Poor grades for Giants
Eli Manning is tied for last, among quarterbacks who have started every game ahead of Week 7, with six touchdown passes this season. Credit: Mike Stobe
Offense: F
OK, maybe not Saquon Barkley. But the rest of them flunked. Eli Manning looked lost, completing 24 of 43 passes for 281 yards and a passer rating of 66.1. He also was sacked four times. Odell Beckham Jr. and Sterling Shepard struggled to get open; they were targeted a combined 17 times and caught nine passes for 81 yards. Barkley’s 55-yard catch-and-run on a screen in the second quarter (one of his three plays of at least 46 yards) when the Giants were down 14-3 brought them to the 13 and they eventually had first-and-goal at the 4 but had to settle for a field goal. Yuck. Without Evan Engram or Rhett Ellison, there were few other players to throw to. Taking shots in the end zone with Jawill Davis and Scott Simonson is exactly what the Eagles wanted the Giants' offense to be reduced to.
Defense: D
Unlike the early-season losses, there is no case for the defense to gripe here. They gave up too many big chunk plays and were ineffective in the red zone (the Eagles scored a touchdown on four of their six times there). There were times when the pass rush looked effective, but the Eagles even took advantage of those. Their first touchdown pass came from Carson Wentz scrambling away from Olivier Vernon to throw to Alshon Jeffery. It seemed for a moment the Giants might have made a momentum-changing play when they forced a third-quarter fumble and recovered it in Eagles territory down 31-13, but while video confirmed the fumble, it also showed the Eagles recovered the loose ball and gave it back to them to prolong a drive that ended in a field goal.
Special Teams: D
Aldrick Rosas had connected on his first 15 field-goal attempts of the season, including two in the first half on Thursday night. But with an ailing right quadriceps, it looked as if he were unable to put a full swing on a 52-yard attempt late in the second quarter that came up short for his first miss of the year. Jawill Davis nearly fumbled the opening kickoff. Odell Beckham Jr. muffed a punt (he had three returns for zero yards). The Giants had an opportunity late to recover an Eagles muff, but Cody Latimer ran past returner DeAndre Carter and was not in position to recover the ball on the ground (Latimer appeared to re-injure his hamstring on the play as well). Riley Dixon had one of his more effective games for the Giants, putting two of his five punts inside the 20 and averaging 50.6 yards per kick.
Coaching: F
The Giants had absolutely no answers for anything the Eagles did. OK, that’s an overraction. But only slightly. The Eagles seemed to be playing at a different level on offense, defense and even special teams. Pat Shurmur, meanwhile, did little to help things. Rather than take a page from the Eagles’ playbook and be aggressive, twice in the first half he pulled back. The first was on fourth-and-goal from the 3 after Barkley’s long run when the Giants had a chance to close to 14-10 but settled for a field goal. The second was on fourth-and-8 from the 34 when he opted to attempt a 52-yard field goal with a sore-legged kicker with 23 seconds left. Better to try to let Barkley or Beckham create some magic than try to close it to 24-9. It wound up giving the Eagles the ball at the 42 with plenty of time for them to try a 54-yarder themselves. It went wide right, but still.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
