Ya gotta have heart, and Eagles show it in win over Giants, 36-21….

devin mccourty INT

I need to apologize to not only the Eagles organization but also the die-hard Philly fan base everywhere, because I had this game as a stone-cold lock for the Giants…

But the Eagles came up with a total team effort— including 5-for-5 field goals made by Alex Henery— and a resilience on both offense and defense we hadn't seen since the opener in Washington.

There were so many individual responses by Eagles players to adversity on the field, I don't know where to begin. Cedric Thornton, for example, got ripped off by the refs of a legitimate safety tackle against David Wilson in the Giants end zone…but he kept on playing hard.

Same goes for safeties Earl Wolff and Nate Allen, who both made some early mistakes on double-move routes but eventually recovered to each make some big plays to deny long receptions by the Giants' best wideouts.

Special teams coverages were on the mark for most of the game. On defense Bill Davis started to call an extra pass rusher on the line to challenge Eli Manning's pass-pro— and it eventually paid off big-time.

And on offense as well as defense, it was just one of those games where other guys stepped up and made a big play after another guy had a bad play or a guy got hurt. And give the Giants some credit, their guys kept stepping up too…until eventually, it seemed, they just wore out…

Probably the highlight play of the game will be Brent Celek's huge victory-sealing catch at the back of the endzone on a skinny post thrown by Nick Foles late in the game over the Giants' Ryan Mundy.

That to me was the dagger. And I and the Giants never saw it coming.

Nice play call by the Chippah…

And excellent execution by Nick Foles and Celek…plus good protection by the Eagles' OL and RB-pass-pro blockers…

Here's Phil Sheridan's rapid reaction—and we'll get deeper into the individual aspects of the game as the week continues…

"After the Eagles blew a 19-7 halftime lead, Nick Foles directed three scoring drives to secure the win. Mychal Kendricks came up with a game-turning interception to set up Foles' fourth-quarter, 25-yard touchdown pass to tight end Brent Celek. "

"Vick ran the ball seven times for 79 yards before injuring his hamstring. He had completed just 6 of 14 passes for 105 yards, and the Eagles' red zone issues continued while he was in the game. Foles took over with 1:25 left in the half and the ball on the Eagles' 7-yard line. He completed 7 of 8 passes for 68 yards to drive for a late field goal, then threw two fourth-quarter touchdowns to put the game out of reach. The run game wasn't as effective without the threat of Vick running, but Chip Kelly adjusted and got Foles into a rhythm."

"Stock Watch: Rising — Eagles defense. It looked like another disaster in the making when Eli Manning hit Hakeem Nicks for 49 yards on the Giants' third play from scrimmage. But the Giants lost running back David Wilson to a neck injury and Manning started throwing the ball to the Eagles, when he wasn't intentionally grounding it, in the second half. The three fourth-quarter interceptions were the Eagles' first since Week 1 against Washington. They set up two Eagles touchdowns and changed the entire tone of the game. "

Foles threw fourth-quarter touchdown passes of 25 yards to Brent Celek and 5 yards to DeSean Jackson as the Eagles (2-3) snapped a three-game losing streak by forcing three interceptions by Manning in the fourth quarter.

LeSean McCoy added a 1-yard touchdown run and Alex Henery kicked five field goals for the Eagles, who gained 439 yards in total offense.

David Wilson scored on a 5-yard run for the Giants and Manning threw two touchdowns to Rueben Randle in the third quarter to give New York a 21-19 lead.

That's when I felt the heart in the Eagles as a developing team really pump it up. They didn't quit. They really showed some ability to adjust and re-initiate their attack on offense and defense. Good adjustments made by Bill Davis and Chip Kelly…

Right after the Giants took the lead on Manning's 6-yard TD pass to Randle, Foles led an eight-play, 57 yard drive that ended with Henery's 41-yard field goal with 1:04 left in the third quarter.

The Eagles made the plays in the fourth quarter.

On the ensuing play after linebacker Mychal Kendricks intercepted a pass by Manning (24 of 52 for 334) and returned it to the 25, Foles hit Celek, who got away with a push-off on safety Ryan Mundy in the end zone. That increased the lead to 29-21.

The touchdown pass to Jackson just minutes later was set up by an interception by Brandon Boykin near the Giants 40.

After being outscored 69-7 in their last two games, the Giants' offense scored on its opening possession. Wilson capped a 62-yard, five-play drive that featured a 49-yard pass to Hakeem Nicks with a 5-yard run. Wilson injured his neck on the final play of the first quarter and did not return.

It would be the lone highlight of a half that featured drops, penalties and fumble by Brandon Jacobs, who replaced Wilson.

An unnecessary roughness penalty and a questionable decision by coach Tom Coughlin on a penalty helped the Eagles score on their second possession. Coughlin decided to accept a third-down holding penalty after the Eagles came up 4 yards short at the Giants 47. Vick scrambled for 34 yards on third-and-19 to set up Henery's 40-yard field goal.

The Eagles eventually took a 19-7 halftime lead, scoring on their final four possessions of the first half, the last coming after Foles took over for Vick and led a 75-yard, 11-play march that led to Henery's fourth field goal, a 36-yarder as time expired.

It had the fans booing the Giants as they left the field.

Henery also hit from 27 and 29 yards, with the 29-yarder set up when Kendricks recovered Jacobs' fumble at the New York 47.

McCoy scored the Eagles' touchdown on a 1-yard run that was set up by a 56-yard pass from Vick to Jackson, who had seven catches for 132 yards. The pass seemed to go through the hands of Giants cornerback Trumaine McBride.

Nicks led the Giants with nine catches for 142 yards.

Team Stat Comparison

 
PHI
 
NYG
 
1st Downs 28 21
Passing 1st downs
12 17
Rushing 1st downs
10 3
1st downs from Penalties
6 1
3rd down efficiency
9-19 5-13
4th down efficiency
0-0 0-0
Total Plays 77 70
Total Yards 439 383
Yards per play 5.7 5.5
Total Drives 16 14
Passing 299 330
Comp – Att
22-39 24-52
Yards per pass
7.7 6.3
Interceptions thrown
0 3
Sacks – Yards Lost
1-3 1-4
Rushing 140 53
Rushing Attempts
37 17
Yards per rush
3.8 3.1
Red Zone (Made-Att) 2-5 2-2
Penalties 8-88 12-136
Turnovers 0 4
Fumbles lost
0 1
Interceptions thrown
0 3
Defensive / Special Teams TDs 0 0
Possession 32:07 27:53

 

Eli Manning had 3 intentional grounding penalties Sunday. No quarterback has committed more than 2 intentional grounding penalties in a game since the start of the 2001 season. To me this illustrates the increase in defensive pressure on the passer  that Philly is finally figuring out ….
 

 

Philadelphia Passing
  C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT SACKS RTG
Team 22/39 299 7.7 2 0 1-3
N. Foles 16/25 197 7.9 2 0 1-3 114.9
M. Vick 6/14 105 7.5 0 0 0-0 69.0

NY Giants Passing
  C/ATT YDS AVG TD INT SACKS RTG
Team 24/52 330 6.3 2 3 1-4
E. Manning 24/52 334 6.4 2 3 1-4 56.1

 

Philadelphia Rushing
  CAR YDS AVG TD LG
Team 37 140 3.8 1 34
M. Vick 7 79 11.3 0 34
L. McCoy 20 46 2.3 1 17
B. Brown 5 11 2.2 0 7
C. Polk 2 3 1.5 0 3
N. Foles 3 1 0.3 0 3

 

NY Giants Rushing
  CAR YDS AVG TD LG
Team 17 53 3.1 1 7
B. Jacobs 11 37 3.4 0 7
D. Wilson 6 16 2.7 1 5

 

Philadelphia Receiving
  REC YDS AVG TD LG TGTS
Team 22 302 13.7 2 56 36
D. Jackson 7 132 18.9 1 56 12
B. Celek 3 47 15.7 1 25 3
L. McCoy 6 46 7.7 0 12 8
Z. Ertz 2 38 19.0 0 24 3
J. Avant 3 33 11.0 0 22 7
B. Brown 1 6 6.0 0 6 2
R. Cooper 0 0 0.0 0 0 1

 

NY Giants Receiving
  REC YDS AVG TD LG TGTS
Team 24 334 13.9 2 49 49
H. Nicks 9 142 15.8 0 49 12
R. Randle 6 96 16.0 2 26 13
V. Cruz 5 48 9.6 0 14 12
B. Myers 2 35 17.5 0 24 5
J. Jernigan 2 13 6.5 0 7 3
B. Jacobs 0 0 0.0 0 0 3
D. Wilson 0 0 0.0 0 0 1

 

Philadelphia Interceptions
  INT YDS TD
Team 3 18 0
M. Kendricks 1 18 0
C. Williams 1 0 0
B. Boykin 1 0 0

 

Philadelphia Defensive
  TACKLES MISC
  TOT SOLO SACKS TFL PD QB HTS TD
Team 57 42 1 4 11 3 0
C. Williams 11 9 0 0 1 0 0
B. Fletcher 9 9 0 0 5 0 0
C. Thornton 4 4 0 1 0 0 0
E. Wolff 4 3 0 0 1 0 0
M. Kendricks 4 3 0 0 1 0 0
N. Allen 4 2 0 0 1 0 0
T. Cole 3 1 0 0 0 0 0
D. Ryans 3 1 0 0 0 0 0
I. Sopoaga 3 1 0 1 0 0 0
F. Cox 2 2 0 0 0 1 0
B. Logan 2 1 1 1 0 1 0
C. Barwin 2 1 0 1 1 0 0
B. Boykin 1 1 0 0 1 0 0
K. Coleman 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
V. Curry 1 1 0 0 0 1 0
N. Goode 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
R. Carmichael 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
J. Dorenbos 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

 

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