Eagles Flash Brilliance in Total Domination of New York Giants on SNF

This is what we expected from the Philadelphia Eagles this season.

Against the New York Giants on Sunday Night Football, head coach Chip Kelly's boys shut out Tom Coughlin's squad 27-0. It was the first time this season that the Eagles went up against a quality opponent and simply got the job done in all three phases of the game.

Rewind to last week and remember how the Eagles allowed the St. Louis Rams to hang around and almost pull off a major upset.

A week before that, the San Francisco 49ers were able to outmuscle the Eagles and hand them their first loss. Before that, a terrible Washington team almost surprised them.

As impressive as the Eagles' 5-1 start has been—heck, as impressive as any 5-1 start is—the Eagles have played with fire more than enough this season. The fact that they haven't been burned can be construed as being "tough in close games," but it can also be seen as cutting things a little too close.

Good teams, truly good teams, can metaphorically step on the throat of inferior opponents and close them out before they ever have a shot.

What you saw against the Giants—this is how good the Eagles can be.

Quarterback Nick Foles, who has been incredibly disappointing following last year's standout season, went 21-of-34 (61.8 percent) for 248 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

It wasn't an outstanding performance by any means, but it was a step in the right direction for a young passer who had steadily been going the other way for much of the previous few weeks.

According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Foles has been 30th-best full-time quarterback this season. During a press conference on Monday, Kelly discussed what might have been the problem:

"

I think sometimes when that happens, there’s a rush and he’s trying to slide to the right or slide to the left and not setting his feet when he slides, in terms of staying on top of it and staying in a good platform to throw the ball. That’s one of the things that you look at with some of the movement stuff within the pocket where he’s got to be a little bit firmer with his feet.

"

The running game was the true bright spot, though, as LeSean McCoy rolled up 149 yards—almost 70 yards better than his previous season high—and 6.8 yards per carry. So far this season, his average carry was only going for 2.9 yards and his best game saw him register only 4.0 per attempt.

On top of that, Darren Sproles added 39 yards and a touchdown before a knee injury took him out of the game. McCoy, too, left the action on Sunday night.

On defense, the Eagles hit Giants quarterback Eli Manning repeatedly, racking up eight sacks and seven more quarterback hits on the night. They also recovered a fumble. In all, they held the Giants to 253 total yards and only 27 minutes and 34 seconds of total possession.

The Eagles also found ways to stop a Giants rushing attack that may have been missing lead rusher Rashad Jennings but has dominated at the line scrimmage for much of the last couple of weeks.

Considering the Eagles' defensive line has been a major weakness all season long and the team entered the week 25th in the NFL allowing 132 rushing yards per game, that's a pretty big victory.

This win keeps the Eagles in a tie for first place in the NFC East with the suddenly dominant Dallas Cowboys and sets them up well for a Week 7 bye. As mentioned, there are things to work on, no doubt about it, but it's difficult to quibble when they're tied for the best record in football. 

The Eagles need to build on the success of this performance, because they have trips to Arizona and Houston coming up—two tough defenses that aren't going to roll over for the Eagles like the Giants did. It isn't about coming up with a super-secret game plan. No, it's simply about executing better. 

Frankly, the bye couldn't be coming at a better time, nor could the Eagles have had a better performance leading into it. 

In terms of tests this season, the Eagles did a pretty good job of putting away the Indianapolis Colts earlier this year. Though it was a tight 30-27 victory—like most of the Eagles' games to this point—it was the sort of close game against a quality opponent that fans should get excited about.

This kind of victory is another test passed with flying colors.

Michael Schottey is an NFL National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report and an award-winning member of the Pro Football Writers of America. Find more of his stuff on his archive page and follow him on Twitter.