to me was the fact McKee was calm and looked natural out there. Some backups seem overwhelmed. McKee looked good.
AJ Brown finished 3-36-1. He made a sensational TD catch, but couldn’t get his second foot in so it didn’t count. Great effort. Pickett hit him for a TD that was wiped out by a penalty.
Nolan Smith had a chance for a great game. He just missed a sack late in the half. There was a play where Jalen Carter batted a pass and it came right to Smith. He got both hands on the ball, but still dropped it. Smith deflected a pass on third down to end a drive, but was called for a penalty and kept it alive. He did have 2 tackles, a TFL and a FF. Good, but could have been great.
Jordan Davis recovered a fumble. He showed good hustle in getting over by the ball and then did an amazing job of securing it with just one arm in a pile-up. That is one strong dude.
Thomas Booker played with a lot of energy. He finished with 5 tackles and half a sack.
Jalyx Hunt had 6 tackles and a TFL. I thought he played the run well.
Oren Burks got the start in place of Nakobe. Burks led the team with 8 tackles and added a FF. He was solid. There were times when he struggled to find the ball on cutbacks or plays that went away from him. He generally tackled well.
Jeremiah Trotter Jr played some snaps. He had 3 tackles and half a sack. He looked okay in coverage. Tackled well.
Quinyon Mitchell didn’t play well. He gave up several catches, including a TD. He failed to tackle a runner on a play that came at him. Not good effort on that. He got frustrated when CJGJ stole an INT from him. Mitchell did have 5 tackles and a PD (good coverage on a deep ball), but he wasn’t up to his normal standard.
ST
Jake Elliott handled KOs and was excellent.
Kenny Gainwell had a 36-yard KOR.
Sydney Brown is one intense STer. He got into a scuffle late in the game. He battles until the echo of the whistle and is very physical while doing it.