Eagles come back from dead to top Giants; season’s alive
Giants QB Manning fails again in Philly
PHILADELPHIA >> They won’t be sending the game film to Canton, judging by the plays and the points the teams left on the field.
Don’t waste your time watching the replay.
But beggars can’t be choosers, and that made the Eagles’ 25-22 victory over the New York Football Giants Sunday feel like the caffeine jolt you get from a bottle of cold brewed coffee.
It had been almost two months since Carson Wentz led the Eagles to a victory at Lincoln Financial Field, the quarterback coming up short in the fourth quarter in three straight home losses. The booing at halftime of the last outing, when the Cowboys prevailed, was scary enough for players to appreciate security guarding their cars at the stadium.
The booed Birds didn’t mortgage a couple of drafts to move up and select Wentz with the second overall pick in 2016 to watch him regress the way he had.
And spare us the numbers. It’s about wins, losses and titles – check, check and thank you, Super Bowl 52 MVP Nick Foles.
Wentz needed a fourthquarter comeback and a game-winning drive the way the Linc needs more super boxes. Certainly, moreso than Giants counterpart Eli Manning, who looks almost as old as flag-happy referee Walt Anderson, who celebrated 18 penalties accepted Sunday.
Manning has 36 winning drives, and of course, the Super Bowl success. While we’re on the topic, any quarterback who wins 114 games and goes 2-0 in the SB against Bill Belichick deserves to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But back to game-winning.
Wentz didn’t make a lot of great throws in the game, rather receivers like Zach Ertz provided some great catches. But Wentz nailed the one he absolutely, positively had to have on fourth-and-one at the 42-yard line of the Giants with 2:39 left.
Wentz found Nelson Agholor, who had disappeared from the pass game, sitting down over the middle for a 12yard gain enabling the Eagles to kill clock and set Jake Elliott up for what would be the game-winning, 43-yard field goal with 22 seconds left.
“Great job by Carson hanging in there in the pocket and delivering it,” Doug Pederson said.
All that remained was for the defense to get a stop on a pathetic attempt by the Giants (3-8) to get into field goal range. On the final play, Manning connected with Sterling Shepard, who lateraled to the trailing Odell Beckham Jr.
Eagles linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill wiped them both out in one swoosh, although he was credited with just one of his seven tackles. And so, what if Beckham was tripped up by a leg whip? Anderson’s shoulders had to be killing him from all the calls he got right.
It was the fourth gamewinning drive and fourthquarter comeback for Wentz, who had fallen behind Jared Goff, the quarterback drafted ahead of him, in both of those categories. Mission accomplished, at least for one week.
“We needed that,” Eagles veteran offensive tackle Jason Peters said. “As long as No. 11 is balling, we’re balling. We have to keep the defense off of him and let him ball.”
Be apprised, stats nerds, that Wentz threw for 236 yards, one touchdown and a 108.6 rating. He also took three sacks, rather than try to keep bad plays alive and risk turnovers. He wasn’t, you will excuse the verbiage, pressing. It’s OK to play within your skills set. Game-winning drives can take that form, too.
“I think people have been clamoring for that, wanting to see him do that in the clutch,” said Ertz, who caught seven passes for 91 yards and a touchdown. “We have all the faith in the world in him. He continually puts us on his back. All the time he plays at a high level. Even at times when the protection isn’t great, he’s out there making plays. He’s the guy I want to play with in the fourth quarter.”
Ertz overdoes everything. That’s what makes him Ertz. He also said Wentz is the guy he wanted to play with in first quarters. Wentz and the Eagles got just 40 yards in this first quarter, when they fell behind 9-0.
Jason Kelce’s holding penalty, however, wiped out what would have been a 52-yard scoring run by rookie Josh Adams. That would have made Adams, who went on to rush for 84 yards, one TD and a two-point try, the Eagles’ first 100-yard rusher in 26 games.
Wentz made up for it by finding Ertz for a touchdown after the Giants went ahead
19-3 in the second quarter on a 51-yard run by Saquon Barkley, who rushed for all but seven of his 101 yards and scored both of his TDs in the first half. We should mention that Beckham softly questioned why the Giants didn’t spend more time attacking the depleted Eagles secondary.
Wentz was 3-for-3 for 42 yards on the game-winning drive. It refuted a report by the NFL’s insider mouthpiece that the quarterback still wasn’t all the way back from a knee injury.
Wherever that rubbish came from it’s safe to say there were doubts if Wentz still was a top 10 quarterback. Way up there are Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger and Russell Wilson. And you can add Patrick Mahomes and Goff, among others, to players having better seasons than Wentz. Make no mistake, this victory was special.
“Right now, I’m just thrilled to get a win,” Wentz said. “Obviously in doing it from behind – you don’t want to be down – but coming back the way we did is huge for our confidence, offensively. And defensively the way they kind of stood up to them at the end, it was big for us.”
History is against Wentz leading the Eagles to another NFC East championship. The last repeat champion in the division was the Eagles in
2004. Statistically, they now have about a 7.5 percent chance of reaching the playoffs, based on their start. But the Eagles
(5-6) are within one game of the NFC East lead held by Dallas and Washington, both 6-5.
At least for one week, Carson Wentz rescued his team, and himself.