Game Overview ::
By mike johnson >>
- Philadelphia has won some games but it hasn’t always been pretty, including last week’s ugly 20-16 win over the Browns.
- The Eagles have only played one game from start to finish with all of their core skill position players (Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert).
- Philadelphia will be missing their starting left tackle and starting tight end this week against an ascending Giants defense.
- Giants rookie sensation WR Malik Nabers appears on track to return from a two game absence from a concussion.
- Both of these offenses have struggled in the red zone this season, which somewhat limits the scoring expectations we should have for this game.
How philadelphia Will Try To Win ::
This week will be the return of star running back Saquon Barkley to face the organization that drafted him with the second overall pick several years ago. Barkley has had an outstanding start to the season and he’s a key part of an Eagles offense that is struggling to meet expectations. A big issue for Philadelphia has been health as they have had offensive line issues and have had multiple missed games from their star wide receivers AJ Brown and Devonta Smith. In Week 6 against Cleveland, the Eagles finally got them both back on the field but lost tight end Dallas Goedert mid-game to what is expected to be a multi-week hamstring injury. Head coach Nick Sirianni is coming under fire from the notoriously difficult Philadelphia media and fans as the team has had some underwhelming performances to start 2024 following a disastrous end to 2023. Despite all of the chatter, the Eagles are 3-2 and have all six of their division games ahead of them, starting with this week, leaving them firmly in control of their destiny.
This week the underachieving Eagles offense will have to deal with a pesky and overachieving Giants defense. After an embarrassing opening week loss to the Vikings, New York has held their last five opponents to 21 or fewer points, and they are the only team that did not allow the Commanders and Jayden Daniels to score a touchdown. Their competition has not been slouches either, with their last three opponents being the Cowboys, Seahawks, and Bengals. So, how will the Eagles attack them? Well, everything should start with Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts. The Commanders game should give a bit of excitement to Philadelphia as the Giants struggled mightily with their dual threat rushing attack. Washington is the only team to face New York to post more than 350 total yards from scrimmage, as they accumulated a whopping 425 yards with 215 of those coming on the ground. Jalen Hurts leads all NFL QBs in rushing attempts per game and the Giants defense is clearly susceptible to rushing QBs, as evidenced by the career-long 47-yard rushing TD they surrendered to Joe Burrow last week, the 72 yards on 4 rushes they surrendered to Geno Smith, and the struggles they had with the Commanders due to the ability and threat of Daniels running. Hurts will be asked to make plays with his legs both on designed runs and on scrambles, although he may not be pressured as much by the Giants this week if their defensive front can’t get healthy. They are already without Kayvon Thibodeaux, who was placed on IR, and now star edge rusher Brian Burns and earth-moving defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence have both missed the first two practices of the week with groin and hip injuries, respectively.
The offense will flow primarily through Hurts and Barkley, with a condensed target tree in the passing game going to Barkley, Brown, and Smith. We can expect those four players to account for the overwhelming majority of the Eagles offense and this may end up being a more productive spot for them than meets the eye due to the mounting New York defensive injuries and the way the Eagles rushing attack matches up with them. The Giants play a mix of man and zone coverages and A.J. Brown has been basically an impossible cover in man over the last couple of years. He should have some opportunities to make big plays downfield in this matchup and especially as the game wears on and New York is forced to try to contain the Eagles rushing attack. The biggest struggle for the Eagles offense has been converting drives into touchdowns, as they rank 25th in the league in red zone touchdown rate. This could be the spot where those numbers regress, however, as their dual-threat running game and Brown’s ability to win contested catches will be difficult for the Giants to contain.
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