October 14, 2024
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
Saquon Barkley will return to the Meadowlands for the first time as an Eagle.
The Eagles beat an awful Cleveland Browns team, barely, and not before leaving Sunday banged up and with a run of wholly unnecessary theatrics.
Now they're on to another bad team, the division rival New York Giants, at the Meadowlands for Week 7 in Saquon Barkley's New York (well...New Jersey) homecoming.
The Eagles are a talented team, no one is going to deny them that, but through five games so far, they've been severely underwhelming. They're 3-2 to keep up within the NFC East race, but have barely scraped by in each of their three wins with an offense that's been struggling to find any sort of rhythm and a defense that can get picked apart by any competent QB in soft coverage (Deshaun Watson was nowhere close to qualifying as such on Sunday) – plus, there's the building list of questionable calls both from the staff and now the players that have nearly or straight up have set them back.
The Eagles are a highly flawed team, the sample size so far has shown. Still, sportsbooks have them as a 3.5-point favorite going into next Sunday's game at MetLife Stadium. Here's a look...
| Sportsbook | Spread | Money Line | Total O/U |
| DraftKings | PHI -3.5 | PHI -185 NYG +154 | 43.5 |
| FanDuel | PHI -3.5 | PHI -172 NYG +144 | 43.5 |
| BetRivers | PHI -3.5 | PHI -195 NYG +155 | 43.5 |
| BetMGM | PHI -3.5 | PHI -185 NYG +150 | 43 |
| Bally's | PHI -3.5 | PHI -195 NYG +155 | 43.5 |
As with every matchup so far this season, the Eagles' game planning and strength in overall talent are going to be the main factors in how efficient this game can go for them.
They were clearly hurting without star receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, and Nick Sirianni and Kellen Moore (whoever's calling the plays right now because it isn't exactly clear anymore) couldn't put together a good enough approach for Jalen Hurts to roll out without them, which led to the Eagles getting crushed by Tampa Bay two weeks ago.
But back in the fold against Cleveland, while the offense still struggled to establish an overall flow, a few big pass plays to Brown and Smith were enough to rack up the needed points and then close the game out. The Eagles' talent overwhelmed.
They took hits in the process though. Dallas Goedert (hamstring) left after the first offensive series, Darius Slay (knee) exited in the second half, and Jordan Mailata (hamstring) needed to get carted back to the locker room late in the game. Those are three key starters on either side of the ball, including a major one along the offensive line, suddenly down now, which is a major concern to keep an eye on as the injury reports go up later this week.
Then there's the matter of Saquon Barkley. He was relatively quiet on Sunday, with only 47 yards on 18 carries, but that was partially due to the Cleveland defense trying not to get beat through the trenches. The star running back has rushed for at least 84 yards in his four other games, and facing his old team for the first time since leaving in free agency on seemingly dismissive terms from the Giants' end, he's probably going to go looking for a big day with this one.
#Giants GM Joe Schoen told Frank Gore and @malkikawa that data shows a decline for running backs after age 27.
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) July 3, 2024
Saquon Barkley turned 27 in February.pic.twitter.com/tDGuRmNFWD https://t.co/hqBqzGFC6L
As for the Giants themselves, they're 2-4 after falling 17-7 to Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday night. Their starring rookie receiver Malik Nabers has been out with a concussion; Devin Singletary, the running back New York brought in to replace Barkley, is sidelined with a groin injury; and the Giants' wagon is still hitched to Daniel Jones at quarterback, which at this point just inst going to take them very far.
B.J. Hill gets the pressure. Germaine Pratt comes down with the @Bengals IN!
— NFL (@NFL) October 14, 2024
📺: #CINvsNYG on NBC/Peacock
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/fBEaGF6ilZ
They're just not in a position right now to take any opponent lightly.
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