Thursday Night-NFC Least Division Battle

Frustrating Giants desperate for home division win to avoid 1-5 start.

The struggling Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles travel 90 miles up the Turnpike to take on the frustrated Giants Thursday night in a battle of the two last place teams in the NFC East. The Redskins, who got buried last week in New Orleans lead the division at 2-2. The Cowboys, who lost in OT to Houston are 2-2, like the Eagles. All four teams have given up more points than they have scored.

Philly is coming off two losses to the Vikings and the Titans, while the Giants lost a heartbreaker to the Panthers last week in Charlotte. This is the first of six division game for Philly. New York lost week 2 in Dallas.

The Eagles are looking at trading for their former RB Shady McCoy to replace an injured Jay Ajayi. Their RB roster is a jumbled mess while Saquon Barkley, the Giants first round pick is proving to be a savior for a Giants running game that hasn’t been seen since “woo-hoo” Tiki Barber.

This is a nasty rivalry and the Eagles have won the last three and 7 of the last 8. Last year the Eagles rookie kicker Jake Elliott booted a last second 61 yard FG to slip by the G-men 27-24.

The Giants simply cannot afford another loss to go 1-5. Rumblings about Eli’s lack of escapability and to throw under pressure, the still dysfunctional offensive line and the problem of getting the ball to OBJ in space plague the Giants. New Coach Pat Shurmer has been questioned about his play calling and lame clock management skills. The team just never looks in sync. Stupid penalties, bad tackling and dumb plays abound. There is no rhythm, it seems they just hope a slant pass to Shepard or OBJ might break one to the house or hopefully if you give the ball to Barkley enough times, he’ll break a bunch of tackles and score. They only have four days to generate a game plan. Hey Pat, what’s that?

New York scored 31 points in the loss to Carolina but came back after being down by 11 late in the game. They got royally screwed by a phantom targeting penalty on Landon Collins when he broke up a 3^rd and 13 pass, giving the Panthers a first down that subsequently led to a TD. They also got called for a bogus roughing the Cam penalty. In Carolina’s final drive, on 3^rd down, Newton hit McCaffrey for a gain just short of the first down marker, but big dopey Cam stood there and pulled his first down statue routine and the Refs just gave it to them without the benefit of a measurement. There was less than 2 minutes to go, Giants up 31-30. After another play, Gano nailed a 63 yard FG for the suspect win.

Interesting to note, the NFL League Office apologized to the Giants for blowing the targeting call, arguable the most important play of the game. They said, “Sorry, we just missed it…”. WTF??? 12 Zebras and nobody saw Collins deflect the ball and never hit the receiver’s helmet? Amazing!

So, at least the Giants scored 31 points and should have won. They presumably gained some confidence with that effort. They just need to reduce the dumb holding and interference penalties and concentrate on improving their tackling.

Philly, however, looked flat in their loss to the Vikings, getting down 20-3 at home late in the 3^rd quarter. Viking QB Kirk Cousins had a field day going 30-37 with 301 yards, so if the Giants can hold their blocks for more than two seconds, maybe nimblefoot Eli can get the ball downfield to Mr. Onehanded catch for a long one.

On defense, the Giants should be able to stop the run and corral Wentz and the Eagles passing game. On offense, a balanced offensive attack may keep the Eagles on their green toes. The Giants have the weapons, now they have to put them in a position to score. No reason to be conservative at 1-4, so Shurmer should take some chances and let the guys have some fun.

We look for the Giants to finally overcome their mistakes and change their boring play calling and finally put together a meaningful win in front of the Big Blue faithful. Philly is favored by 3 so we’ll take the Home Dogs.

-HB