Knee-Jerk Reactions: Call It What You Want, Eagles Beat Giants By 20
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Was that the ugliest 20-point win, division overtaking football win of all-time?
It might have been. It might have been.
The Eagles beat the Giants 27-7 on Monday to improve to 3-3. Let's hit it.
- Was it ugly? Sure. Do I care? Nope.
- The Eagles are 3-3 and in first place in the NFC East.
- One more time!
- I said, the Eagles are 3-3 and in first place in the NFC East.
- Hallelujah!
- Since when do we need to classify 20-point NFL victories? The Eagles have back-to-back 20-point wins over two formidable NFL offenses. Do you realize how difficult it is to beat two teams in the NFL by 20+ points in back-to-back weeks?
- Narrative before the games: "The Saints are tough, Drew Brees is scary." Or, "Eli Manning is playing his best football, the Giants could be 5-0."
- Narrative after the games: "The Saints stink (they go on to beat the Falcons on Thursday night)." Or, "The Giants stinks! Their offense is terrible."
- As Chad Johnson would say, child please.
- The defense is playing dominant football, so I'll start there.
- The first drive of the game, the Giants put together the smoothest, most fluid offensive drive of football I've seen this year---high school, college, or pro---resulting in an Odell Beckham Jr. touchdown catch and the Linc was hush-hush.
- On that first drive, the Giants did not face one third-down situation. Not one.
- On the ensuing driving the Eagles got three yards on three plays, punted, and the Giants came right back down the field.
- But on the ninth play of what seemed to be like the Giants' backbreaking second straight scoring drive to start the game, DeMeco Ryans made a season-saving type of play, yanking the ball out of the hands of Larry Donnell.
- After drive one, the Eagles allowed just 172 yards on the final 12 drives (eight punts, two interceptions, a fumble and a turnover on downs).
- The defense forced three more turnovers and now have 16 on the season, 2nd in the NFL behind only the Broncos (17).
- Ryans was a beast in the first half, but left the game with a hamstring injury.
- Jordan Hicks picked up the slack, of course. With Najee Goode along side of him at ILB in the second half, the Eagles' defense did not miss a beat.
- Hicks finished with a game-high 10 tackles. The kid is playing more like a Pro Bowler than a rookie.
- Nolan Carroll had an excellent game in coverage and his pick-six on Eli gave the Eagles the lead for good.
- Malcolm Jenkins was Malcolm Jenkins. He continues to be the team's most dependable defender. Jenkins had four tackles, a forced fumble, and was flawless in coverage.
- And that pass rush.
- All the talk before the game was how quick Eli is with the ball, how he doesn't take sacks, and how he doesn't throw interceptions.
- Well, besides the two picks, Manning was sacked three times. Fletcher Cox had 1, Brandon Graham had 0.5, and Vinny Curry had 1.5.
- Graham came to life against the Giants, continuously getting pressure, finishing with 0.5 sacks, 3 tackles for loss, and 2 QB hits.
- Connor Barwin, although he went sack-less, was also excellent getting to the QB.
- Bennie Logan continues to be a beast against the run and he deserves a mention in every game recap story, until further notice. Plus, he's arguably the coolest Eagle, and most not sure it's arguable.
- Byron Maxwell was OK, not great. A couple of frustrating penalties, but overall, the Eagles slowed down Beckham (7/61/1) who had no second-half catches.
- To the offense!...?
- Let's start by saying after a 519 total net yard performance against the Saints, the Eagles racked up another 425 yards of offense. That's 944 yards of offense in two games, for those counting at home.
- The scheme, at the very least, is encouraging.
- But the talk of this game will be Sam Bradford, who struggled again.
- Bradford threw three more interceptions, including one in the end zone. That's nine in six games and three in the end zone over the last two weeks. Yikes.
- Riley Cooper, other than completely stopping during a deep route resulting in a bad INT, had a nice game (3/76/1). He also made a really nice tackle on a punt.
- Jordan Matthews still has the drops. No clue what's going on with J-Matt, who also fumbled.
- Just three touches and five yards for Darren Sproles.
- And what the heck is going on with Jason Kelce?
- Kelce continues to struggle. Bad snaps, holding penalties, and missed blocks. Very unlike Kelce.
- DeMaco Murray really got going with 22 carries for 109 yards and a score, plus three catches for 14 more yards.
- The Eagles' third-quarter TD drive, ending a 12-yard Murray stiff-arm highlighted run, made it 24-7 Eagles and put a stamp on the game. It was Murray's drive and it felt good to see him take control.
- Ryan Mathews had success too, rushing for 40 yards on just nine carries, battling a groin injury.
- Caleb Sturgis! Credit where credit is due. 2/2 FG's, 3/3 EXP.
