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Giants - Eagles
Game 7 preview
Sunday Oct 20, 1:00 PM - Eagles at Giants

Giants (2-3) Philadelphia (3-2)
The Philadelphia Eagles are coming off a close win over the Cleveland Browns. The game was tied at 13-13 in the fourth quarter, and the Eagles pulled away to finish up with a 20-16 win over the Browns.
The Giants were coming off a nice win over the Seattle Seahawks, and the Cincinnati Bengals were next. They weren't able to keep it going, and the Bengals took them for a 17-7 loss.

Philadelphia Eagles
The Eagles have been to the Super Bowl four times, with four different head coaches. Their first was the 1980 playoffs, a Super Bowl XV 27–10 loss to the Raiders with Dick Vermeil. Their second try 24 years later with Andy Reid, was a much closer match, a loss in Super Bowl XXXIX to the Patriots, 24–21. In 2017 Carson Wentz went down with an ACL injury, but their third time was the charm. Backup quarterback Nick Foles led Philadelphia to a Super Bowl LII win over the Patriots, 41–33 with Doug Pederson. There were two more playoff appearances with Pederson, but he was gone after a 2020, 4-11-1 season.
Nick Sirianni took over, and the team improved to 9-8, which got them a wild card appearance. In 2022 Philadelphia took the NFC East title after winning the most games in their history. A 14-3 record had them skipping wild card games, and they rolled over the Giants and 49ers in the Divisional and Conference games, 38-7 and 31-7. After that, the Eagles met up with Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs for Super Bowl LVII.
Philadelphia had a ten point lead at halftime, but ended up with a 38-35 loss. Last year the Eagles looked to be back again on a path to the division title, and maybe even on to the Super Bowl, with an impressive 10-1 start. They went on to lose 5 of their next 6 games, ended up second in the division, and were one and done in the playoffs. It was a troubling one sided 32-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This year the Eagles have a 3-2 record and the wins haven't come easy. There are also concerns about how head coach Sirianni has been running things.

Philadelphia Eagles Offense
They had a bye week before facing the Cleveland Browns, and that extra time helped them, as both top wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith were back on the field. Smith had missed the last game with a concussion, and Brown was out for three games with a hamstring injury. That should have made things a lot easier for the team, but it was a tight game. Though Jalen Hurts threw more than half his passes to them for 180 of his 264 yards, and each one had a touchdown catch, the offense added just two field goals for a total 20 points. It didn't help that reliable tight end Dallas Goedert was hurt early on, and his hamstring injury has him out for this next game with the Giants.
A question gets passed around from time to time about which player would you take from another team if you had the chance. Well the Eagles had a chance, and they took Saquon Barkley from the Giants. Except for a costly drop that allowed the Falcons to win in week 2, Barkley has delivered. He's had 91 carries for 482 yards, averaging 5.3 yards a carry and 5 touchdowns, four rushing and one receiving. Barkley and Hurts are just about split with 40 of the teams 43 rushing first downs. The Browns kept Barkley ineffective last week, averaging just 2.6 yards a carry, and his two catches totaled just 7 yards.

Philadelphia Eagles Defense
The Eagles ranked 10th in rushing defense last year and are now giving up 123 yards, 20 more rushing yards a game. They have improved with their passing defense which gave up 35 touchdowns, the second most in the league. They also ranked next to last in passing yardage, and now rank 21st. Defensive tackle Fletcher Cox retired, and they traded away pass rusher Haason Reddick, who led the team in sacks last year with 11. Sacks had been hard to come by, but the five they put on Deshaun Watson last game jumped the team up from 6 to 11 on the year. The Giants won't have left tackle Andrew Thomas, so they will be testing that spot
In the secondary, cornerback Darius Slay left the game with a knee injury, has missed practice and is questionable for this game. Cornerback rookie Cooper DeJean got his first career start and made a big impact. The Eagles had moved up in the second round to get him, and now they see what they got. The defense played overall well and did what they had to do, holding the score down allowing just nine points on three field goals. The Browns managed just one touchdown on a blocked field goal The Eagles have been holding teams to less than 23 points a game, and the Giants have crossed that line just once this year.

Giants Offense
The Giants were uninspiring on offense last week against the Cincinnati Bengals. Daniel Jones made people once again wonder if the Giants made a mistake when they handed him a four year contract with some nice money guaranteed. The offense had come together over the past few weeks, and despite missing key players, they were able to pull off a win in Seattle. Much of that had to do with offensive line stability where they have had the same five starters play in every game. They won't have that this week, as left tackle Andrew Thomas is out for the rest of the season after having foot surgery.
Thomas didn't help Jones out playing against Cincinnati's Trey Hendrickson. The tough pass rusher had 17.5 sacks last year, and he came up with two against Jones last week. Thomas also drew a penalty that took away a 56-yard completion to Darius Slayton. Nothing went Jones way, even getting the team into the red zone, he was hit trying to throw the ball away. It avoided a sack, but turned into an interception. They Giants couldn't afford mistakes, especially since they were without top receiver rookie Malik Nabers, and running back Devin Singletary.
They are both back for this game, and while they were missing, the offense discovered they have a talent in rookie running back Tyrone Tracy Jr., their fifth-round draft pick. Tracy ran for 129 yards on 18 carries in his first career start in Seattle. Last week Cincinnati held Tracy to 50 rushing yards and 1 touchdown, but the converted wide receiver also caught all six passes from Jones for 57 yards. With players back, the Giants now have more opportunities. Tracy can work with Singletary on a run by committee approach, or catch passes when Nabers is well covered.

Giants Defense
The Giants defensive unit has been bringing it this year. Dexter Lawrence is a close second to the Detroit Lions Aidan Hutchinson, who has 7.5, just over his 7 sacks. Lawrence is leading this Giants team to be the best in the NFL, having a combined total of 27 sacks. The Eagles have had to deal with center Jason Kelce retiring, and now their highly ranked starting left tackle, Jordan Mailata was just placed on injured reserve because of a hamstring injury. The Giants pass rush has been good, and that gives them an extra edge. The defense also won't have to deal with tight end Dallas Goedert catching the ball or with his blocking this game. Goedert's replacement, Grant Calcaterra is not yet as good on the line, but has shown he has good hands. In Calcaterra's limited role to date, he's caught 8 of 9 passes for 123 yards, and has had 7 first downs.
One thing the Giants will have to be aware of is that in three of the Eagles five games, the have run the ball more than they've passed it. You don't know if it was a plan coming off their bye week or not, but against Cleveland, it was a lop sided 25 passing plays to 36 running plays. Saquon Barkley and Hurts ran with the ball 32 times for a total of just 80 yards, an average of 2.5 yards a carry. The Giants have just faced four pass happy teams, so this will be a switch. They've improved a lot in their rushing defense this year, and are better at that than Cleveland is, but this game will be a test. Corner Adoree' Jackson is out for this game. The Giants are ninth in the league in points allowed, and the Eagles have had scoreless first quarters in all their games this season. The Giants need to keep that going, and more.

Overall
The Giants looked like they were getting their act together and then faltered against Cincinnati. The Eagles got a win, but are not playing at their best this season for, whatever reasons. Win or lose, both the Giants and the Eagles need to show they have what it takes to continue on to have a meaningful season.

NFC East Games
Sunday at 1:00pm Eagles (3-2) at Giants (2-4)
Sunday at 4:05pm Panthers (1-5) at Commanders (4-2)
The Eagles and Commanders are the NFC East teams favored to win in these games.
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Next Games
Oct 28 Giants at Pittsburgh
Nov 3 Washington at Giants

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