This team is reeling and needs to get its acts together before it’s too late. The Philadelphia Eagles survived a late scare from the Giants backups to win the NFC East crown and secure a bye as the #1 seed in the NFC.
This game would have been a hell of a lot more harrowing if it wasn’t for the fact that the Dallas Cowboys stunk up the joint in DC.
Normally, I’d be writing a semi-in-depth review/reaction of how the game went but given the fact that it was mostly a bunch of hurt Eagles starters getting their bearings up against literal Giants backups and 3rd-stringers, the game really wasn’t that compelling or interesting.
Sure, the Eagles’ status as the NFC East division winners and the #1 seed in the NFC were up for grabs against the Giants, but with the Cowboys getting utterly smoked by Washinton and the Eagles never trailing for a minute in this game, there was never any excitement or intrigue.
As soon as the Eagles went up 19-0 with under 8 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and the Cowboys were down by three scores to the Commanders, everyone knew who was coming out of this week as the #1 seed.
Nevertheless, it was interesting to see how quickly the Eagles nearly collapsed against the Giants backups. And rather concerning if you’re an Eagles fan.
From being up by almost three scores at the start of the 4th quarter to winning by just 6 points, it goes to show how far this Eagles’ team has fallen from its peak confidence at the start of December. Prior to the loss to the Cowboys, the Eagles were an unstoppable force that would steamroll even the best and most resilient teams as soon as they got a lead on them.
Now, like I said, the Eagles were coming into the game dealing with injuries to important players, such Jalen Hurts, Lane Johnson, Avonte Maddox, Josh Sweat, etc., but that still shouldn’t excuse the teams near collapse to literal backups. I mean, I couldn’t even tell you who half of the Giants players were today.
Moreover, even with most of the starters playing, the Eagles offense wasn’t that great.
In his first game back, Jalen Hurts completed just 20/35 passes for 229 yards and 1 INT, while A.J. Brown caught 4 REC for 95 yards, DeVonta Smith caught 7 REC for 67 yards, and Dallas Godert had 6 REC for 46 yards. Along with the Eagles running back core picking up 135 total team rushing yards, it’s easy to see why the Eagles are still so dangerous despite playing poorly.
However, if you notice, not a single one of the Eagles ‘star’ offensive weapons finished with a touchdown as the Eagles offense could only manage to breach the plane once through Boston Scott. Obviously, that’s not good enough against backups in the NFL, let alone the star defensive players of the other 6 teams in the NFC side of the bracket.
Still, I’ll give the offense a pass as Jalen Hurts was just coming back from injury and playing against opponents one knows to be inferior can tend to bring out the worst in players. I don’t know why this happens, but you see it in every sport where a far better team on paper can lose to a much worse team for no apparent reason other than apathy/overconfidence.
And the Eagles were able to beat the Giants in the end anyway, so there is that.
Plus, most of the other NFC teams are entering the playoffs in the same boat as them as the Cowboys were blown out today, the Vikings are coming off a humiliating 40-13 route to the Green Bay Packers two weeks ago, the Buccaneers lost to the Falcons (the Falcons FINALLY beat Brady) 30-17 to give the Bucs and Tom Brady a losing record, the Giants obviously lost this game, and either the Packers or Seahawks are probably too weak to compete with the Eagles.
So, this loss is nothing to worry about as everyone else practically lost too, right? Well, not really as a certain team from the Bay Area utterly destroyed the Arizona Cardinals 38-13 to not only cap off a 10-game winning streak, but also to clinch the #2 seed in the NFC.
Yes, that team would be the high-powered and almost indestructible San Francisco 49ers.
Eagles fans must not be feeling ‘Purdy’ good (okay, bad pun) right about now.
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