That was a shellacking of the highest order. The Philadelphia Eagles are moving on to their 1st Conference Championship game since the 2018 Super Bowl win as they utterly destroyed the New York Giants 38-7.
That’s the difference between a fairy-tale team and a true contender for the Super Bowl meeting in a high-stakes playoff game.
Out of all the playoff games this postseason, there hasn’t been a more dominate performance a team has put up. Philadelphia was simply sensational as they shredded their archrival, the New York Giants, from the very first minute of the game until the final possession.
All of that talk about Jalen Hurts being partially injured, the Eagles subpar December, the bye making them rusty, and how its “tough to beat a team 3 times in a season” ended up being worth less than last week’s garbage as Jalen Hurts was fantastic, the Eagles offense and defense didn’t put a foot wrong, the Eagles were healthy and rested from the bye, and this loss was the worst the Giants suffered in a game against Philly this year.
Still, you have to feel a little bad for the Giants as they had a great upset over the Minnesota Vikings last week that riled up their fanbase, while Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley were looking like the Top-10 draft picks the Giants drafted. Now, Barkley had an okay game with 9 CAR for 61 yards in a 100+ rushing yard performance by the Giants running attack, but Jones’ night was a very different story.
Up against a great defense such as the Eagles’s one, the old Daniel Jones came out to play as he finished the game with 15/27 completions for just 135 yards, 1 INT, and 1 FUM. Obviously, you can’t put all the blame on Jones as the Giants defense was more porous than the boats advertised on Flex Seal, but he didn’t do anything to help out the Giants cause.
By the end of the game, the Giants offense had only 13 First Downs, they went 5/13 on 3rd down conversions, 1/3 on 4th down conversions, they were forced to punt 5 times, not a single Giants receiver had more 51 yards (Richie James had 7 REC for 51 yards), and they had 11 minutes less in time of possession (35:43 vs. 24:17). Simply put, the Giants offense and Daniel Jones were overwhelmed by a dominate defense.
And that’s probably an understatement as the Eagles defense finished the game with 53 tackles, 5 sacks, 4 TFL, 6 PD, 8 QB hits, 1 FUM, and 1 INT.
Guys like Haason Reddick (5 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 1 TFL, 3 QB hits), Fletcher Cox (4 tackles, 1 sack, 1 TFL, 1 QB hit), Brandon Graham (2 tackles, 1 sack, 1 TFL, 1 QB hit), and Josh Sweat (3 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2 QB hits) were monumental in crushing the Giants rushing game, while Darius Slay (5 tackles, 1 PD), C.J. Gardner-Johnson (3 tackles, 1 PD), and James Bradburry (2 tackles, 2 PD) completely shut down the passing lanes.
Reversely, it’s clear that Philly’s offense with and without Jalen Hurts is the difference between a gold and paper mache painted gold. Gardner Minshew is a serviceable backup QB and he did his best to lead the Eagles in Hurts’ absence, but this game proved that the former Oklahoma QB is on another level.
Completing 16/24 passes for 154 yards and 2 TDs, Hurts was extremely efficient passing the ball as he hit up A.J. Brown (3 REC, 22 yards), Dallas Godert (5 REC, 58 yards, 1 TD), and DeVonta Smith (6 REC, 61 yards, 1 TD) time and again against a weakened Giants secondary.
And that efficiency allowed the running game to explode for 268 total rushing scrimmage yards as Kenneth Gainwell finished the game with 12 CAR for 112 yards and 1 TD, Myles Sanders had 17 CAR for 90 yards, Hurts had 9 CAR for 34 yards, and Boston Scott had 6 CAR for 32 yards. Clearly, if you can get FOUR rushers over 30 yard in a single game, with two of them getting 90 or more yards, you are going to win 99% of the time.
Obviously, the Philly’s didn’t fall into the 1% outlier as they are now bound for a date between either the San Francisco 49ers or their archrival Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Championship game for a chance at being the NFC’s representative for the Super Bowl.
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