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“It Ain’t Ever Easy!”: Ten Takeaways from the Eagles’ Nail-biting 34-29 Win over the Giants

Anthony Mazziotti|

It wasn’t pretty. Actually, it was downright ugly at times, but the Eagles found a way to finish their  three game road trip with a win over the division rival New York Giants.

Brandon Graham said it best when he was walking off the field: “It ain’t ever easy!” It took a complete team effort but the Birds got the job done to improve to 12-2 and clinch a first-round bye. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters. Without getting too far ahead, let’s look to the takeaways.

1. Another slow start.

It might be me, but for the past three weeks the Eagles have been starting too slow. The other teams are coming out strong early on, putting the Eagles in a hole. This time the Giants started the game with a 13-play 75 yard drive to score on the first possession.

Our offense did the right thing and put up seven on the next drive, but didn’t do much else in the first quarter. The Giants went on to score again before the start of the second quarter.

If the Eagles want to be successful in the postseason they need to be ready to play at the opening kickoff, not halfway through the first quarter.

2. Special Teams are special again.

Last week was a special teams nightmare. This week Dave Fipp’s unit looked like the dominant unit we were accustomed to seeing over the past couple years. The Eagles’ blocked the Giants first extra point, a punt, and a field goal attempt. They single handedly kept the Birds in this game.

 

The first blocked extra point forced the Giants to go for two after one of their touchdowns. The Giants missed that attempt giving the Eagles a two touchdown lead. The blocked field goal was just as big.

Kamu Grugier-Hill, future Pro Bowler, blocked the punt to give the Eagles incredible field position.

I look for the Special Teams to continue to be a difference maker moving forward.

3. These sloppy games are becoming a bad habit.

Kind of like what I mentioned in my first takeaway, the Eagles played a sloppy brand of football again against the Giants. The defense, specifically the pass defense, looked rough (more on that later).

The Eagles finished with seven penalties for 44 yards. This doesn’t look bad on paper, but one penalty, specifically on a special teams play, directly correlated to a Giants touchdown. On a fourth and four play, Najee Goode committed a neutral zone infraction which gave the Giants a first down. They went on to score on that drive. If Goode stays put the Birds get the ball back up at least a possession and maybe Nate Sudfeld gets some garbage time minutes.

4. Doug Pederson was less than ideal in the first half.

The play calling on the first drive was perfect. The Eagles marched down the field and scored to go up one point. After that, the Eagles went five-and-out, three-and-out, and seven-and-out (which turned over on downs), all while falling down 20-7.

During this stretch, Doug did a typical Doug thing where he challenged a Torrey Smith no-catch on the sideline. I thought it was called correctly on the field.

This call in particular blew my mind. It’s not 100% Doug’s decision to throw the flag, that said the Birds need to re-evaluate their review person. Between that challenge, the one in Seattle, the missed one on the pitch in Seattle, they need to figure out their review process moving forward.

Between that and the average play calling, Doug didn’t have his best first half, however….

5. Pederson rebounded and called a better game in the second half.

On their first drive of the third quarter, the Eagles drove down the field and kicked a field goal. On the next drive they scored a touchdown. That tells me that Doug went back to the drawing board at halftime and adjusted his game plan. That’s a good sign moving forward.

Even though they only put up 13 points in the second half, they ate a lot of clock, which was huge for the game. The defense was clearly struggling so Doug made sure his offense was effective and kept the game under his control. The second half was a good one for Dougie P.

6. Rookie Watch 2017.

It seems like a recent trend, but the Eagles rookies aren’t having that big of an impact on the games.

Derek Barnett: Barnett blocked the extra point on the Giants first touchdown. He had some pressures but no sacks. He had two tackles as well.

Mack Hollins: Hollins was a nonfactor on offense but played pretty well on special teams. He didn’t register a tackle but he (along with Kamu Grugier-Hill) appear to be filling Chris Maragos’ shoes. Hopefully in the near future he will get more touches on offense.

Corey Clement: Clement had a pretty quiet day which is becoming the norm for him in recent weeks. He is a true change of pace back as of late. He had one catch for one yard and four carries for 17 yards. The rushing offense in general didn’t perform too well which hindered his own performance. If the rushing offense gets going better, he will be more effective.

Jake Elliott: Jake Elliott nailed both his field goal attempts and all four extra points. He is really settling in. He has the kicker job locked up, in my opinion.

7. Nick Foles can still sling it.

I mean, he’s no Carson Wentz, but finishing 24/38 with 237 yards and four touchdowns is awesome no matter how you cut it.

He played a damn near perfect game and ran Doug Pederson’s offense almost as well as Carson Wentz did.

Check out his touchdown passes:

And finally, the play of the day:

If this is what Nicky Six is going to be, the Eagles are in pretty good shape moving forward.

8. Pederson wasn’t kidding when he said the game plan wouldn’t change.

All week long we heard about how Doug Pederson wasn’t going to change his game plan now that Nick Foles is the quarterback. I, for one, thought that was coach-speak. I thought the Eagles were going to run the offense directly through Jay Ajayi. I thought the Birds were going to run the ball at least thirty times. I thought there would be no way Nick Foles would throw almost 40 times.

I was wrong. I was dead wrong.

This wasn’t a bad thing. Doug is always going to have his critics, but the Birds put up 34 points. The offense was still very effective with Nick Foles as the quarterback. I would like to see them run the ball a little more, but if they are going to keep putting up over 30 points you won’t hear any complaints from me.

With that said, here is something I will complain about…

9. The defense played … bad.

Water is wet. Anyone with eyes could see that the Birds played terrible defense against the Giants. The Giants had over 500 yards of offense, 434 through the air.

Jalen Mills and Ronald Darby played their worst games of the season. Jalen Mills got torched on a double move and so did Darby. Darby did however record a momentum shifting interception. See it here as called by Merrill Reese:

This was the lone bright spot in a pathetic defensive performance.

I don’t want to beat the dead horse, but if the Eagles want to make some noise in the postseason they need to play better defense, even Doug addressed that in his postgame presser.

At the end of the day, the defense stood strong when it counted and sealed the win.

I think the defense will bounce back and play better on Christmas against Oakland.

10. This Eagles team is tough.

This team is the textbook definition of tough. These division games are always a dogfight. Don’t believe me? Look at what Miami did to Tom Brady last Monday night.

I knew this game wasn’t going to be easy, but I didn’t think it would be this ugly. This team showed grit and bounced back from a bad first half and came out with a win.

I agree with Doug, they can’t play like this and expect to do well in the playoffs, but I think they will improve from here. They have good coaching and a team that believes they are a family. They’re all they got and they’re all they need. The Birds are tough as nails and will come back strong next week against the Raiders to clinch home field advantage through the playoffs.

 

You can follow Anthony Mazziotti on Twitter (@AntMazziotti) and e-mail him at [email protected]. Follow Philly Influencer on Twitter (@PHL_Influencer), Facebook and Instagram.

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