Giants’ meltdown shows they’re still not good enough in NFC East
Giants #Giants
An 11-point lead with five minutes remaining against an injury-ravaged Philadelphia Eagles team still wasn’t enough for the New York Giants, who lost 22-21 on the road Thursday night. The Giants still can’t beat their division rival.
The Giants (1-6) lost the game on an 18-yard touchdown strike to Boston Scott with 40 seconds remaining. It was their eighth consecutive loss to the Eagles. It was their 15th straight loss to the Eagles and Dallas Cowboys combined.
Even in a season when the NFC East is (for a lack of a better word) awful, the Giants can’t compete with the division’s “best.” They’ve already lost to the Eagles and Cowboys this season, in a year when both are vulnerable.
It looked as though the Giants were going to win this game, even until the final minutes. But a costly drop on third down with just over two minutes remaining by tight end Evan Engram gave the Eagles hope. And Philadelphia quarterback Carson Wentz then drove his team down the field for the winning score.
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It was a mind-blowing loss, even for a Giants team that has seemingly perfected losing over the past three-plus seasons. This one was special.
The Giants had an opportunity to seriously get in the middle of the division race with a victory. They would’ve been a half-game behind the Cowboys (2-4) in the NFC East.
Then they fell apart.
The Eagles (2-4-1) scored a pair of touchdowns in the final 4:38. They didn’t do it without some help from New York; there was the dropped pass and three Giants penalties on Philadelphia’s winning drive.
It’s the kind of things bad teams do to lose games. It’s the kind of things these Giants do when they play the Eagles and Cowboys.
QB breakdown: Daniel Jones really had no chance in the passing game most of the evening because he was under constant pressure. The Eagles had nine pressures on 22 of Jones’s dropbacks with a four-man rush. But Jones still made enough plays to win the game, both with his legs (92 yards rushing) and arm. He had an 80-yard run in the third quarter and made a perfect throw to Engram deep down the left sideline with a little over two minutes remaining.
The 80-yard run was somewhat embarrassing, but not as though Jones would care if the end result was different. He got tackled by the turf monster as he seemed destined to reach the end zone. It was the longest quarterback run since 2015, when Tennessee’s Marcus Mariota had an 87-yard scamper against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Jones’ maximum speed of 21.23 mph was faster than any of Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson runs this season. It was the fastest max speed by a ball-carrying QB since 2018, per NFL Next Gen Stats data.
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Daniel Jones appears to have a clear touchdown until he trips on his own feet at the 11-yard line.
As for throwing the ball, Jones finished 20-of-30 passing for 187 yards with two touchdowns, an interception and a fumble lost.
The interception was a bullet that put Engram in a tight spot, but it probably should have been caught. Still, it was another example of those two failing to be on the same page, something that has seemed to happen with regularity this season.
Jones now has at least one turnover in 18 of his 19 career starts. His evening was capped with yet another lost fumble on a Brandon Graham strip sack that all but ended the game.
Eye-popping Next Gen Stat: 0.39 yards of separation on Golden Tate’s touchdown. It goes to show you don’t always need separation to produce points or big plays. Sometimes you just have to give your playmakers opportunities.
Jones’ 39-yard scoring strike to Tate came when the wide receiver was blanketed by Eagles cornerback Cre’Von LeBlanc. But Tate went up over LeBlanc, hauled in the pass and went the remaining 16 yards untouched for his first touchdown of the season.
It was Tate’s only target of the first half.