Eagles Offense Fizzles in 13-7 loss to Giants
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Thanksgiving was just a few days ago, but this was September all over again for the Eagles' offense.
They were flat, listless, and looked lost against the New York Giants, and lose they did, 13-7 at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, failing in their bid to reach .500 after a 2-5 start.
Jalen Hurts struggled mightily. The quarterback threw a career-high three picks, including two in the red-zone, something he hadn’t done in that area of the field all season.
The Eagles committed four turnovers, with Boston Scott having the last one. It came with 1:34 to play and was recovered by the Giants at their own 40.
"Four turnovers," said Hurts. "When you turn the ball over like that you don’t deserve to win the game."
Still, the Eagles got the ball back with 1:11 left, with Javon Hargrave snapping the defense’s string of two straight games without a sack when he caught up to a sliding Daniel Jones, who was simply trying to keep the clock moving.
The sack was Hargrave’s seventh, a new career-high. It was his first one since Oct. 10.
The Eagles’ comeback try fizzled at the 28, though.
Jalen Reagor appeared to drop two throws on the ill-fated drive, one in the end zone, then another, on fourth-and-10, at the goal line with about 25 seconds to go.
"It’s not on Jalen Reagor, it’s not on anybody else late in the game, put it on me," said Hurts.
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The loss ended the Eagles’ modest winning streak at two games and left them at 5-7 with five games plus their bye to go over the final month-and-half of the regular season.
"Any loss is disappointing, but particularly this one," said safety Rodney McLeod. "This is a division opponent. We understand what these games mean as we go down this stretch.
"We have to play our best each and every week. Point blank, period. At the end of the day, we fell short, but there’s five left. That’s all we can focus on. We have to learn from (Sunday), obviously. We can’t beat ourselves."
The low offensive output snapped a nine-game streak in which the Eagles had scored at least 21 points. The last time they failed to do so was Week 2 when they put up just 11 against the 49ers.
Penalties also reared their ugly head.
There were two particularly costly ones.
One was a holding penalty on reserve Nate Herbig, who filled in for Jason Kelce, who suffered an early knee injury, that cost Boston Scott a 21-yard TD run. Kelce eventually returned in the second half, but right guard Jack Driscoll went out for the game with an ankle injury and Herbig took over at that point.
Herbig’s hold while at center, however, was big when the Eagles failed to score, with Hurts throwing his second interception on third-and-goal from the 1. The play began with eight seconds left in the half and the Eagles out of timeouts. Hurts scrambled right and threw it up for grabs that Tae Crowder easily swiped.
The second costly penalty was an end-zone pass interference against Steve Nelson trying to guard tight end Evan Engram on a third-and-goal throw from the 5.
Set up with a first-and-goal at the 1, Daniel Jones found practice squad elevation, tight end Chris Myarick, for a touchdown and 10-0 lead. The replay appeared to show the ball hit the ground, but there was no lengthy look at it by game officials.
Asked afterward if it did Myarick, just laughed then said, "no."
As for the PI, McLeod thought it looked clean.
"They called it, we have to live with it and move on to the next play," he said. "It’s unfortunate. That was a huge play in the game that shifted and allowed them to score. I love Steve, man. He’s going to continue to play aggressive. That’s how we’re going to go out, but I think it was clean in my book."
This was the third-and-goal pass interference call on Steven Nelson vs. Evan Engram that gave New York a first down at the 1.
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The Giants (4-7) were a team shrouded in turmoil all week, firing offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, with rumblings that GM Dave Gettleman would be fired at the end of the season, and rumors that New York was gearing up to make a run at Seattle QB Russell Wilson.
The Eagles couldn’t take advantage of that organizational chaos, and now New York coach Joe Judge is 2-1 against the team he grew up rooting for in the Philly suburbs.
The Eagles also could not take advantage of a short-handed New York team, without WR Kadarius Toney and Sterling Shepard and tight end Kyle Rudolph. Then, the Giants lost cornerbacks Adore Jackson and Darnay Holmes to injury during the game.
The teams will play again in a month, in Philadelphia on Dec. 26.
The Giants held a 3-0 lead at halftime that swelled to 10-0 on a 1-yard TD pass from Jones to tight end Myarick.
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Philadelphia managed to run for more than 200 yards for a third straight game, marking the first time they have done that since 1978, but the turnovers were killers.
"We wanted to try to continue to run the ball like we were," said head coach Nick Sirianni. "I think we ran the ball pretty well. Again, protect the football, not create short fields, and then be able to hit some of our play-action chunks. We obviously did one of them well, we didn't do the other two well enough."
Hurts’ first interception came from the 20 when he was trying to find Quez Watkins near the goal line. Holmes picked it.
It second was devastating. He had just completed a 21-yard throw to Reagor with 15 seconds to go in the first half down to the 2-yard line.
His third was a deep shot that hung in the air forever in the second half.
It took the Eagles three quarters and five seconds before they could find the end zone, with Scott diving in from 1-yard out with 14:55 to go in the game.
Trailing 10-7, the Eagles defense forced a three-and-out.
Philadelphia put together a drive to New York’s 46, but on third-and-four from there, Hurts was sacked.
The Giants took over with 10:14 to go and consumed most of the fourth-quarter clock, working their way into a 39-yard field from Graham Gano with 2:54 to play that opened the lead to 13-7.
And just like that, all the good feelings about this Eagles offense the past month evaporated into the gray, overcast afternoon.
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
