8 winners and 5 losers from the Eagles win over the Giants

The Eagles clinched a first round bye in a stressful 34-29 win over the Giants. It wasn’t pretty, nor really effective, but a win is a win.

WINNERS

Nick Foles

All you can ask out of your backup is to give your team a chance to win. In a game where the offense had to do it all, Nick Foles did just that, throwing 4 TDs, the second best single game total of his career. Yeah, the Giants are awful and the Eagles offense rolling them even without Carson Wentz was fairly predictable, but 4 TDs out of a backup against anyone is a very good day. Only one other QB has thrown 4 TDs against the Giants this year, Jared Goff in a blow out.

The Wentz-less offense

In addition to Nick Foles looking good, Zach Ertz, Alshon Jeffery, and Nelson Agholor all came into the game in the top 10 in TD receptions, and they all caught a TD against New York. Again, the Giants are awful, but it’s highly encouraging for the rest of the season that the Eagles passing offense isn’t the one man band it seemed. On the ground, Jay Ajayi led the way in carries with 12 of the teams’ 25 called runs. He was mostly bottled up, with half of his runs going for 4 yards or less, but his 22 yard run followed by a 32 yard reception set up what would be the winning score.

Special teams

A blocked extra point, a blocked field goal, and a blocked punt. Special teams were as big a reason for the win as anyone was. They saved four points and set up the Eagles in the red zone in a game decided by 5 points.

The Eagles quest for the #1 seed

A bye has been locked up, another win and the Eagles are the top seed.

Mike Sullivan

The Giants have a new head coach, but before that they had a new play caller when Ben McAdoo handed over play calling duties to Mike Sullivan in October. In his first, and almost certainly last, game with the Giants calling plays against the Eagles, Sullivan put together a pretty good game plan. The Giants went with tempo, and it caught the Eagles flat footed to start the game and rack up 20 points.

Sterling Shepard

6 catches for 110 yards and a TD… at halftime, finishing with 11 for 139 yards. How many of you didn’t play him in your fantasy playoff because it was against the Eagles?

Throwback celebrations

The Eagles have scored so many TDs this season that they might be running out of really good celebrations. Seems the coaching staff was happy to help out.

Eagles fans

MetLife Stadium was half full, and it sounded like the half that were there were Eagles fans. That’s three games in the biggest cities in the country where the Eagles were effectively the home team.

LOSERS

Jim Schwartz

The Eagles defense had their worst game under Schwartz, and though the players deserve scorn, so does Schwartz, who got out coached. All game long the Giants sliced the Eagles up with slant passes, and Schwartz couldn’t make the proper in-game adjustments. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this, defending short passes was an issue last year as well.

Ronald Darby

His interception aside, Darby was brutal, getting beat deep early and late.

Whoever tells Doug Pederson to challenge a play, AGAIN

Hope they walked home, because that was the worst challenge of the season.

Shane Vereen

After drawing a penalty on Nigel Bradham, Vereen became a target the rest of the game. From there on out, when he touched the ball he got hit with an extra edge, and defenders made sure to walk through him rather than around him after plays.

Fox

The Fox broadcasts have been bad all year. They’ve had numerous graphical errors, their announcers, never the best to begin with, have not been at their best, and Dean Blandino has the charisma of a piece of wood. Before the game even started, Thom Brennaman wondered if Nick Foles could lead the Eagles to the playoffs… they had already clinched. He told a handful of factual errors, mostly like being given bad information to read. They listed Isaac Seumalo as the starter at left guard rather than Chance Warmack. And Chris Spielman had a weird day, offering some interesting parenting advice of throwing baseballs at kids’ heads and giving small children BB guns.