The quarterback’s still shaky. The defense remains suspect. The coaching … well, let’s just say Sean Desai isn’t the only problem.
Having lost three games in a row, and having watched the Cowboys lose Sunday in Miami, the Eagles on Christmas played desperate, heroic, stupid football. They’ll talk about how a win is a win is a win, and it’s true.
The Eagles looked almost as bad in this win as they did in the three losses that preceded it.
They had a 17-point halftime lead but fumbled away the second-half kickoff when teammates ran into each other. Later, Jalen Hurts threw a pick-6 and committed a horse-collar tackle as the interceptor reached the end zone. Hurts had cost the Eagles a chance at a second-quarter TD when, with 10 seconds left and with no timeouts, he ran the ball and stayed inbounds instead of throwing it away. The Eagles gave up a 70-yard bomb in the fourth quarter when they should have been forcing clock-eroding, dink-and-dunk football.
Still, they won. Still, they regained first place in the NFC East. Still, they moved to 11-4, and look like a lock to host at least one playoff game. Such are the Giants: so bad, at halftime they benched Tommy “Cutlets” DeVito for Tyrod “Cube Steak” Taylor.
The Eagles face the Cardinals here next, then the Giants again in the finale. Doesn’t 13-4 sound like a Super Bowl contender? Such are the Eagles: so gifted that they tried to give the Giants a win, but too talented to complete the transaction.
If anything, Monday night’s Christmas contest determined only this: The Eagles have a chance to return to the Super Bowl for a second straight year, and win it.
This was Game 15. They’ve won 11 times. Winning matters. They’re not perfect. Hurts is still misreading defenses, throwing hospital balls — he almost got A.J. Brown’s ribs broken — making poor decisions, and seems weirdly blind to blitzes that don’t come from his blind side.
The defensive line remains relatively toothless since Thanksgiving. Fletcher Cox, Jalen Carter, Josh Sweat, and Jordan Davis still have lockers, but none has been seen much on the field.
Matt Patricia replaced Desai last week but, facing talentless backups like DeVito and Taylor this week and Drew Lock in Seattle a week before, his defense did not come close to domination.
It won’t take domination. And the Nick Sirianni/Brian Johnson offensive brain trust still isn’t fooling anybody with their bubble screens and QB runs.
Look at the final score. The Eagles won, 33-25. Hurts threw for 301 yards and a touchdown. The defense allowed just 17 points. Monday night was a success. Imperfect, but success.
Carter took an offside penalty on a punt because he didn’t get off the field. Hurts stayed inbounds with 10 seconds left in the first half and no timeouts left, which was dumb, and would have cost them a field-goal try — if the Giants hadn’t been even dumber and committed a delay-of-game penalty. Olamide Zaccheaus then ran into Boston Scott and forced Scott to lose a fumble on the kickoff return to start the third quarter.
After the Eagles seemed to have salted the game away with a fourth-quarter field goal for a 30-18 lead, two plays later Reed Blankenship gave up a 70-yard touchdown to Darius Slayton. Slayton simply ran past Blankenship, who is a safety, and whose job it is to never let any receiver run past him — especially when his team’s holding a 12-point lead. With 63 seconds to play, an eight-point lead, against an opponent with no timeouts left, Haason Reddick was charged with roughing the passer deep in Giants territory, giving life to a club that was dead in the water.
These are losing plays. The Eagles have gifted players. They made just enough winning plays to not lose. Shaq Leonard blew up Saquon Barkley for a 1-yard loss to force third-and-long, then three-and-out, on the Giants’ first possession. Almost immediately, Britain Covey delivered a career-best, 54-yard punt return that eventually set up Hurts’ 15th rushing touchdown of the season, a Tush Push formality and the NFL single-season record.
On their second possession, Hurts came up with a highlight play: He batted down a bad shotgun snap, picked it up, scrambled away from defenders, and, as his arm was hit, delivered a duck 9 yards for a first down to Grant Calcaterra, his first catch of the year. Hurts found DeVonta Smith for a 36-yard touchdown catch-and-run — a play made possible on the back end because Zaccheaus blocked Adoree’ Jackson for a full four seconds and, finally, onto his back in the end zone.
Late in the first half, on consecutive plays, Reddick pressured DeVito and Shaq Leonard sacked him to force a Giants punt. Reddick later dropped Barkley for a 4-yard, fourth-down loss to end the Giants’ last possession of the first half, which turned out to be the end of “Tommy Cutlets.” Taylor replaced him to start the second half. And almost won the game. Almost.
