Takeaways from the Giants' 27-17 Win Over Philadelphia

For weeks, Giants head coach Joe Judge has preached patience, claiming that his group of young Giants players were making progress every day.

That improvement Judge kept claiming was there--and which he claimed again was there this week--is finally showing up in the won-loss column and several other areas where the Giants have been bad of late.

"I think the more time our players continually spend in our systems with Pat (Graham), Jason (Garrett), and TMac (Thomas McGaughey), the more they understand and the more we can build on what we can do within a game plan, within multiples."

Let’s start with the Giants' latest win, a 27-17 triumph over the Philadelphia Eagles. The victory not only snapped the Eagles' eight-game winning streak over the Giants, but it also moved New York to a half-game behind Philadelphia for first place in the division, improved their record within the division to 3-2, and gave the Giants a division best two-game winning streak.

That 3-2 division record is critical as given the flow of the NFC East, if it comes down to a tie between, say, the Giants and Eagles for the division crown if New York can finish with a division best record, they’ll own the second tiebreaker after the head-to-head factor (which the Giants share with the Eagles).

Here are a few takeaways from the big win.

-- For the fifth week in a row, the Giants ran the ball for over 100 yards. They are averaging 142 yards over that period—and that’s without Saquon Barkley in the lineup. (Imagine what those numbers might look like with Barkley in the lineup.)

You can thank the offensive line's jelling, which has been doing a much better job with run blocking of late despite the rotating tackles. You can also thank the success of the zone reads by quarterback Daniel Jones. He has taken advantage of those over-aggressive defenders trying to come crashing through to the sanctuary of his passing pocket by burning them with his legs.

Jones, who came into this week third among quarterbacks in rushing yardage (behind Lamar Jackson of the Ravens and Kyler Murray of the Cardinals), now has 384 rushing yards on 49 carries and one touchdown. His 34-yard first-quarter touchdown run was a thing of beauty the way he faked the handoff to Wayne Gallman, and then before taking off through a hole in the opposite direction. Jones ended his day with 64 rushing yards on nine carries.

-- The run blocking isn’t the only thing that has improved with the offensive line. Although the stat sheet will show Jones having been sacked three times, one was a coverage sack, and the other came on an attempted Hal Mary on the final play of the half.

Stacking wins baby!!
— Eli Manning (@EliManning) November 15, 2020

-- What a story Wayne Gallman is writing this year. After basically being left out in the cold by the previous coaching staff, Gallman continues to make a case for a second contract with the team with yet another strong showing in which he recorded his fourth consecutive game with a rushing touchdown. The running back rotation agrees with the Giants, who are averaging 110 yards per game on the ground this season.

-- Jones delivered a coming of age performance, completing 75% of his pass attempts (21 of 28) with ZERO turnovers (second week in a row) and as pristine ball handling as he’s shown since coming into the NFL. In his now six NFL wins, Jones has completed at least 66% of his passes in all but one game, that coming against Washington in the first meeting this year.

-- Want to know what other unit posted a big fat goose egg in a critical column? The defense, that’s who.

The Giants shut down all the Eagles third-down attempts, came into this week allowing opponents to convert on 47.7% of third downs, 26th in the league. It’s probably safe to say that they’re going to rise up the charts this week.

The Giants’ third-down defense has been on fire lately. After getting burned for at least 50% in all but one of their first six games, they haven’t let the opponent convert more than 38% of the third-down attempts, that coming last week against the Washington Football Team.

-- James Bradberry has been the Giants best cover corner. So why Eagles drew up a play in which they tested the veteran on a critical 4th-and-10 late in the game is about as much of a headscratcher as head coach Doug Pederson’s decision to go for two after Corey Clement’s 5-yeard touchdown run in the third quarter.

Bradberry made a huge game-saving play late in the fourth quarter to knock away a pass and force a turnover on downs when he looked back at the last second and got himself into the perfect position to knock the ball out.

-- For the second time this season, the Giants punt coverage team made the opposing punt returner a non-factor. This week, Giants punter Riley Dixon finished with an impressive 53.3 net average, his punt coverage team downing three of his four punts and forcing a fair catch on one other.

Not surprisingly, the Giants easily won the starting field position battle between the punting and the kickoffs, and it wasn’t even close. The Eagles average drive began on their 16-yard line while the Giants got things started on their own 31.

-- Giants right guard Kevin Zeitler left the game in the fourth quarter with a concussion. That opened the door to the reinsertion of Will Hernandez, plying in his first game since testing positive for COVID two weeks ago. But rather than put Hernandez, who up until that point hadn’t played any snaps on offense, at right guard, the team shifted Shane Lemieux from left to right, giving a hint as to their rotation plans at guard that they might have been looking to save until after the bye week.

--There’s always gotta be one, right? For years, tight end Jason Witten, who spent most of his career with the Cowboys, was the one guy who, every time he faced the Giants, ended up hurting them. Well, with Witten having taken his talents to Las Vegas, Eagles running back Boston Scott has become that guy. Of his seven career touchdowns, six have come against the Giants.