UPDATE [7:50 p.m.] – The Eagles had one last chance to right the ship before the playoffs with the Week 18 finale against the Giants.
They embarrassed themselves instead.
They got pummeled 27-10, the starters were pulled before the first half was even over, and any last shot at snagging the NFC East and the No. 2 seed in the conference vanished almost immediately.
The Eagles will head to Tampa Bay next weekend for the Wild Card round, but at a level of burnout not seen since the Chip Kelly era, and everyone's to blame.
Our postgame coverage:
• Final observations: Giants 27, Eagles 10 (Shamus Clancy)
EARLIER...
After losing four of their last five games, including an embarrassing home loss to the then 3-12 Arizona Cardinals last weekend, the 11-5 Philadelphia Eagles are spiraling just before the start of the playoffs. Their lone win during this horrid December and January stretch was against their Week 18 opponent, the 5-11 New York Giants.
The Eagles will be without Darius Slay for their fourth straight game, as well as WR DeVonta Smith, RB D'Andre Swift, and DT Fletcher Cox. The Giants, meanwhile, will be without starting quarterback Daniel Jones as well as a bunch of their offensive linemen. You can find the Eagles' and Giants' inactives here.
Normally we publish our "five matchups to watch" between the Eagles and their upcoming opponent, but we just did that two weeks ago for the Eagles and Giants, and, well, this game is more about the Eagles vs. themselves than their opponents. They can start to get back on track if they can do the following:
- Win in the run game
- Get A.J. Brown feeling good again
- Get the pass rush to wake up
- Call a normal game from a strategy and play calling perspective
The Eagles can still win the NFC East if they beat the Giants and the Dallas Cowboys lose to the Washington Commanders, so there will be some scoreboard watching. The Eagles are mere 5.5-point favorites against this wretched Giants team. By comparison, the Cowboys are 13-point favorites against the similarly bad Commanders. Here are our staff writer picks, and my NFL-wide Week 18 picks. Feel free to discuss the game in the comments section below.
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