Eagles may have to survive Manning’s last stand
EAGLES CHECKLIST
PHILADELPHIA » Barring a barometric change the Linc is going to look like the Schuylkill River Monday when the Eagles try to begin their playoff push against the New York Giants (ESPN, 6ABC, WIP 94.1FM).
With rain showers forecast from
10 a.m. through the 8:15 p.m. kickoff, the 167th installment of the heated rivalry is going to have a filthy feeling before the opening coin flip.
What better setting for an underachieving team like the Eagles
(5-7) to show their fans who they think they are against the Giants
(2-10), a once proud rival stuck on rebuilding?
“We know where we’re at,” Pro Bowl offensive tackle Lane Johnson said. “We’re not in a good spot, but at the same time we have four games to get something right.”
The Eagles wouldn’t be surprised to hear boos as they surf onto the field, their 37-31 loss last week to the Miami Dolphins disturbing enough for alarmists to call for the firings of Doug Pederson and members of his coaching staff. The head coach blew it again on morning radio when he said the Dolphins wanted the game more than his guys.
Fearful of losing his group, Pederson punished his players with a physical practice in shoulder pads in bitter cold Thursday. It won’t prepare them for the precipitation and more temperate temperatures Monday, but for now, at least it brought the players closer together. It reminded them what time it was.
“It’s an attitude that he’s looking for,” defensive end Brandon Graham said of his coach. “We’ve got to have this attitude, that it doesn’t matter what they throw at us, we’re going to come back and do what we’ve got to do. All it is, is just one play at a time, do your job and trust in one another.”
The Eagles tow a three-game losing streak into the rubber match of a series knotted at 83-83-2 all-time. Their only realistic chance to reach the playoffs is by claiming the NFC
East pennant. And it’s a shade more than realistic as the Dallas Cowboys
(6-7) currently lead the division, but they’ve also lost three in a row.
The Eagles are leery of playing
38-year-old veteran Eli Manning over injured rookie Daniel Jones, even though his performances are trending in their favor. The Eagles have beaten Manning and the Giants in five straight games, including seven in a row at the Linc. Manning has defeated the Eagles in just four of his last 21 starts against them.
“We’ve had many battles and he’s a great quarterback,” Graham said. “We’ve got our hands full with him. As a D-line we’ve got to make sure we get to him and get him off his spot. He’s always taking what the defense gives him. He’s streaky when he gets hot. You’ve got to make sure you don’t let him get on fire. He’s going to keep fighting.”
The Eagles also have to rally to Giants’ running back Saquon Barkley, who has begun to get his speed back after a high ankle sprain. Barkley’s jump cut always is tough to handle.
The Giants are going to roll without both their injured tight ends, the bigger loss Evan Engram, and another chunk of their secondary. While Barkley is looking forward to the first of what figure to be several showdowns with Eagles counterpart Miles Sanders, his road roommate and teammate at Penn State, the losing has been difficult. The Giants are just 7-21 since selecting Barkley with the second overall pick in the 2018 draft.
“These are the times where you learn who you are and learn about the people around you,” Barkley said. “It’s easy to come to work when you’re 10-2 or when everything is going right and everyone’s talking about you. But who are you when you have adversity? And that’s something we’re going through now, a little adversity. Once we turn this thing around, that’s going to be the reason why we did turn it around.”
The Eagles, on the other hand, have failed to detail their preparation enough to stop opponents from pelting them with trick plays. New England, Seattle and Miami stung the Eagles with touchdowns on gadgets, the Dolphins’ swinging gate formation featuring a punter shoveling a scoring pass to a kicker showing up as a YouTube winner.
The Giants would be foolish not to run a gadget of their own. Like the Dolphins, they have nothing to lose.
That inability to master the finer details and thoroughly prepare irks veterans like Graham.
“At the end of the day you’ve got to win your one-on-ones and you’ve got to make sure you don’t have any missed assignments,” Graham said. “We’re in a good position because we’re still in (the playoff hunt). I do know that we are fighters. We’re going to fight to the end. It’s not always pretty. I can deal with that all day. That was the hardest L we had to take was against Miami. It hurt
Summary:
That Miami projection sure didn’t work out. Who would have believed the Eagles could start off so strong, dominate the middle eight minutes and fall flat on their faces down the stretch? The Giants may be cooked but never, ever underestimate a Manning ... even if it’s Eli.
The pick: Make it, Eagles 27. Giants 17 but for us now we’ve got four games and we still get to see the ‘Boys.”
The Eagles still are alive, although just barely. They don’t need to let the Giants think they can win one more game for Manning, who has a record of 116-116 in the regular season.
“It’s great to have him back out there because he’s so well respected,” Barkley said. “He’s a legend, a living legend. He’s a future Hall of Famer. He sees the field so well. He knows the game so well. Just going out there and being able to compete for him at a high level is something you always want to do. You don’t know how many more there’s going to be. So hopefully we’ll be able to send him off on the right note.”