Eagles Postgame Report: Eagles Backups Top Giants

The Eagles opted to rest most all off their players beside Dallas Goedert on offense, who they were looking to get back into playing shape for the playoffs. The decision came down from Sirianni to rest the starters and squander the easy shot they had at breaking a decades-long held record. Instead banking everything on a true Super Bowl or bust.

The Giants offense could do nothing to get on the board against the backups while McKee started hot once again with only two bad throws in the first half. The only things slowing the Eagles offense were drops, bad snaps and a missed field goal (39 yards) by Jake Elliott. 

Ainias Smith got his first TD, Jahan Dotson showed how effective he could be when the ball actually goes to him, Goedert tore up the Giants, McKee showed he was an NFL-quality player, Will Shipley showed his stuff and both sides of the line dominated the Giants even with backups.

The Giants, on 28 plays, had 84 yards in a half – which included a fake punt fourth-down conversion. It left the Eagles in complete control of the game 10-0 at the half with self-inflicted wounds being the only thing that kept the score as close as it was for the Birds.

The Eagles defense bent a bit and allowed a field goal in the third, but the Giants just could not get on track. McKee, Dotson and Shipley forced the ball downfield and began burning clock in the third quarter, taking the game to the fourth quarter. There they got former UDFA EJ Jenkins his first NFL reception and touchdown to put themselves up two scores.

Broken coverage lead to a Giants touchdown that got the Giants back in the game before McKee took his first real sack (one where he didn’t need to chase down a bad snap) to setup the Giants in great position again. They got a long field goal and that left the game still up in the air. A win is nice but Eagles fans would also be happy to see the Giants jump from the fourth pick to probably the eighth pick in the draft, losing a lot of draft value in each round.

The Giants appeared to really hurt their chances with a neutral zone infraction on 4th and 3 that gave the Eagles a new set of downs on the backside of the two-minute warning, but an incompletion and out of bounds run was negated by a rouching the passer on Thibodeaux to give the Eagles another first down with the Giants having only two timeouts left. The Eagles put themselves up by seven with a field goal and 47 seconds remaining.

Drew Lock tried to force it downfield to give his team any shot and Sydney Brown stepped in front and leaped for an easy INT to seal the game.

McKee ended this game 27/41 for 269 yards and a passer rating over 100.

The Eagles will host a playoff game next week, seemingly against the Packers based upon the fact that the Packers appear that they will lose to the Bears.

Offensive MVP: Jahan Dotson

Fans have been on him all year for his lack of targets, but he was basically the top receiver in this game after the Eagles pulled Dallas Goedert. He wound up with a game-leading 94 yards and multiple conversions on seven receptions, outperforming even Malik Nabers going for a record. Dotson was a strong and steady presence and this game showed what he could be capable of if needed and if the offense chooses to target him – which appears to be well worth the trade they got him in if it continues when needed.

Defensive MVP: Oren Burks

The defense did gradually get further down the depth chart throughout the game, but one area that they didn’t have many bodies to fill in was linebacker. That left Oren Burks, who’s really only played defense in one other game this season, to play the whole game. He played really well with a team-leading 14 tackles, including two for loss. He had been signed in what seemed like a position likely to compete for a starting role, but he didn’t make the initial 53-man. He stuck with it, though, and is now providing high quality play for a back-up, which is great to see at that position.

Game Notes

• Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux are supposed to be big-time DL, but they both struggled to get anything going against a backup Eagles OL made up of Tyler Steen, Fred Johnson, Jack Driscoll, Darian Kinnard (his second NFL appearance ever), and Nick Gates.
• Trevor Keegan did get some of his first playing time, as well, when Steen was pulled to preserve his health.
• It certainly looked like Isaiah Rodgers had an interception lined up just at the goal line, but Sydney Brown blindsided him instead of Malik Nabers to break that up.
• This game should provide some peace of mind for the team moving forward that they’ve got some guys on the team. McKee is a quality backup, Shipley looks ready to play, Dotson is capable of doing what they wanted when they traded for him even players like Kinnard, EJ Jenkins and Jerimiah Trotter Jr. all seem like they should be valuable depth players at the worst should the team keep them around.
  
• Charles Harris and Dallas Gant combined for four tackles in this one as the two practice squad call-ups got significant time on the lines so the Eagles could avoid playing Josh Sweat and Jalen Carter in this one.
• McKee absolutely has interest around the league with these performances the last two weeks. It’s be tough to imagine the Eagles trade him, though. It’d seem more likely they’d look to extend him and then try and trade Pickett, who has more money on his contract and played well despite broken ribs last week.
• Earlier in the season, there was a lot of talk about the team really liking Thomas Booker and while he’ll probably be back next year due to his low cost, it was Moro Ojomo that stepped up much more in this game and would seem to be the real breakout player after this season they’d be looking at getting more snaps in the coming years (and perhaps in the playoffs).

Injury Notes

• None to report.

New York Giants @ Philadelphia Eagles – January 5, 2024