On Sunday afternoon, the Philadelphia Eagles faced the New York Giants one more time in the 2017 regular season at MetLife Stadium. At stake in this Week 15 matchup was a first-round bye in the NFL playoffs, which the Eagles could achieve if they beat the Giants.
With that being said, the Eagles held on and beat New York 34-29. However, the win did not come easy, thanks to the defense.
New Eagles’ starting quarterback Nick Foles played phenomenally in his first start since Week 9 of the 2016 season and did his part to keep the team in the game. The defense, on the other hand, did not hold up their end of the bargain.
Philadelphia’s defense allowed the Giants to score on their first three possessions of the game and gave up 504 yards of total offense.
This is the first time this season that the Eagles’ defense has given up that many yards in a single game. Coincidentally, when these two teams played each other in Week 3, New York put up 415 yards of total offense.
After two weeks of shaky play from the defense, there is a growing concern about what has gone wrong. But Eagles defensive end Chris Long is not worried.
“The sky isn’t falling,” Long said via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “It wasn’t falling when they scored 24 on us in the third week of the season. We’re going to improve, we’re going to get better. And we’re going to be at our best.”
The veteran defensive end does make a good point. Things are not as bad as they seem for the Eagles’ defense.
Yes, while they gave up big plays on short routes, the defense got the job done in the second half, including a huge goal-line stand to win the game.
If you take a look back at last week’s game against the Los Angeles Rams, the defense did the same exact thing. They gave up a lot of points, but when it was money time, they came through with a big game-changing play.
In the grand scheme of things, the Eagles’ defense has two games left in the regular season to tighten things up. They cannot afford to put the offense in precarious situations, where they have to be in a shootout to win a game.
That philosophy will work in the regular season, but not in the postseason.
If the Eagles want to win the Super Bowl, then they must play a complete 60 minutes of football on defense.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
