Giants lose to the Eagles 33-25

"The Eagles got off to a fast start against the Giants today. After the Giants started the game with a 3-and-out, they punted the ball, and the Eagles returned it all the way to the 13-yard line. Two plays later, the Eagles were up 7-0. This was not the Christmas day event I was looking forward to, but the offense did a bit better on their next turn. Tommy DeVito got the group down to the Eagles 37-yard line, but a foolish penalty for too many men on the field, put them back five yards. Soon, Mason Crosby was kicking a 52-yard field goal to make the score 7-3.
That was a bit encouraging at first, but that was all the Giants could come up with for the rest of the half. Meanwhile, the Eagles added another touchdown and two more field goals, and held a 20-3 lead. Things looked much better at the start of the second half when the Eagles fumbled the opening kickoff, and the ball was recovered by Isaiah Simmons. Tyrod Taylor was in now instead of DeVito, but he didn't start throwing passes. Saquon Barkley ran the ball for 5 yards, 2 yards, and then 7 yards into the end zone for a touchdown.
Then it was great to see the Giants defense get the Eagles 3-and-out, and this time Taylor and Barkley combined for a few runs before Taylor hit Darius Slayton with a 12-yard pass that got the team to midfield. The Giants added 6 more yards, and were going for it on a 4th-and-4, when they commited a dumb false start penalty and then decided to punt.
The Eagles got their act together again, and this was a long time consuming drive that started from their six-yard line down to the Giants-18. Things took a real turn when they were hit with an illegal block and ten yard penalty. Two plays later, Adoree' Jackson intercepted a Jalen Hurts pass and ran it back for a touchdown. Barkley ran the ball in for a two-point conversion, and the Eagles lead was cut to two points, 20-18. The Eagles didn't mess up on their next drive and added a touchdown.
I was looking forward to the Giants showing they could hang tough, and it looked that way when Taylor connected with Daniel Bellinger for a 20 yard completion, and Barkley had a 7-yard run to get them a 2nd-and-3 at the Eagles 44 yard line. Two plays later though, it was 4th-and-1, and Taylor's pass to Wan'Dale Robinson was incomplete. The Eagles added a field goal after that to put them up 30-18 with just six minutes left in the fourth quarter.
The way things were going, it looked like it was game over for the Giants, but they really surprised me two plays later, when Taylor completed a a pass to Slayton for a 69-yard touchdown. The Giants defense couldn't let the Eagles take up almost five and a half minutes and kick another field goal, but they did, and now the Giants were trailing 33-25 with about a minute left to try and tie the score. Taylor managed to get them down to the Eagles 46-yard line, and on fourth down he completed a 20-yard pass to Darren Waller, and spiked the ball with four seconds left.
Taylor's next throw to the end zone was intercepted, but it sure looked like they were all over Barkley, and a pass interference call should have been made. That was a shame, and I was really hoping the Giants would have another chance to pull it out. It's been a tough season, and it would be nice to see the Giants win their last two games, especially the last one against the Eagles."

"Not much was expected of rookie Tommy DeVito going up against the Eagles defense for the first time in his short career as a starting quarterback, and that's what they got. The best thing DeVito did was leaving his family at home, instead of having them travel to Philadelphia for this Christmas day event. DeVito lasted two quarters before Brian Daboll decided to replace him with Tyrod Taylor at the start of the second half. DeVito had completed 9 of his 16 passes for just 55 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions, and the Giants had just 3 points to show for his efforts.
Taylor came in, and actually had less completions on the same number of passes with one interception, but his 7 completions were for 133 yards and 1 touchdown. Taylor's touchdown was a 69-yard pass to Darius Slayton late in the fourth quarter, and it had the Giants trailing by just 5 points. To be fair to DeVito, the Giants first touchdown points came off three straight Saquon Barkley runs from the Eagles 14-yard line, after Isaiah Simmons recovered a fumbled ball on their kickoff return. The Giants next touchdown was Adoree' Jackson's interception, that he returned 76 yards for a score.
Both quarterbacks missed on a number of passes to their receivers. While Slayton caught all three of his for 90 yards, including his one touchdown, Wan'Dale Robinson caught only three of the 7 directed his way for 16 yards. The other wide receivers, Isaiah Hodgins and Jalin Hyatt were never targeted. Tight end Daniel Bellinger caught 4 out of 5 passes for 43 yards, and Darren Waller pulled in just 2 of his 5 targets for 32 yards, though his last catch got them in range for a last ditch effort to try to tie the game.
Matt Breida had one catch for 3 yards, and Barkley managed catching only 3 of 6 passes, for a total of 4 yards. Barkley did much better running with the ball 23 times for 80 yards with one touchdown, and he also had a 2-point conversion. Taylor's lone interception came on the Giants last drive. He had no choice on the final play of the game but to toss the ball into the end zone, hoping it would somehow get past a defense that was swarming the area. The Giants stayed in this game, but came up short. They get another shot at the Eagles in their final game of the season, coming up in just two weeks at MetLife Stadium."

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