Giants face painful reality of trying to contain Eagles QB Jalen Hurts
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts presents problems for the Giants defense because of his ability to run and escape the pocket. Credit: AP/Matt Rourke
The Giants’ task: Be ready for anything Saturday night.
Their season — a remarkable journey in which the team regained relevance — depends on it.
Two of the most pressing issues for the Giants are whether their offensive line can contain the Eagles’ pass rush and if the defense can neutralize quarterback Jalen Hurts, who recently has dealt with a shoulder issue.
The Eagles led the league in sacks with 70, a gaudy total in any year, for any team. Theirs is a roster stocked with talented pass rushers who come at opponents in waves. The Eagles have five players who have at least seven sacks. The Giants have one, Dexter Lawrence.
“They have a really talented group, their depth is super-talented,” Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka said. “It’s not just like the front four; they got backups, guys that are perennial All-Pros and Pro Bowlers. They’re well- coached. They have a good scheme and they’re sound with their scheme. They do a lot of good stuff on defense. We got to have a good week of prep.”
As for Hurts, he recently told reporters: “It’s football. I’ve got a bounty on me every week I go out there on the field, so I’m going to go out there and just play my game. Whatever happens happens.”
Anyone who knows football understands that defending against the Vikings’ Kirk Cousins, as the Giants did last week, is a far different and less mobile challenge than getting after Hurts. (Cousins’ one rush was a 1-yard touchdown run on a sneak in last week’s Wild Card game.)
Of Hurts, Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale said: “Everybody’s saying he’s having an MVP season, and I agree because he can beat you with his legs. He can beat you with just being a drop-back quarterback. He can beat you with a sore shoulder. He can beat you a lot of different ways, and that’s a great challenge because there’s just a few quarterbacks that can do it that way.”
And even when a defender thinks he has Hurts in his sights, it’s not easy.
“You can have him dead to rights back there in the pocket, and he’s a magician,” Martindale said. “He’ll get out of it. I’m not happy for the guy right now because I’m preparing for him. But you can see the work that he put in the past offseason. And where he’s at today is, to me, two completely different quarterbacks. Out of respect of the game, you respect that. You can see the hard work that he put in. It’s going to be a tremendous challenge.”
When the Giants played the Eagles in Philadelphia in the last game of the regular season, many Giants starters rested; the game meant nothing to them in the standings. But the Eagles played an injured Hurts that day because the NFC’s top seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs were at stake.
Hurts was not himself in the game, but he got the Eagles the win they needed.
Martindale expects to see a different Hurts this time.
“He’s off the injury report, so I’m expecting Jalen Hurts the MVP candidate,” he said. “I think if you expect anything less, you’re kidding yourself because the guy’s definitely a competitor.”
As for the Giants’ offense, keeping the Philadelphia pass rush at bay is the goal, and that means Daniel Jones may have to be at his decision-making best. Especially if there is chaos.
“All the players want is an answer,” Kafka said. “Just get back into a mentality where you can help find answers for them.”
Kafka comes across as even-keeled. Jones rarely emotes during a game. In Sunday’s Wild Card win in Minnesota, it was not easy to differentiate his body language on Darius Slayton’s drop versus Isaiah Hodgins’ sideline reception.
“He’s pretty much the same guy every day,” Kafka said, identifying one of the qualities Jones’ teammates respect most about their quarterback. “He doesn’t really sweat it either way, up or down, he kind of stays in the game, keeps fighting, keeps playing, and I think that’s where you see a guy like him [putting] us in position to be in those type of games.”
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
