What Can We Glean from Giants' Offensive Trends vs. Philadelphia Eagles?

The New York Football Giants are heading back to Philadelphia for the third intra-division installment of the 2022 season and their biggest to date.

The two bitter division rivals are set to face off in the NFC Divisional playoff round Saturday night in what's certain to be a raucous and electrified atmosphere.

The Giants, fresh off a Wild Card win over the Vikings in which they compiled 431 yards of total offense, including 301 passing yards and 78 rushing yards via the arm and legs of Daniel Jones, and went 3-4 in the red zone to thrash the 13-win football team, will be looking for their first win on the Eagles' home turf since 2013.

But unlike the Vikings' defense, which had its share of flaws, the Eagles have a stouter (and deeper) unit. But the Giants have, since getting walloped 48-22 in a Week 14 game against the Eagles, been playing much better ball of late on offense, recording two 30-point affairs in the last four weeks. They will certainly look to stay toe-to-toe with their division rivals this weekend.

Here is a look at some interesting trends the Giants have accomplished that are behind their rise from being an afterthought to the playoffs, and explore which ones could have an impact during this weekend’s faceoff.

From Touchdowns to Field Goals

In attempting to showcase what stood out most among their first two matchups earlier this season, one of the clear trends was how the Giants and Eagles put points on their sides of the scoreboard.

When the two teams squared off in Week 14, the Philadelphia Eagles put up touchdowns as easily as they were moving the football down the field at MetLife Stadium. Five of their drives extended at least seven plays and 76 yards as part of their 437 yards of total offense. The team posted six touchdowns, including three in rapid succession during the first half, and two field goals to pummel the Giants in a 48-22 affair.

Jalen Hurts was the orchestrator of the Eagles’ offensive dominance that Sunday, throwing two scores in the air to his ace receivers in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, who finished with a combined nine catches and 137 yards of production. Then, in joining fellow rushers Miles Sanders and Boston Scott, the 24-year-old gashed the defense for 10 yards in the second half to insert his own rushing touchdown and add to his 13 total this season.

On the other side of the field, the Giants offense required diligence to earn some points in their favor. After punting the ball a few times in the first quarter, New York finally entered the scoreboard with a 2-yard touchdown pass by Daniel Jones to Isaiah Hodgins that came off a blocked punt against the visiting team.

For the rest of the afternoon, their exclamation points were limited to two additional touchdowns, one coming in garbage time after Jones was removed from the game in favor of backup Tyrod Taylor.

As the two franchises remuddled for the season finale in Week 18, things changed dramatically for a much tighter contest than anticipated. With Philadelphia playing their starters for a chance at the NFC’s No. 1 seed, there was a belief the Giants would get run off the field as their starters rested for the Wild Card round the following Sunday. New York’s reserves had a different plan that came to life in the second half to put Hurts and company on their heels.

While a limited Hurts could collect almost 250 yards of passing production despite a shoulder injury, he could not impact the run game, and Philadelphia couldn’t find its aerial weapons in the endzone for the entire game. Their sole touchdown came from none other than Giants bane and running back Boston Scott, but the rest of the birds’ points came from five field goals separated by both sides of the intermission.

The Giants' offense would start again; however, their “thank you” to the defense came to life in the second half. After another string of punts—seven consecutively—and drives stalling under nine plays and 35 yards, New York—led by Davis Webb—managed to get their first points on a nine-play, 69-yard drive capped off by Graham Gano’s 25-yard field goal that cut the deficit to 19-3 after a tedious 16-0 first half.

Inspired by their resiliency and that of Webb, who ultimately finished with 23 completions for 168 yards and two total touchdowns, the Giants then added two more scores to make things interesting in the final stretch.

The first came from Webb, who gashed in a 14-yard touchdown run followed by a two-point conversion to make the deficit 19-9. The second and most unfathomable came from the unsuspected character in Kenny Golladay, who hauled down a 25-yard deep pass in the corner of the endzone with 1:38 remaining to end his scoreless streak as a member of the Giants organization.

In the end, New York could not secure a necessary onside kick to further threaten the Eagles’ postseason dreams and lost narrowly to finish 2022 with a 9-7-1 record. However, the improvements showed the Giants that they aren’t mincemeat when facing the Eagles this upcoming Saturday.

With a full squad healthy, offensive coherency, and a little bit of luck, Big Blue knows that anything is possible, even in one of the harshest road environments in the NFL.

Jalen Hurts Slows Down

Entering Saturday’s Divisional Round rivalry, one of the biggest questions facing the New York Giants will be what version of Jalen Hurts they will be competing against.

In the first defeat in East Rutherford on December 11, Hurts was the dual-threat star that the city of Philadelphia has enjoyed watching blossom into an MVP candidate this season.

The Alabama product completed 21 of 31 pass attempts for 217 yards (7.0 average) and two touchdowns, finishing his day with a solid passer rating of 109.2. He also ranked second on the Eagles’ rushing leaderboard, trailing only Miles Sanders with seven carries for 77 yards and a touchdown that helped contribute to the team’s 253 yards overall.

Whether it was in short range or the deep vertical field, Hurts put on a passing clinic on a banged-up Giants defense. Among his greatest throws, two went to A.J. Brown, and DeVonta Smith for a combined 74 yards, and the longest of 41 yards traveled right into the hands of a wide-open Smith for a touchdown on a 12-play, 91-yard drive.

No matter what the Giants defense did to take away his weapons, the Eagles’ quarterback always found someplace to thread the needle and advance Philadelphia’s drives toward the endzone. If a play wasn’t in the open field, Hurts would relegate to one of the talented rushers who combined for 177 yards and longs of 50 yards or take the pigskin up the gut on an RPO scheme to gash the defense in the interior.

Hurts was sacked four times for losses of 33 yards in the road blowout, but the Eagles remained turnover less under his watch and ensured the Giants didn't earn any substantial field position to change the tides of the competition.

It was an individual performance that left Philadelphia feeling confident they had the franchise quarterback to lead them to their second Super Bowl title. Still, that notion would be tested by New York as soon as the two parties reconvened down I-95 a few weeks later.

In the second meeting at Lincoln Financial Field, Hurts was dealing with a shoulder ailment that he suffered in between the two contests, and it helped the Giants defense make the quarterback look like a shell of himself.

While he did finish the game with 229 passing yards for a slight increase from the previous game’s line, the 24-year-old declined in his completion percentage with 20 of 35 and had two touchdowns to earn an overall passer rating of 65.0, one of his lowest marks of 2022.

After he was able to dice up the Giants’ starting defense in the first matchup, Hurts and the Eagles struggled to move the ball and take a quality punch at their home endzone.

Except for their sole touchdown drive spanning 12 plays and 80 yards that belonged to running back Miles Sanders, Philadelphia’s offense was stalled four times before they reached seven plays and 51 yards of production in the first half. That failure led to them punting and taking two field goals due to decent field position from special teams, and eventually, they added a third kick on a 14-play, 59-yard drive.

The Eagles’ woes wouldn’t stop on the other end of the intermission, as the Giants' reserves-filled defense was hungry to prove they could hang with the NFC’s best offensive attack.

In their five second-half possessions, Philadelphia opened with a red zone interception by New York safety Dane Belton and then earned two more field goals to barely escape with a 22-16 win. The best drive of that span went 15 plays and 71 yards in the fourth quarter, and the rest wouldn’t surpass eight plays and 41 yards against Wink Martindale’s feisty crew.

Hurts, along with being physically limited, was unable to impact the running game or take off from the pocket as freely as he did before. The defensive front, trained by juggernauts in Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams, held the Eagles’ gunslinger to nine carries for 13 yards and an average of 1.4 yards per rush, the worst marking on the team’s rushing leaderboard. In addition, they got to Hurts three times for sacks tallying 22 lost yards, keeping pressure on him to make business decisions to preserve his postseason future.

By thwarting the quarterback's success like they did the second time around, the Giants could have a decent shot of knocking off the Eagles this weekend, as Hurts’ health status remains a looming question mark. In essence, he’s the pilot of this explosive offense in Philadelphia, and if he’s not sharp on his intangibles, it could spell a crash for a franchise with high expectations.

The Giants’ Inability to Move the Football

Calling the New York Giants offense a barnstormer in 2022 is an overestimation. There have been games where Daniel Jones and his arsenal have lit up opposing defenses, like the Vikings and Indianapolis Colts this fall, earning 300+ passing yards and other feats in those three contests alone.

However, when it came to facing the Philadelphia Eagles' ferocious defensive front, Big Blue had struggles moving the football very far beyond the standard 25-yard line marker.

Hosting the Eagles for Week 14 in East Rutherford, the Giants were practically sitting ducks when it came to threading the needle through a difficult defensive rush. In the first 30 minutes of action, the team had all but one possession end in a punt, except for their fifth drive that went three plays and 15 yards for their lone score. Beyond that drive, the remainder of their turns were stalled below six plays and 30 yards to post the grand total of 93 yards at halftime.

One major component of New York’s woes was the lack of protection up front. As Daniel Jones attempted to step back into the pocket, he was often instantly met by a swarm of angry birds looking to blow up the play. By the end of the initial contest with Philadelphia, Jones had been sacked seven times for a total loss of 35 yards, the team’s highest number allowed all season.

Unfortunately for Jones, his need to escape the pocket wasn’t solved with a little coaching on the other end. As the second half kicked off, the Giants were able to orchestrate a couple of double-digit play drives to put touchdowns on the board and threaten the Eagles. Still, the offense succumbed to two of their drives, including one to a fumble, before more than three plays and positive yardage were attained to prevent any further comebacks from happening.

Moving ahead four weeks later, the Giants knew they had to figure out how to push Philadelphia backward if they wanted to stand a chance in what was a matchup already predicted in the home team’s favor. While the first half looked like history badly repeating itself for New York, the team eventually found its groove in the defensive interior and made some noise.

After having all of their first-half drives end in punts and only two reach 9-10 plays, the Giants, led by Davis Webb, ran three drives of at least seven plays and 54 yards in the final two frames, including their largest of 10 plays and 59 yards that resulted in their first touchdown of the contest. They went from having a measly 70 yards of offense in that initial period to finishing with 284 by the final whistle.

The Giants also saw their play averages fall and rise from 4.8 and 5.1 in Game 1 to 3.7 and 6.1 on the ground in the rematch of Week 18. At the same time, they earned themselves confidence that with the right plays and pieces acting in cohesion with each other, they could attack any opponent’s unit in the NFL and put a surprising dent on the scoreboard.

It will take a lot of production to run out of Philadelphia with a playoff victory this time. Thus, doing so will require fixing the past ball movement issues.

Red Zone Success Plummets

It was mentioned how the New York Giants succeeded at cutting the Philadelphia Eagles’ scoring production from touchdown-heavy to field-goal barren in between their two contests this season. On the same token, the Giants could reach the endzone more easily in the return affair than they had in the annual series opener.

As it turned out, both franchises saw a steep decline in the percentage of their scores inside the 20-yard line at the end of the latter contest two weeks ago.

In Philadelphia’s first victory over New York, the red zone scoring percentages were dead even at 3-4 for each sideline, one of the best markings on the year for the boys in blue as well.

The Eagles' trips started in the first quarter when Jalen Hurts commanded a 14-play, 84-yard drive down to the Giants’ 3-yard line that ended in Miles Sanders' touchdown to put them on top early. It didn’t resume until late in the second half, as the team tallied twelve more points inside the 10-yard line to secure the routing of their divisional rival.

Meanwhile, the Giants earned their first red zone visit off a blocked punt by Ellerson Smith that placed the ball within a sniff of the goal line at the Eagles’ 15. After punching that touchdown in the next few plays, the other two came in the second half as the team managed two drives of 11 plays and 75 yards and nine plays and 75 yards, respectively. Both crossed the pylon with a run by Daniel Jones and a catch by Richie James.

When the Giants and Eagles returned to the playing field in Week 18, the feast inside the red zone suddenly became a famine. In the 22-16 result, both organizations combined for a 2-7 total red zone scoring percentage. Philadelphia landed a 1-5 marking, their worst of the season, and New York closed out 2022 with their own 1-2 percentage that resulted from an inability to move the football early in the first half.

The Eagles’ lone successful trip became official in the first half of competition when Boston Scott ran in an eight-yard burst during the first quarter to take a quick 10-0 lead on his favorite opponent in the NFL. Following that score, the only other points came from six field goals on drives spanning as large as 14 plays and 75 yards that stalled outside the 20-yard line.

Their first score came on the Giants' ten possessions when Davis Webb marched the unit nine plays and 69 yards to the Philadelphia 6-yard line. However, that drive ended in a 24-yard field goal by Graham Gano to put the team on the board 19-3 towards the end of the third quarter. Thus, it would wait until the following possession, when Webb capped a ten-play, 59-yard drive with a 14-yard rush into the endzone for a touchdown, for the Giants to notch their red zone visit of the game.

For all of league history, it’s been considered the place on the field where professional football teams make their biggest payday in pursuit of one of sports’ greatest championships. The Giants and Eagles should look to improve their performance inside the sacred barriers of the red zone on Saturday, with the more successful team pulling out a spot in the NFC conference’s title game.

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