October 19, 2015
Well... It wasn't pretty, but the Philadelphia Eagles are your new leader in the awful NFC East after handling the inept New York Giants. The Eagles' defense looks awesome. Their offense... Eh, not so much. As always, win or lose, our 10 awards.
On the first Giants drive of the game, New York cut right through the Eagles defense like a hot knife through butter. It was one of those drives where you started to wonder if it would be "one of those games." On the drive, the Giants went 80 yards on eight plays and never even had to convert a third down.
Then, Billy Davis made some adjustments and the Eagles held the Giants to 167 yards the rest of the way.
Drive No. 1: 80 yards.
The next 13 drives: 12.8 yards per drive.
Cox had his third sack-fumble in two games. If he's not First Team All-Pro at the end of this season, it will be a crime against humanity. OK, maybe not a crime against humanity. The point I'm trying to make here is that Cox is really good, OK?
If the Eagles somehow sneak into the playoffs by winning the terrible NFC East, they aren't going anywhere with Sam Bradford playing anywhere near as badly as he has this season.
On the season, he has thrown four INTs in the end zone. Is that bad?
Sam Bradford has 4 INT in end zone this season. No other NFL QB has more than 1. https://t.co/FDogUzaWJz
— Corey Seidman (@CoreySeidmanCSN) October 20, 2015
The INT he threw to Landon Collins when trying to get the ball to Zach Ertz was awful. Collins had blanket coverage on Ertz, and the Eagles were in field goal range with a 17-point lead. And Bradford was basically like, "Ah screw it, I'm chucking this up anyway."
The isn't a quarterback in the history of the NFL that has gotten away with more egregious intentional grounding no-calls than Eli Manning. For example, this from last week against the 49ers:
Here's the coaches film look of the Eli Manning grounding no-call, which really couldn't be more egregious. pic.twitter.com/i9kE2xbiDG
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) October 13, 2015
Tonight he was called for two of them. Satan is shivering.
The Eagles now have 16 turnovers on the season, which is 2nd in the NFL behind the Broncos. That's 2.7 turnovers per game, which is outstanding. On the one hand, it's great that the Eagles defense has been able to bail out the offense so much this season. On the other hand, creating almost three turnovers per game is unsustainable.
Both of the Eagles' touchdown drives were extended because of idiotic plays by the Giants. On their first TD drive, Giants DE Damontre Moore lost his mind when he picked up Sam Bradford and dumped him on the turf after the Giants had gotten a stop on third down. On the other Eagles TD drive, the Giants gave the Eagles a new set of downs when Nikita Whitlock ran into the punter.
Brandon Graham and Vinny Curry both had 1.5 sacks. We wrote earlier this week that the Eagles' edge rushers were not getting to the quarterback because they faced a string of quarterbacks who got rid of the ball quickly, and therefore were asked to execute more disciplined pass rushes. Tonight they were finally able to break free and get to Eli Manning.
The Eagles put up 425 yards of total offense, which is extremely misleading, and typical of the way their stats are skewed because they have (and face) more drives than any team in the NFL. But certainly, having watched that game, you would have never thought they put up those kinds of numbers, or even won by 20.
The Eagles' D gave up 3.5 yards per carry, which is right where they've been all season long. "Anytime we can make a team one-dimensional, it's a great thing," said Bennie Logan. "We have some really good pass rushers who are able to get on the edge and rip the pocket up. So any time we can take the run away from a team and make them one-dimensional passing the ball, it allows us to rush the passer and allows us to get guys back to cover and get interceptions."
3 for 3 on PATs, 2 for 2 on field goals. Canton.
Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski
