Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take any W the Eagles can get—but in the back of my mind, I’m wondering if you can take anything of substance going forward for the Birds based upon the horrific performance of the New York Giants as a team.
The Giants played an awful all-around game. We didn’t dominate them so much as the Giants beat themselves. At times it looked like the G-Men were resigned to defeat. Effort on their side was sketchy. HC Pat Shurmur has clearly lost his locker room. Eli Manning was hung out to dry by his crappy offensive line. Beckham threw a dozen more tantrums. The Giants defense was just guessing out there and had no clue.
As much as I love the Eagles and am happy for their win, the most exciting thing I saw Thursday night was a beautiful football player named Saquon Barkley. The kid from Penn State is the real deal. Barkley unfortunately for him right now is stuck with an absolute mess of a football team.
But this is the kind of team the Eagles had to beat. No excuses.
Carson Wentz threw a season-high three touchdown passes and the Eagles got an early lift from their defense and special teams in beating the struggling Giants 34-13 on Thursday night, avoiding their first three-game losing streak since the 2016 season.
“I’m really proud of the way we played in all three phases,” Eagles coach Doug Pederson said. “We have a very resilient group.”
Wentz coupled touchdowns passes of 13 yards and 1 yard to Alshon Jeffery around a 10-yarder to tight end Zach Ertz to help the Eagles (3-3) build a 31-6 lead. They beat the Giants (1-5) for the fourth straight time and seventh in eight games.
Corey Clement scored on a 1-yard run and Jake Elliott added field goals of 33 and 30 yards for the defending Super Bowl champions.
Rookie halfback Saquon Barkley scored on a 50-yard run and rushed for 130 yards in one of the few bright spots for the Giants’ offense, which was booed repeatedly in losing at home for the third time. Barkley ended up with 229 yards of total offense. Aldrick Rosas had field goals of 33 and 21 yards.
Eli Manning was under pressure all night from the Eagles. They sacked him four times and hit him 13 other times. He finished 24 of 43 for 281 yards.
“We want to get after the passer every week,” Pederson said. “These games are battles. It all comes down to which team gets after the passer. We hit Eli and put him on the ground. That was big.”
It started on the opening series. Kamu Gugier-Hill intercepted Manning’s pass that was tipped by fellow linebacker Jordan Hicks and he returned it to Giants 16. Three plays later, Wentz (26 of 36 for 278 yards and no interceptions) was forced out of the pocket and found Jeffery after getting all day to throw.
A 46-yard run by Barkley set up Rosas’ 33-yarder to cut the gap to 7-3, but the Eagles took control later in the quarter after DeAndre Carter returned a punt 23 yards to the New York 44. Passes of 17 to Jeffery and 14 to Clement set up Clement’s touchdown run.
A spectacular tackle-breaking run by Barkley on a 55-yard screen pass helped cut the lead to 14-6 in the second quarter but Wentz hit a wide-open Nelson Agholer on a third and 3 and connected with Ertz for a 21-6 lead on the next play.
Elliott made it 24-6 just before halftime and Philadelphia put the game out of reach with a 75-yard drive that ended with a short Jeffery TD catch.
“We didn’t do anything well enough to win tonight,” Giants coach Pat Shurmur said. “Credit Philadelphia. Good football team.”
The only thing meaningful after that was Barkley’s touchdown run, a thing of beauty, I must say. I wish we had him! Barkley has gained at least 100 yards from scrimmage in each of his first six career games. He is one off the NFL rookie record set by Kansas City’s Kareem Hunt.
INJURIES: Eagles LT Jason Peters left with a biceps injury. Backup cornerback Sidney Jones left in the first half with a hamstring injury. The Giants had LB Ray Ray Amstrong (concussion), WR Cody Latimer (hamstring) and CB Antonio Hamilton (illness) leave the game.
UP NEXT: Eagles: Host Carolina on Oct. 21.
| Matchup |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Downs | 23 | 17 |
| Passing 1st downs | 15 | 11 |
| Rushing 1st downs | 5 | 5 |
| 1st downs from penalties | 3 | 1 |
| 3rd down efficiency | 9-16 | 4-14 |
| 4th down efficiency | 0-0 | 0-1 |
| Total Plays | 68 | 64 |
| Total Yards | 379 | 401 |
| Total Drives | 12 | 13 |
| Yards per Play | 5.6 | 6.3 |
| Passing | 271 | 254 |
| Comp-Att | 26-36 | 24-43 |
| Yards per pass | 7.3 | 5.4 |
| Interceptions thrown | 0 | 1 |
| Sacks-Yards Lost | 1-7 | 4-27 |
| Rushing | 108 | 147 |
| Rushing Attempts | 31 | 17 |
| Yards per rush | 3.5 | 8.6 |
| Red Zone (Made-Att) | 4-6 | 0-3 |
| Penalties | 4-25 | 5-61 |
| Turnovers | 0 | 1 |
| Fumbles lost | 0 | 0 |
| Interceptions thrown | 0 | 1 |
| Defensive / Special Teams TDs | 0 | 0 |
| Possession | 32:30 | 27:30 |
Game Leaders
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