What happened?
LeSean McCoy's 50 yard touchdown run on a fourth and one gave the Eagles the lead late in the fourth quarter, and Eli Manning's fumble on a slide finished things off, as the Eagles improved to 7-3 on the season and took first place in the NFC East.
The Good:
LeSean McCoy saved the game on Sunday night, rushing for 111 yards on 14 carries and a touchdown. He also caught five passes for 29 yards.
Michael Vick didn't have a great game, but he was solid, completing 24 of 38 passes for 258 yards while also rushing for 34 yards and a touchdown.
Jeremy Maclin caught nine passes for 120 yards.
The rushing defense was outstanding, holding the Giants to just 61 yards on 19 carries. Ahmad Bradshaw had just 29 yards on 12 carries and fumbled the ball once.
Eli Manning was unable to get anything going for most of the night. He threw two touchdowns, but also had three interceptions and fumbled once.
Asante Samuel had two of those three interceptions, giving him four this season against the Manning brothers.
Samuel and Dimitri Patterson did a good job at shutting down the New York passing game, holing Hakeem Nicks to just 65 yards, and Mario Manningham to three catches for 24 yards.
The offensive line did a good job keeping pressure off of Michael Vick when the Giants only brought a four man rush.
David Akers kicked four field goals, but had one blocked at the end of the first half. It's actually one of his better showings against the Giants.
The Bad:
Aside from the two game saving carries in the fourth quarter, LeSean McCoy had just nine carries for 21 yards.
Brent Celek went another game without a catch. Where has he been this season?
Michael Vick got hit way too many times, and needs to figure out how to get out of play without taking a hard shot.
Ellis Hobbs got knocked out to start the second half with a hard helmet to helmet hit on the opening kickoff.
The Ugly:
The offense made it inside the New York red zone five times...and came away with one touchdown. Both DeSean Jackson and Jason Avant dropped what would have been touchdowns.
The Eagles had ten penalties called against them, costing them 119 yards. Those penalties included four personal fouls.
Vick had no answer for the New York blitz, which looked like the same play over and over again. He has to get better at reading a blitz and finding his hot read, because if he doesn't, every team from here on out is going to do what the Giants did.
The Breakdown:
It wasn't nearly as pretty as the game on Monday night, but for the second time in a week, the Eagles managed to take down a divisional opponent, and this time, it gave them control of first place in the NFC East. With their 27-17 victory on Sunday night over the New York Giants, the Eagles are now in the driver's seat in a competitive NFC that has six teams sitting with 7-3 or better records.
There was no 88 yard touchdown to start the game against the Giants. Instead, this game played out more like a typical NFC East slugfest. Both teams came out and the defenses set the tone early. Eli Manning was never able to get comfortable, and while the Eagles never managed to sack the Giant quarterback, they had pressure on him throughout the game and forced three interceptions and a fumble that I'll talk about a little later on. New York's biggest strength coming into the game was their rushing attack, but, just like they have for most of the season, the Eagles shut down the lead rusher of their opponent. Ahmad Bradshaw carried the ball just 12 times for 29 yards. That's an average of 2.4 yards per carry, and 17 of those yards came on a single play. To beat the Giants, you have to make their offense one dimensional, and that's what the Eagles did. They put all the pressure on Eli Manning and used their pass rush to force him into quick throws that weren't always the best option. New York ended up with just 208 total yards of offense, which is a far cry from the over 400 they averaged coming into the game.
Of course, the Eagles didn't have the best showing on offense either, despite picking up almost 400 yards on the game. Michael Vick had a good game, passing for 258 yards, but he struggled whenever the Giants brought pressure from the left side. Vick is a left handed quarterback, and when he scrambles to the left, it opens up the entire playbook. He can run or pass, and it keeps defenders guessing. What the Giants did was force Vick to the right, eliminating the threat of the pass and holding him to short three or four yard runs that they could hit him on. I lost track of how many times Vick was hit hard in this game, and there were a couple of times where he got up a little bit slowly. Vick already got hurt once this season, and if he keeps taking hits like that, he's going to get hurt again. He has to get the ball out quicker on blitz attempts, because when an opposing defense blitzes, there should always be single coverage or at least one man open. Vick just has to read where the weak spot is and exploit it. However, it's not that easy.
The blitz of the Giants was one of the reasons why the Eagles only found the end zone once in the first half. The other reason was sloppy play by the Eagles on offense. Two times, Vick had receivers in the end zone and hit them in the hands with the football. Both times, the receivers dropped the ball, and in the case of Jason Avant, there wasn't a single New York player within five yards of him. He was literally wide open and couldn't catch the ball. You can't beat good teams with field goals, and it almost came back to bite the Eagles in the fourth quarter. The Giants forced Vick to fumble, his first turnover of the year, and scored a five yard touchdown to give them a one point lead at 17-16. Just like two weeks ago against the Colts, the failure of the offense in red zone situations was coming back to bite them.
In a game without many big plays, the biggest one that the Eagles had may have been the one that defines this season. On third and six at midfield, Vick hard counted, forcing rookie Jason Pierre-Paul offsides. Of course, the Eagles came out in the shotgun on third and one, and the play failed, leaving the Eagles with a fourth down and one to go with just four and a half minutes left in the game. The Giants had crowded the middle of the line, anticipating a sneak from Vick, but the Eagles, who had a similar situation against the Colts, had other plans. Vick bobbled the snap, and just managed to pitch it to LeSean McCoy before Osi Umenyiora knocked the ball away. McCoy ran untouched for a 50 yard touchdown, the Eagles converted the two point conversion, and that was all that was needed. The Giants had one more chance after Asante Samuel fumbled his second interception of the game back to New York, but Eli Manning slid head first on a fourth down scramble and fumbled the ball before he was touched. McCoy broke off a 40 yard run that set up a David Akers field goal for the final nail in the coffin.
As I said before, it wasn't a pretty game by any means, but a win is still a win. The defense looked great out there against one of the better offenses in the NFL, and while many people said that the Eagles couldn't have long, sustained drives, two of their scoring drives lasted for 13 plays or more, and took over 15 combined minutes off the clock. That's an entire quarter of football, for those of you keeping track at home. Sure, the Eagles are a big play offense, but their biggest plays on Sunday were the two runs in the fourth quarter by McCoy. This wasn't a typical game for the Eagles this year, but they still found a way to win. That's what good teams do, and believe it or not, the Eagles are a very, very good team right now. The Giants came into Philadelphia with a solid game plan and worked it very well, but the Eagles still had too much on offense, and with the defense creating a short field on two scoring drives, New York had their work cut out for them.
There are still some concerns, though. Vick can't be taking the hits he took against the Giants every single week, or he's going to miss some key time down the stretch. He has to get out of bounds or slide on runs, and when he facing a blitz, he needs to find the hot read to get the ball out of his hands quickly. The Giants ran the same blitz probably ten or so times during the game, as they brought Antrel Rolle from the left side, and the Eagles didn't have an answer for it. If they, and Vick, can't figure out how to stop a simple safety blitz, then expect to see that coming more and more often during the rest of the season. The run game needs to be more than just two big plays at the end of the game, but I'll take what happened against the Giants any time. That's the value that McCoy brings to the Eagles. He can be stopped for an entire game, then change everything with two carries that push the momentum right back to the Philadelphia side of the ball. Was this game as fun to watch as the one against the Redskins? Not exactly, but the Eagles have themselves in a great position now. They control their own fate in the NFC East, with three divisional games still to come. The toughest part of their schedule is almost over, with just Chicago remaining in this rough four game patch. It's 3-0 for the Eagles since the bye week, which is normally when things get turned around for this team.
With a couple more wins, things could be looking very good for the Eagles. There's still a lot of season left, and Chicago is a very good team that's had extra time to prepare for Michael Vick, so we'll see what happens this Sunday.
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