The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Giants Vs. Eagles

Another division game, another win. The Giants took care of business again, with their 36-31 victory, they remain undefeated against the NFC East (3-0), and stay atop the conference with an 8-1 record. They made some mistakes that kept Philadelphia closer than they should have been, but the Giants just keep on winning, no matter what way they do it.

The Good 

The rushing game won this one for the Giants. No matter who was carrying the ball for the Jints, the Eagles couldn’t stop him. Brandon Jacobs ran over, through and around the Philly D. It usually took about six defenders to bring him down. He bulled his way for 126 yards on 22 carries, and made it into the end zone twice.

Derrick Ward bounced off would-be tacklers for 53 yards. And Ahmad Bradshaw ran for 38 yards in the fourth quarter. Madison Hedgecock and the offensive line carved out running lanes all game long (and the O line only allowed one sack). No matter how close the game got, you always got the sense that the Giants could just get march down field at will and score if they had to.

And that’s what happened. They controlled the clock, having the ball almost twice as long as the Eagles (39:10 to 20:50). Philly only had the ball for 90 seconds in the first quarter.

Tom Coughlin outcoached his counterpart, Andy Reid, all night. He had a successful challenge when Eli Manning seemed to cross the line of scrimmage while completing a pass (replays–many, many replays–proved Manning didn’t cross the line). In fact, Coughlin is the most successful coach at challenging calls in the history of challenging calls.

He even runs his own summer camp: Tom Coughlin’s Replay Challenge Camp for Juvenile Delinquents.

During the course of the game, he stuck with what was working—the run. There was no need for trickery or anything else. He declined penalties when the situation called for it and managed the clock well.

Manning had a usual Eli Manning game—meaning he won. He’s now 4-0 in Philly during the regular season. He was 17 for 31 for 191 yards, with two touchdown passes and an interception.

On the first drive of the game, he threw a pass that was deflected in the air by Mike Patterson and came down right into his own hands for the pick. But when the Giants got the ball back, they drove 80 yards down field with ease, and Manning threw a 17-yard TD pass to Plaxico Burress.

Amani Toomer was catching everything his way early in the game (five catches, 53 yards). And Kevin Boss is becoming more productive with every game. He caught six passes for 69 yards and hauled in a TD pass in the second quarter when Manning threaded the needle on a play-action pass. The offense got into the red zone seven times and scored four touchdowns and kicked three field goals.

The defensive backs did a good job in pass coverage, considering the Giants didn’t have their usual fearsome pass rush in this game. Sam Madison came up with a pick that led to a field goal.

The D did a great job of containing Brian Westbrook, though. He only had 59 total yards. And they stopped Philly on their last drive of the game, when the Eagles had two downs to gain two yards for a first down.

The special teams got a turnover in the first quarter, when Ahmad Bradshaw stripped the ball on a kickoff and Chase Blackburn recovered it. Jeff Feagles had three punts and all three ended up inside the 20-yard line. He’s a magician. John Carney was perfect again on field goal attempts (27, 26, 28 yards). And there was an actual Lawrence Tynes sighting, as he took over on kickoffs.

The Bad 

Two Giant turnovers led to 14 Philadelphia points. Manning’s INT was the first, and Jacobs fumbled in the second quarter. He leaped over a defender and lost the ball on his way down. When you can knock over and run through players the way he can, you really don’t need to be jumping over them.

Boss did the same thing later in the game, but he held into the ball. Those two giveaways kept the Eagles in the game. Jacobs’ fumble changed the momentum of the game for a while, until the Giants took over again.

No sacks for the vaunted Giants D line? Say it ain’t so. Donovan McNabb escaped their clutches throughout the game (thanks Campbell’s Chunky Soup!). And they really didn’t get many hits on him either. But it turned out they didn’t really have to. They just let the Philly QB make his own mistakes.

Domenik Hixon had a punt return for a touchdown called back because of a holding penalty by Michael Johnson. Burress caught a TD pass but otherwise did nothing. He’s only had 14 receptions in the five games since his suspension. Aaron Ross dropped a pass that was thrown right into his hands.

The Ugly 

Andy Reid didn’t have his best game last night. He lost a timeout when he challenged a Brandon Jacobs fumble that wasn’t even close. And doesn’t he know I needed to get up early for work this morning and really didn’t need the game to drag on endlessly with boneheaded challenges?

He challenged the next play also, when Jacobs made it into the end zone, but at least that one was close. But he lost another timeout there. And he blew the last two plays of the game for his offense with two straight hand-offs.

He has McNabb and Westbrook, who are both dynamic and can do so many things with the ball, and those are the play calls he comes up with? Ugly coaching job.

Next game for the Giants: Sunday at 1:00 against Baltimore.