PHILADELPHIA — Sometimes it’s best to change the lens through which the same old problem is viewed again and again.
So, rather than listen to Giants players and coaches dissect the difference between effort and execution until ears begin to bleed or figure out which parties — the offensive linemen, the skill-position players or the coaches — are most culpable for the latest point-scoring failure, find out what it looked like across the line of scrimmage.
Did the Eagles ever seriously feel like the Giants could move the ball?
“No,” linebacker Alex Singleton after contributing an interception returned for a touchdown to the Eagles’ 34-10 win against the Giants.
No?
“We knew what we had to do to win this game,” Singleton said. “The saying of, ‘Step on their throat the whole game,’ that’s what we were able to do. Just give our offense as many opportunities until they got going, and once they did we continued to play the way we did.”
It took 28 minutes for the Eagles — playing on four days’ rest — to overcome sloppy mistakes and score. Once they tied the game at 3-3, they kept scoring. And scoring. And scoring. With 34 consecutive points until the Giants scored their sixth touchdown over the last six games and fourth during a four-game losing streak without quarterback Daniel Jones. Three of those have come in fourth quarters after falling behind by 30 points.
Both the Eagles and Giants held 2-5 records but have gone in different directions since, with the Eagles (8-7) positioned as the No. 7 seed in the NFC playoffs after general manager Howie Roseman’s successful win-while-rebuilding mission. The Giants (4-11) still are paying for general manager Dave Gettleman’s failed split-focus in 2018.
“Howie said, ‘Great job coming back from a 2-5 start,’ ” coach Nick Sirianni said. “I said, ‘Howie, great job.’ Like what other first-year head coaches are in the position I’m in? We have a great offensive and defensive line. Usually when there is a new head coach, it’s because the offensive and defensive lines aren’t any good.”
Pan to a photo of the Giants logo.
The Eagles had so little respect for the threat of the Giants rallying from a 20-3 fourth-quarter deficit that they ran a tackle-eligible play from the 5-yard line that, listening to the postgame news conferences, essentially was added to the playbook this week as a pick-me-up touchdown for beloved Lane Johnson after he was snubbed by the Pro Bowl vote.
“I think you got a chance to have a guy who is going to be a first- or second-team All-Pro and not in the Pro Bowl,” Sirianni said, “so it was great to be able to get him a touchdown.”
The Giants averaged 2 yards per play (47 yards on 94 plays) through three quarters, returning to benched backup quarterback Mike Glennon after third-stringer Jake Fromm couldn’t provide a spark in his first career start.
“No matter who they have out there,” said Eagles safety Rodney McLeod, who contributed an interception, “it’s hard to dominate a team the way that we did.”