PHILADELPHIA — The Eagles are headed to the NFC Championship Game after clinching a 38-7 win over the New York Giants in Saturday’s division playoff round.
The Eagles meet the winner of Sunday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers.
Philly Eagles
Despite a lingering shoulder injury, quarterback Jalen Hurts returned to his MVP form — just in time for Philly’s hopes of a long postseason.
Hurts has been dealing with a sternoclavicular (SC) sprain in his throwing shoulder since his December 18 injury with the Chicago Bears. According to the Fox show, ahead of Saturday’s competition, Hurts said he was “nowhere near 100 percent,” adding that he also contracted an illness by the end of the week. But Hurts showed no adverse effects, finishing 16-for-24 passing for 154 yards and two touchdowns and also running for another TD to lead the loss.
The Eagles largely avoided scheduled runs in Hurt’s first game from injury during a narrow win over those Giants in the regular-season finals. Saturday’s outing was a different story. According to ESPN Stats & Information, he had six designed rushes in the first half alone, which stood for the second most designed rushes in a first half of his career. He fired a few shots to the shoulder during the game, but Hurts wouldn’t let it happen when it hurt him.
Right tackle Lane Johnson, on the other hand, played with a torn adductor and seemed to be holding up well.
With two of their biggest injury worries settled — at least for the night — the Eagles head into next weekend’s NFC championship game with reason to believe they could be Super Bowl-tied.
Promising trend: Edge rusher Haason Reddick’s disruptive nature carried over into the postseason. Reddick, who ranked second in the NFL in the regular season with 16 sacks, made life difficult for Giants quarterback Daniel Jones early and often, leading all players with 1.5 sacks and three QB hits. The three-year, $45 million contract the Eagles gave Reddick as free agency this offseason is looking more like a steal by the week.
key game: Speaking of good signing, Philly struck gold by signing cornerback James Bradberry to a one-year, $10 million deal. He got sweet revenge on his former team, jumping a route to intercept Jones late in the first quarter. With that, any thought of New York making it a competitive game left the building. – Tim McManus
0:20
Saquon passes it to Breida for the Giants’ first TD of the game
Matt Breida takes the pass from Saquon Barkley and deflects the corner into the end zone.
New York Giants
The Giants found they weren’t ready to fight for a Super Bowl just yet with a blowout loss at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Eagles represented a major step forward in the competition for a Minnesota Vikings team that New York faced in the wild card round. Philadelphia, No. 1 in the NFC seed, did whatever it wanted in the first half and built a 28-0 lead before ending the six-seeded Giants’ season with aplomb.
It was never close. But it still doesn’t ruin what has been an overall promising first season for coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen’s Giants.
silver lining: The Giants’ campaign was a success. Sure, this loss hurts. There’s no way around it. It was for a rival, and the Eagles just own them. The Giants still haven’t won in Philadelphia since 2013, making it 10 straight losses.
It still can’t escape anyone that this Giants team, led by Daboll, shouldn’t be doing much this season. New York’s squad, as became apparent on Saturday night, is flawed.
Remember, the Giants took their offseason meds to break the salary cap. They have players like cornerback James Bradberry (who came back to bite them when he intercepted a pass against his former team in Saturday’s competition) clearly looking ahead, even if it was a disadvantage for the 2022 team. They also got rid of a talented player in wide receiver Kadarius Toney at the close.
Reaching the playoffs and showing the growth they have achieved while seeing their quarterback Daniel Jones flourish must be considered an achievement. Don’t let the emotions of defeat in the division round change that reality.
Worrying trend: More than 200 rushing yards allowed. The Eagles rushed for 253 yards in the teams’ first meeting of the season. They had 268 on Saturday night.
It’s something for the Giants to assess this offseason. During the regular season, they ranked 27th in the NFL in rushing defense (144.2 yards per game).
You need to improve drastically. A big part of that is fine-tuning the staff at Inside Linebacker, whether it’s in free agency or in the draft. Jaylon Smith and Jarrad Davis were badly exposed by the Eagles.
The Giants are expected to have more than $50 million in cap space this offseason. Schoen & Co. will no doubt add a linebacker and defensive line depth.
QB Breakdown: Jones ended 15 of 27 passes for 135 yards with an interception. This was the game Jones and the Giants’ offense avoided for most of the season. They just couldn’t get started, partly because their quarterback didn’t have time since he was fired five times.
According to ESPN Stats & Information, Jones was pressured on 64% of his first-half dropbacks. Only Russell Wilson has faced a higher rate of pressure in a playoff game in 2015 and 2016 since ESPN began tracking the pressure in 2009.
Jones also threw an interception to his former teammate Bradberry in the first half. It was only the second interception he threw in his last seven games of the campaign, including the playoffs.
Under-the-radar stats that count: Eagles run back Boston Scott’s 11 career touchdowns against the Giants. New York defensive coordinator Wink Martindale attempted to deny this during the week. “Just because he scored doesn’t make me think he’s a Giant killer,” Martindale said of what he’d seen of Scott in the first two games.
Scott scored again against the Giants on Saturday – this time on a three-yard run in the second quarter.
The numbers are ridiculous. Scott has 11 touchdowns in nine career games against the Giants. He has eight in 56 career games against the rest of the NFL. It makes almost no sense at this point. –Jordan Raanan