Even if the Eagles had defeated the Giants, they would have still finished as the fifth seed and would have gone to Tampa to play the Bucs because the Cowboys had defeated them on Sunday.
In the standings, the loss was meaningless, but it was significant. for the second week in a row the Eagles were embarrassed. We’ve long believed that if the Cowboys were leading the Commanders by a significant margin, the Eagles might decide to bench their starters. Instead, they benched their starters due to the Giants’ dominance in the second quarter.
Hurts was finally pulled from the game after suffering an ugly-looking finger injury. However, he was able to return to the game. He said that Hurts’ finger “popped out.” But Hurts wasn’t having a nice game even before the injury. Though it’s not all his fault, the Eagles were up against a blitz-prone defensive coordinator in Wink Martindale, and they just didn’t have any answers for him. They had no prayer to avert it, even though they knew it was coming. Hurts threw an interception, missed a few passes, and the offense simply kept stuttering. Hurts did nothing, and the offense did nothing without DeVonta Smith and later without A.J. Brown. Only when the game was out of control did the Eagles manage to score a single point. After entering the game in the second quarter, Mariota completed 13 of 20 throws for 148 yards, including an interception on his first play and a touchdown to Quez Watkins. He added 46 yards of rushes as well.
Gainwell received the start and performed admirably in this game without D’Andre Swift. Perhaps Gainwell should have appeared more frequently in this game, to be honest. In the first quarter, during a drive that ended when A.J. Brown fumbled the ball away, he broke off a career-long 32-yard run. Boston Scott had three for five and Rashaad Penny had six carries for sixteen yards, despite Gainwell’s strong performance. Swift is anticipated to return for the playoffs after missing the game due to sickness.